Just a little over five years since its release, Polyphony Digital’s Gran Turismo Sport has been formally delisted from the PlayStation Store.
It was the seventh full-entry in the series and sold remarkably well, coming in at just shy of 13 million units worldwide. Despite its success, it’s now set to become mostly lost to time as not only is it no longer available for sale digitally, its online servers will also be decommissioned come January 31, 2024.
The final turn
Sony announced the demise of Gran Turismo Sport a few months ago, so this move isn’t exactly a surprise.
Still, fans are understandably upset as the game will now become mostly a shell of its former self with the removal of its online components, in addition to it now no longer being properly preserved.
When attempting to view the listing for the game over on the PlayStation Store, customers are greeted with this message upon trying to access the listing:
Despite being a part of the main series, Gran Turismo Sport garnered a rather infamous reputation due to taking the GT series in a new direction; something that’s highlighted by its subtitle of Sport, rather than using a number like most of the other entries.
With so many changes made to its gameplay formula, initial reactions were mixed. The dev team mostly caught flack due to the one of the biggest changing involving a reliance on microtransactions and a deep lean into online functionality. The sting of the game’s reliance on this will really be felt when its servers are shuttered.
These complaints were taken into account with the recently released Gran Turismo 7, which took some cues from Sport while also serving as a true successor to the more classic entries in the series.
Despite its issues, Gran Turismo Sport was still revered for its gorgeous visuals and design, along with its upgraded driving mechanics; all of which was made possible by it being purpose-built for the PS4.
It holds the unique honor of being the only PS4-exclusive entry in the series. Its sequel, GT7, is a cross-gen release between PS4 and PS5 (the first time such a thing has ever happened in GT history.)
An increasingly common occurrence
While game delistings are nothing new, it’s a particularly big problem in the world of AAA racing titles. One common reason for so many games in the genre being delisted are due to licensing contracts with manufacturers and even music labels expiring.
Some prominent examples include most of the Forza franchise that has fallen to digital dust over the years (particularly on PC).
Recently, Ubisoft’s The Crew has been subjected to a similar fate. The first entry in that franchise was delisted just weeks ago after nearly a decade on the market and its servers will also be shut down soon. This will leave the online-dependent game completely unplayable on top of now being unpurchaseable.
Considering Gran Turismo Sport is not as old of a release, its forthcoming end of service has left a bitter taste in the mouth of some fans.
At the very least, there’s still Gran Turismo 7 was released only back in 2022 to a lot of fanfare and has been steadily improved since with the release of various updates and new DLC. Here’s hoping it has a longer life than its predecessor.
Where the wheels are still turning:
Rocket Racing is chaotic, confusing fun — Scout Summary | Expeditions: A MudRunner Game release date is March 2024 | The Crew Motorfest review for PC — Pomp, pageantry and problems
