‘Gran Turismo Sport’ closed beta will get underway on March 17

By Brad Jones Published March 10, 2017

gran turismo sport closed beta granturismosportdelay — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Sony has announced that the closed beta for Gran Turismo Sport will begin on March 17. PlayStation 4 owners are encouraged to keep an eye on their messages to see whether they receive an invite to take part in the preview.

Participants will be given access to a rotating selection of cars and tracks, racing against other testers online, according to an announcement on the PlayStation Blog. The cars and tracks available will change over the course of the beta period, giving players the opportunity to check out a good portion of what the full game has to offer.

Recommended Videos

The beta test will be used to perfect the Driver Profile system set to be implemented in Gran Turismo Sport. The Drive Profile tracks a player’s sportsmanship as well as their ability on the track, which feeds into the game’s matchmaking system to ensure balanced, competitive online play.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

At least initially, invites to the Gran Turismo Sport closed beta will only be distributed to PlayStation IDs registered in the United States. There’s currently no confirmation as to whether or not the beta will expand to other regions later on.

This decision has been made so that development staff based in Tokyo can observe what’s going on as it happens, without the interference of different time zones. During the initial phase of beta testing, servers will only be available at certain times of the day, which will be announced closer to the start of the test period.

The Gran Turismo Sport beta was initially intended to take place around this time last year, but the test period was cancelled in an attempt to prepare the game for a late 2016 release — of course, the title would end up being delayed. At present, the hotly anticipated sequel is still expected to release worldwide before the end of 2017.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Brad is an English-born writer currently splitting his time between Edinburgh and Pennsylvania. You can find him on Twitter…

Gaming

Gran Turismo 7 is back online following update error

Three cars come racing around a tight turn in Gran Turismo 7.

After going offline, leaving most of its features unplayable for any users for over 24 hours, Gran Turismo 7 is back up, with its developer, Polyphony Digital, explaining just what happened.

In a post on the game's website, Polyphony Digital president Kazunori Yamauchi explained that what should have been a simple update rollout led to its latest PlayStation exclusive racing title being unavailable for a day. "Immediately before the release of the 1.07 update," reads the post, "we discovered an issue where the game would not start properly in some cases on product versions for the PS4 and PS5." The developer went on to explain that this error could have somehow impacted users' save data, leading to the game's outage.

Gaming

Gran Turismo 7: Best tuning settings and cars for Sport Mode

A driver stands next to his yellow sports car in Gran Turismo 7.

Gran Turismo 7 has two schools of multiplayer to consider. Racers tired of competing against A.I. can head down to the multiplayer pavilion in the lower right corner of the over-world map. Alternatively, drivers looking for more competitive action can opt for Sport Mode. In this ranked multiplayer mode, carried over from Gran Turismo: Sport, players compete in daily races to increase their driver ranking (DR). However, they'll need to know the best tuning settings for Sport Mode if they want to win (or even place) in daily races.

Each daily race (A, B, or C) comes with certain restrictions on weight and horsepower. However, with so many cars to choose from, only hindered by horsepower (HP) and weight requirements, how can racers still get a competitive edge? This guide will go over a few essential tips surrounding the best tuning settings for Sport Mode. We'll also dive into what upgrades you need to buy and how to know which cars are best, or "meta," if you will.

Gaming

The best starting cars in Gran Turismo 7

Three American muscle cars line up against a dark background.

You won't be whipping around turns in Corvettes and Lamborghinis early on in Gran Turismo 7. Instead, you're given a limited number of used cars to choose from -- cars your parents probably picked you up from school in. While you're free to upgrade these low-PP cars to give them a little more horsepower, there are several ways to unlock better cars early in Gran Turismo 7. What if we told you there's a way to unlock some of the best cars in the game before you ever touch the World Circuit races?

Now, "the best cars" in a game like Gran Turismo 7 are left up to personal preference. For now, there's no necessary "meta" car to use in World Circuits or online. Furthermore, different races come with certain restrictions, making the "best car" in the European campaign useless in the United States. To get the most out of the early game, players need a set of rides to switch between depending on where they're racing. Here are the best starting cars in Gran Turismo 7 and how to unlock them.