Sony is primed and ready to release Gran Turismo 6 tomorrow, and have provided some last minute pricing information for the game's dreaded microtransactions.
The PlayStation Store was recently updated with the following credit packs games can get, and what they'll cost. U.S. prices haven't been released yet, but we've provided rough equivalants. Expect the actual pricing to be similar.
- 500,000 In-Game Credits (£3.99/€4.99/$6.50)
- 1 million In-Game Credits (£7.99/€9.99/$13.00)
- 2.5 million In-Game Credits (£15.99/€19.99/$26.00)
- 7 million In-Game Credits (£39.99/€49.99/$65.30)
Microtransactions are always a hot button issue in gaming, and it's no different for the Sony exclusive racer, especially when you consider that one of the cars gamers can opt to buy for the game costs roughly half of what you'd pay for a PlayStation 4.
As there's only one available, and it's in near mint condition for having never raced, the Jaguar XJ13 is no doubt a costly vehicle for both its rarity and age. It's never been valued, but an offer of $7 million for the car was declined by the owner. The car is selectable in GT 6, provided you earn it. Or, you could just pay for it, but doing so will cost you a pretty penny.
20 million credits is the car's going rate. Do the math with the list above, and that you'll have to buy two packs of 7 million credits, two 2.5 million credit packs, and and a final pack of 1 million, which comes out to £119.95, roughly $196. Simply outrageous.
Still, to play devil's advocate, you don't HAVE to buy any of the packs, something which Sony head honcho Shuhei Yoshida is trying to remind people.
The microtransaction madness arrived at the front door of Yoshida's Twitter account, where he's responded to some criticisms. Ruivo tweeted to Yoshida, "For shame. I'm not touching GT6 until this is changed." Yoshida responded that the microtransactions are there simply to offer "an alternative path to busy people."
Yoshida also tweeted that in and of themselves are "not a bad thing." Rather, "how the game is designed around them" could be the problem.
The outrage at the idea of asking for more money to unlock content that's already a part of a game is certainly understandable. But at the same time, Yoshida has a point, as Sony isn't forcing anyone to buy anything extra.
Including the XJ13, players will have well over a thousand cars to choose from when Gran Turismo 6 releases tomorrow exclusively for the PlayStation 3. Check out a few in the game's opening video below.
