Gran Turismo Sport creator Kazunori Yamauchi has explained that the game lacks an authentic campaign mode as fans do not possess as much knowledge on cars as they did when the series launched.
The removal of this series staple has been met with strong criticism from fans, with some gamers on Facebook noting they had cancelled their pre-order as a result of its exclusion.
Gran Turismo Sport campaign changes detailed
Speaking with Driving during a GT Sport launch event this week, Yamauchi-san said that the traditional career mode has been revamped into a new single-player effort known as Mission Challenge.
However, he insists all the elements that you would expect from a Gran Turismo title are still found within this new mode.
He went on to explain that the development team has simplified the career progression to accommodate what he perceives as a lack of knowledge among gamers compared to 20 years ago.
“In a narrow sense, the part that was the GT Mode in the past is now called Mission Challenge,” said the Polyphony Digital boss. “It’s single player, there are various different types of races, from the very short to the very long, with different regulations, and you can tune up the cars that you purchased to participate in those races.”
“When people are talking about there’s no campaign mode, or no GT Mode anymore, that’s not quite true,” Yamauchi told us. “It’s just a change to the UI (user interface). All the things that you were able to do in the past in those modes are in the game.”
“Twenty years ago, when we did the first Gran Turismo, people knew what happens when you change an air filter; people knew what increased compression ratios do to your car. But the new users don’t have that knowledge anymore because they’re not as interested in the cars, so we’ve simplified that area [of the game] so you can do the exact same thing you were doing in the past, but it’s more user-friendly for people just getting into cars.”