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Gran Turismo Sport is extremely limited in offline mode (no saves, unlocks, etc..)

Depends. It means you shouldn't try to play the game when you are offline if you expect to get your progress from SP saved.

You can progress though if you connect to the internet before closing the game. You can even put your console in sleep mode and it’ll work when you switch it back on again. Unless you just never have an internet connection, you’d need to be messing up pretty badly to lose all your progression. Saving offline would still be better, but this really isn’t going to be a big deal for the vast majority of people.

I also just wanted to say that this thread has been a great read. My favourite part was the guy who said he purposely avoided all previews and information on this game because he wanted to go in ‘fresh’ but was mad because Sony didn’t tell him about no offline saves. Classic GAF.
 

Syriel

Member
What about when Destiny's servers are offline? I can't even play story missions.

Destiny is advertised as Online REQUIRED.

GTS is advertised as Online OPTIONAL.

If the latter were advertised as required, there wouldn't be any concern.
 
The who doesn't have internet post are silly. Shit happens, 2 weeks ago I was without internet for 3 days because of an issue with my ISPs infrastructure. Being able to play Project Cars 2 and Forza 7 helped to pass the time, and all my progress was saved. It doesn't matter why they did it, its just shitty that they did.
 

c0de

Member
The who doesn't have internet post are silly. Shit happens, 2 weeks ago I was without internet for 3 days because of an issue with my ISPs infrastructure. Being able to play Project Cars 2 and Forza 7 helped to pass the time, and all my progress was saved. It doesn't matter why they did it, its just shitty that they did.

You can progress though if you connect to the internet before closing the game. You can even put your console in sleep mode and it'll work when you switch it back on again.

.
 

spanna

Member
The who doesn't have internet post are silly. Shit happens, 2 weeks ago I was without internet for 3 days because of an issue with my ISPs infrastructure. Being able to play Project Cars 2 and Forza 7 helped to pass the time, and all my progress was saved. It doesn't matter why they did it, its just shitty that they did.

Yeahhhhh. When my power went out I played cards and boardgames. Therefore GT sport is poo...... :/
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
For me, this is a matter of preservation. When the game goes offline, and it will eventually, it's basically useless.

You can still fully enjoy previous Gran Turismo games as you please but GT Sport will be lost to time.
 
For me, this is a matter of preservation. When the game goes offline, and it will eventually, it's basically useless.

You can still fully enjoy previous Gran Turismo games as you please but GT Sport will be lost to time.

My concern as well. I'm a few years time I will be able to boot up Forza Horizon 2, hell I can still play Forza Horizon, but what happens when they close the servers? And they will close them eventually, you will never be able to go back on the game even as a nostalgia trip.

They need to think of a patch
 

Razgreez

Member
For me, this is a matter of preservation. When the game goes offline, and it will eventually, it's basically useless.

You can still fully enjoy previous Gran Turismo games as you please but GT Sport will be lost to time.

You couldn't really enjoy GT5 "as you pleased" because a host of features and fixes were added with updates down the road. Less so with GT6 of course but that daily credit bonus multiplyer made a massive difference. 6 x credits earned!!

We live in the games as a service world now
 

cakely

Member
Destiny is advertised as Online REQUIRED.

GTS is advertised as Online OPTIONAL.

If the latter were advertised as required, there wouldn't be any concern.

The front of the GTS box says, in all caps, "Internet Required for Most Functionality", which is both true and a pretty fair warning.

It's been correctly pointed out here that it doesn't say this on the GTS page of the PlayStation storefront. It really should.
 

c0de

Member
For me, this is a matter of preservation. When the game goes offline, and it will eventually, it's basically useless.

You can still fully enjoy previous Gran Turismo games as you please but GT Sport will be lost to time.

It really is. In contrast to online-only games like WoW or Destiny, there is still single player content and I guess this was expanded in the last few months because of the criticism the game got. But they didn't change the dependency on being online. Why can't they just separate online and offline?
You couldn't really enjoy GT5 "as you pleased" because a host of features and fixes were added with updates down the road. Less so with GT6 of course but that daily credit bonus multiplyer made a massive difference. 6 x credits earned!!

We live in the games as a service world now

And you are also right - games on disc are really only worth as little as can be nowadays. In a world where there are mandatory day-1-patches which sometimes fix game-breaking bugs, this has become a reality that buying a disc for preservation is hardly a smart decision. If we would be able to download patches and preserve those as well, it would be a different story but I guess this will never happen (again).
 

TBiddy

Member
It would be fun to see this thread if the game in question was FM7. Would the ardent defenders of this policy still defend it? Somehow I doubt it.
 

Syriel

Member
The front of the GTS box says, in all caps, "Internet Required for Most Functionality", which is both true and a pretty fair warning.

It's been correctly pointed out here that it doesn't say this on the GTS page of the PlayStation storefront. It really should.

Yes, I made that point in my last post.

No issues with the ad copy on the physical box. The PS Store page for the game is misleading tho.
 
It would be fun to see this thread if the game in question was FM7. Would the ardent defenders of this policy still defend it? Somehow I doubt it.

Of course they would, it's just that another group of people would raise their voice. And yes, with regards to "concerned users" it works the very same way.
 
So, storm in a teacup then?
Not really. If you play the game offline and accrue a bunch of credits, mileage and XP that all goes *poof* once you exit the game, because you can't save it, and the internal save's lifetime is limited to your current session.

Better would have been to store that stuff locally, and when you boot up the game some time later while online and connected to their servers, it would save all that missing progress to the server.

But I guess they're really worried about people modifying saves?

So, say you're doing a long run or time trial or circuit mastery on the Nurburgring and the GTS server becomes unavailable. Do you just keep the game going and hope the connectivity gets restored? Or just assume your progress is lost because you have no idea if the servers will become available some time soon?
 

TBiddy

Member
Of course they would, it's just that another group of people would raise their voice. And yes, with regards to "concerned users" it works the very same way.

That's my point. The defense force in this thread would probably be amongst a group of "concerned users" (and vice versa) if the game had been released for the opposing platform. Which, to be completely honest, is a bit sad.
 
If all I wanted to do is save progress and my landline internet connection was broken I'd suggest opening a hotspot on your phone and connect your PS4 with that.

If you don't have Internet access at all you're probably having much more severe problems than not being able to save progress in a video game...
 

xrnzaaas

Gold Member
Imo there should be an information on the box and in PS Store that an Internet connection (not necessarily PS+) is required to play the game, no exceptions.
 
If all I wanted to do is save progress and my landline internet connection was broken I'd suggest opening a hotspot on your phone and connect your PS4 with that.

If you don't have Internet access at all you're probably having much more severe problems than not being able to save progress in a video game...
It doesn't have to have anything to do with your connection to lose connectivity to the GTS servers. If the GTS servers go kaput for a bit, no hotspot will help.
 
It doesn't have to have anything to do with your connection to lose connectivity to the GTS servers. If the GTS servers go kaput for a bit, no hotspot will help.

With everything heading into a digital future, from games libraries to the way we store data in general or communicate with each other, this is actually the new normal.

It's the job of the provider of that digital service to not fuck up the job, of course.
 

c0de

Member
With everything heading into a digital future, from games libraries to the way we store data in general or communicate with each other, this is actually the new normal.

Which doesn't mean everyone is fine with that. Especially when it comes to games and their preservation, as dark10x pointed out correctly.
 

BeeDog

Member
Having a reliable and constant internet connection makes this almost a non-issue for me (unless their servers act up badly), but with Sony's recent track record of killing servers quite quickly (e.g. Gravity Rush 2), it doesn't instill much hope.

HOPEFULLY Polyphony can patch the game enough to rely less on the online infrastructure so the game doesn't end up being a forgotten parenthesis in the GT line-up.
 
Which doesn't mean everyone is fine with that. Especially when it comes to games and their preservation, as dark10x pointed out correctly.

Absolutely, didn't say I'm a fan, just saying going digital comes at a price. And it affects so much more than just servers of online games getting shut down.
 

Fukuzatsu

Member
With everything heading into a digital future, from games libraries to the way we store data in general or communicate with each other, this is actually the new normal.

Though was anyone really demanding single-player content saves to require connections? Cloud saving is a useful feature if your console breaks or if you're playing on another machine, but this is isn't some situation where you play a Gamebryo engine game and there's save bloat you have to worry about.

I guess it's just, what good does it do to lock so much non-multiplayer content behind online connectivity aside from this vague concern about hacked profiles? Far from just shifting the focus, GT Sport now actively boxes out users without consistent connections on their PS4 as well as anyone who picks up the game used in a few years.
 

gossi

Member
I fear we’re getting to the point where we have fans-as-a-service, too.

This will make the game essentially meaningless in 15 years, when the servers are long gone.
 

TBiddy

Member
FWIW, this is how the retail box looks in Denmark:

PS4GRANTURPLE
 

Fukuzatsu

Member
Having a reliable and constant internet connection makes this almost a non-issue for me (unless their servers act up badly), but with Sony's recent track record of killing servers quite quickly (e.g. Gravity Rush 2), it doesn't instill much hope.

HOPEFULLY Polyphony can patch the game enough to rely less on the online infrastructure so the game doesn't end up being a forgotten parenthesis in the GT line-up.

I just can't for the life of me see why they don't patch these things when servers get shut down. Gravity Rush is an especially egregious example not only due to how soon after launch it is, but the content being lost is almost entirely cosmetic single-player stuff. They'd save a lot of face to just put together a package that says "oh by the way, here's free unlocks for all that so at least it's not gone forever".
 

c0de

Member
I just can't for the life of me see why they don't patch these things when servers get shut down. Gravity Rush is an especially egregious example not only due to how soon after launch it is, but the content being lost is almost entirely cosmetic single-player stuff. They'd save a lot of face to just put together a package that says "oh by the way, here's free unlocks for all that so at least it's not gone forever".

What exactly is the story behind GR2?
 
I fear we're getting to the point where we have fans-as-a-service, too.

This will make the game essentially meaningless in 15 years, when the servers are long gone.

Most people won't care about this game in even 5 plus years .
They should have allow the SP content to be able to save offline but i guess they tied every together .
 

TBiddy

Member
Denmark already moved to the internet completely, perhaps?

We did. 92% (in 2015) of the homes has access to the internet. To be fair, personally this won't be an issue for me, but I think it's a weird thing to implement, and there's probably a lot of people who will be affected by this.
 

Fukuzatsu

Member
What exactly is the story behind GR2?

There's a currency you get mainly by doing treasure hunts in the game, and other stuff related to semi-online functionality. You use these coins to get some bonuses, including costumes for your character. The game's servers are shutting down next year, and after this there will be no reasonable method of obtaining these. This comes as something of a shock since the game came out this year (in January).
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
If all I wanted to do is save progress and my landline internet connection was broken I'd suggest opening a hotspot on your phone and connect your PS4 with that.

If you don't have Internet access at all you're probably having much more severe problems than not being able to save progress in a video game...

And what if your phone has no internet? My phone for instance has buttons and touching the screen only smears it, but is not registered as a form of input. If my home internet is gone, I have no internet connection. Not having an internet connection is inconvenient, but I usually have no serious issues just because I cannot connect to the internet for a few days (outside of work). However, I would still like to enjoy some entertainment even if my internet is gone and I think that everything that does not necessitate a connection naturally should not do so at all.
#fakeconcern
Gran Turismo Sport does not affect me, because I do not like simulation games, for me everything need to be as arcady as possible. However, it is a general concern. One that would be much more significant if it was happening with a game I truly wanted to play. If Super Mario Run was a game for a dedicated platform and not phones I do not have, I would have complained like crazy about its online requirement. As an early adopter of Xbox One I can also tell you I was furious over its online enforcement and did everything I could to voice my anger towards Microsoft. I would never have bought an Xbox One if the online requirement had been uphold in any form. I do not accept artifical limitation of the lifetime of a game I buy.

Yeah it can be annoying when they do some maintenance... but it also makes the game better as a whole: The game is focused on the online races. To do so they expect you to be a good driver and earn the cars based on your own ability. Having the 'single player' locked to online saves (WHICH IS NOT PS+ LOCKED) is a measure to make sure the system works. You play the challenges, get the licenses, earn some cars for that, but you are also getting better at the game, respecting the brake points and such thing, all this counts for you to come online and DONT BE A STUPID DRIVER.
Worst that can happen via savestate manipulation is that someone unlocks a car early, even though unlocking is busywork based anyway. I no way is this affecting the online competition, because you cannot unlock artificial driving skills by doing so, so you'll end up with a car you want but without the ability to use it to win online races in an unfair matter. And even if there were any ground to those claims (which there are not) they could at the very least give you the option to have a fully offline career savestate where everything you earn can only be used offline.
 

c0de

Member
There's a currency you get mainly by doing treasure hunts in the game, and other stuff related to semi-online functionality. You use these coins to get some bonuses, including costumes for your character. The game's servers are shutting down next year, and after this there will be no reasonable method of obtaining these. This comes as something of a shock since the game came out this year (in January).

Thanks. That's absolutely disgusting.
 
There's a currency you get mainly by doing treasure hunts in the game, and other stuff related to semi-online functionality. You use these coins to get some bonuses, including costumes for your character. The game's servers are shutting down next year, and after this there will be no reasonable method of obtaining these. This comes as something of a shock since the game came out this year (in January).

I won't say it comes as shock if you follow the game sales .
They really should patch games like that went they put them offline .
 

oti

Banned
If all I wanted to do is save progress and my landline internet connection was broken I'd suggest opening a hotspot on your phone and connect your PS4 with that.

If you don't have Internet access at all you're probably having much more severe problems than not being able to save progress in a video game...

What if Sony released a mobile app... to save the game... from the phone...

🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
 

Egida

Neo Member
Many can't play FM7 offline (myself included) for quite some time, and no one said anything. So yeah, you don't have to "imagine" that. It's already happening and no one gave a shit.

I had no idea about this. It is disgusting, but I had already discarded the game due to lootboxes, so pick your poison I guess.
The "they too" argument is so tiring.

The fact here is that even if you have 0% interest in the online side of the game, you are still f* with the way the game works. Simply as that. The game becoming an empty husk in the future is just a bonus.
 

Z..

Member
So, wait... does this mean that when the servers eventually die the game will become unplayable?
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
Many can't play FM7 offline (myself included) for quite some time, and no one said anything. So yeah, you don't have to "imagine" that. It's already happening and no one gave a shit.

Personally I can just say, the reason I do not care is that it is PC. PC and phones, I do not care at all what developers do there. Those platforms are filled with predatory practices like online activation, online enforcement, Steam requirement, and in the case of phone games microtransactions anyway, I cannot get worked up over such a thing there, because to me these platforms are already absolutely disqualified as gaming venues alltogether. But I will resist such practices on consoles. Maybe there are more players who just do not care about what happens on PC...
 

Fukuzatsu

Member
I won't say it comes as shock if you follow the game sales .
They really should patch games like that went they put them offline .

That's all I'm saying. If the game did really poorly then I can see it being hard to continue support for, but at least let the people who did go through the trouble of buying it get the content.
 
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