President of Polyphony Digital and creator of Gran Turismo, Kazunori Yamauchi has issued an apology to the Gran Turismo community for the "frustration and confusion" caused due to patch updates which brought about server outage and changes to the in-game economy made without an explanation to the gaming community.
As a "goodwill gesture", the company will offer a free credit pack containing 1 million credits to its players. However, these credits will only be given to players who may have been affected, and will be available in their accounts soon. Users can claim the credits until April 25.
Commenting on the patch update, Yamauchi stated:
The patch update previously deployed was intended to rectify an issue with inconsistent reward payouts within a part of the World Circuit Events. But, to re-establish the intended equilibrium and provide more accurate rewards based on time investment and completion, it was necessary to recalculate the rewards system as a whole.
Starting in April, the company will release a patch that will increase the number of events and the reward system will also be rebalanced throughout the game.
The updates which will be rolled out from April will include:
- Increase rewards in the events in the latter half of the World Circuits by approximately 100% on average.
- Addition of high rewards for clearing the Circuit Experience in all Gold/All Bronze results.
- Increase of rewards in Online Races.
- Include a total of eight new one-hour Endurance Race events to Missions. These will also have higher reward settings.
- Increase the upper limit of non-paid credits in player wallets from 20M Cr. to 100M Cr.
- Increase the quantity of Used and Legend cars on offer at any given time.
Some of the updates coming in the near future will include:
- Increase the payout value of limited time rewards as we develop as a live service.
- Further World Circuit event additions.
- Addition of Endurance Races to Missions including 24-hour races.
- Addition of Online Time Trials and awarding of rewards according to the player’s difference with the top ranked time.
- Make it so cars can be sold.
Additional patches arriving until the end of April will bring new cars and course layouts along with various improvements.