Update 1.23 for Gran Turismo Sport on the PlayStation 4 has gone live, and in addition to new content and some optimization tweaks, the update also contains microtransactions for any vehicle available for 2,000,000 credits or less.

According to GTPlanet.net, Polyphony digital confirmed that microtransactions are available in Gran Turismo Sport for 218 cars on the roster, which the article notes makes up for 92% of the total vehicles available in the game. In the press release, Polyphony stated…

“Cars that cost less than 2,000,000 in-game Cr. can now be purchased directly through the PS Store, in addition to your standard in-game purchases.

 

The service start date will vary depending on the region.
– Asia Region and Americas Region: July 30
EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Region and Oceania region: August 2”

The most shocking part of it all is that just a year prior designer Kazunori Yamauchi told the gaming audience that there would be no microtransactions in the game.

On August 8th, 2017 GTPlanet reported that Gran Turismo Sport “will not feature any microtransactions”.

The information came from the Sony PlayStation Experience 2017 event, where during a press briefing Yamauchi was asked directly from the media if there would be any microtransactions, and Yamauchi firmly responded with a “no”. You can view the clip below.

This is similar to what happened with Payday 2, where the developers stated that there would be no microtransactions, and then later on they added microtransactions, much to the chagrin of players.

A year later Overkill Software removed the microtransactions, much to the delight of real gamers.

It’s an odd move for sure from Polyphony, given that even Turn 10 Studios recently scaled back on the services that mimicked microtransaction systems in Forza Motorsport 7. Then again, if Polyphony has the support of fanboys then it doesn’t really matter if they add microtransactions or not.

(Thanks for the news tip Roguestar)