Gran Turismo 7 quality needs reassessment before FIA esports contest

Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo and the FIA are parting ways for the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games. The esports organiser has now committed to PS5 and PS4 racer Gran Turismo 7 if its quality has improved since its launch in March.

Update: Gran Turismo 7 is going to be assessed by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile to see if the PS5 and PS4 racer's quality is high enough that it can be used as a competitive racer at esports events in early 2023. Gran Turismo 7 and the FIA parted ways on esports events earlier this year.

Gran Turismo 7 might be used again for esports in early 2023 pending quality review

GT7 replaced by Assetto Corsa Competizione in official FIA eSports competition

Polyphony Digital's sim-racer might have received a good review from us at TT, but it struggled to keep pace with the pack after release. Now, the FIA has confirmed that its esports competitions did have to replace integration with GT7 pending an upcoming quality check. Speaking to Motorsport, the FIA’s director in the field Frederic Bertrand stated the governing body had to stay in close contact with Kazunori Yamaguchi, the GT7 game director, over planned digital motorsport events using the game.

“It's not ended. For Motorsport Games, the difficulty we had at that moment is that they were not necessarily ready to support the live event as we wanted, because of GT7," Bertrand said. "So, we agreed with them that we will work with Assetto Corsa for this one. It's also easier for us, because it's more open to many countries."

Gran Turismo 7 is pending a quality check

"But we still work with Gran Turismo on plenty of other projects. So no, it's not an end. It's just an acceptance of non-exclusive approach, and we feel that esports needs to be more open. That's what we agreed with Kazunori-san.”

Following up on this, Bertrand is surprisingly frank about Polyphony Digital's own acceptance that with GT7, "at the moment, it is difficult." He goes on to say that GT7 is pending a quality check. "I will send my guys and if we feel it's ready, we'll move on again,” he said. “Then we will probably have another project an early first quarter of next year with Gran Turismo.”

What do you think of this news? Is it surprising to you that even Polyphony knew it needed work? Do you think the game is in a good enough state now? Let us know in the comments!

Original Story: Polyphony Digital released Gran Turismo 7 with the hopes of a vibrant competitive environment for players, but it looks like those hopes don't include plans to continue in partnership with the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile). The FIA announced that the latest game in the Gran Turismo series won't be at its Olympics-like tournament called the FIA Motorsport Games tournament.

PlayStation Studios racing specialists Polyphony Digital appear to cut ties with FIA

The PlayStation Studio game has instead been replaced by the very good (and very hardcore sim-racer) Assetto Corsa Competizione. As noted by GTPlanet, this follows the release of Gran Turismo 7, which was without the FIA branding in many instances; certainly more so than its predecessor GT Sport. Indeed, that entry into the series would be a flagship of the 2019 World Championship eSports tournament before the contest struggled to find footing during the COVID pandemic.

This is not to say that eSports and Gran Turismo are dead — it's just the relationship with the FIA seems to have waned after many years of association. There is also a bit more of a split focus for GT7 between the casual and eSport players; though, with official Gran Turismo events still on the horizon, the hardcore players haven't been left in the rearview mirror. As for the FIA-hosted 2022 World Championships, the event will begin in a bespoke GT3 car event in Assetto Corsa Competizione on October 27th, finishing on October 29th.

Well, this is the end of an era, isn't it? FIA and GT are like two tired lovers finally separating from one another — ultimately it's a good thing to part, but it's a heartbreaker right now. What do you think? Is it a mistake from Polyphony Digital? Let us know in the comments!

Written by Kes Eylers-Stephenson

Editor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and other gaming news. He writes about exclusives like The Last of Us and Horizon, PS Plus news, and his favourite games — The Witcher, Assassin’s Creed, and God of War — before an evening swim.