8 Things We Want To See In Gran Turismo 8

It’s hard to believe it’s already been three years since Gran Turismo 7 launched. Time is an unstoppable force, and we will all perish, or something like that.

In that time, consistent updates mean GT7 feels a world apart now from the state it launched in. Over those years, we’ve seen the arrival of weekly challenges, the impressive Sophy AI, engine swaps, and not to mention to tons of cars and extra tracks to have arrived.

Given the five-year gap between GT Sport and GT7 though, we don’t think it’ll be wrong to assume the bulk of Polyphony Digital’s attention will have turned to the next game in the series by now.

With that in mind, here are eight things we’d love to see in Gran Turismo 8.

Sophy AI as the default option

Sophy AI was first introduced in GT7 in February 2023 through a limited-time mode, before becoming a permanent feature in the game with the November 2023 Spec II update.

It’s a brilliant system, especially compared with the comparative brain-dead standard AI in GT7. Competitor Sophy AI cars will race you hard, mostly fairly and even throw some emotes at you to reflect how their virtual brains are feeling.

However, its functionality has been pretty limited. Until the recent 1.57 update, it was only available in pre-baked quick races – and still can only be used in custom-made events on select tracks rather than by default.

We don’t expect it’ll be implemented completely within GT7 at this stage, however, it seems surefire that Polyphony is gearing the system up for a full inclusion in the next title.

More Kei cars

‘More cars’ is an obvious statement to make, but we do feel GT7 is lacking in the numerous Kei cars that have added a certain charm to earlier Gran Turismo games.

Sure, hitters like the Suzuki Capuccino and Honda Beat are represented, but what about the rest?

There’s no Autozam for a start, and there’s a dearth of econoboxes. It’s not quite Gran Turismo if you can’t put a cheap exhaust onto a Daihatsu Midget.

The return of classic tracks

Another obvious suggestion, but one we’ll happily pile in on. Gran Turismo 7 may have seen some great fictional tracks return in Trial Mountain and the later-added reborn Grand Valley Highway, but we’re still missing some of our absolute favourites.

Midfield Raceway is top of our wishlist, but we’d love to see Apricot Hill, Smokey Mountain or Tokyo Route R246 return. Maybe even the technically-challenging behemoth that is Beginner Course.

A Daikoku-style meet area

Hop into the GT7 multiplayer lobby list, and you’ll no doubt see at least 30 ‘Car meet winner picks category’ lobbies taking place on Tokyo Expressway.

That’s all well and good, but it all feels a bit makeshift. Give the people a proper parking area to do car shows, and we’d be delighted. A Daikoku-style area with plenty of parking space feels like an easy home run.

Proper endurance races

Endurance races were hinted as coming in future GT7 updates when the game first launched, but those have never really materialised beyond some half- and full-hour races.

Given that previous titles had some much longer races, right up to the Le Mans and Nuburgring 24 hour races on GT4, that’s been a bit of a shame.

Bring those back for GT8, and maybe even drop Sophy AI in as a B-spec driver you can swap with please, Polyphony.

Online licences

Sport mode on GT7 can be a lot of fun. It can also be completely ruined by people with nothing but the intention of wiping you out to overtake you.

Sure, there’s the driver and sportsmanship rating system but it’s very basic and doesn’t appear to have a great deal of impact on how clean racing online in GT7 is.

We think some form of online licence system, akin to iRacing, would be beneficial for the more eSports-focused side of the game. If drivers have to prove they can race fairly and cleanly in daily races before heading into official championships, we think the whole community would benefit.

Interior customisation

GT7 has taken the series a step forward for exterior customisation. Widebodying was new to the game, and the options for bodywork changes and even tweaking headlight colours and licence plate formats are all delightful additions.

However, the immersion making your car look like a pseudo-GT race car on the outside is quickly lost when you hop into it and it’s identical to OEM.

GT6 had the ability to add additional gauges on the dashboard, but we’d like to see GT8 go further than that. New seats, steering wheels, shifters, swapping out the instrument cluster, in-car stickers… we could go on.

A PC version

We’re not sure how keen Sony would be to surrender Gran Turismo to other platforms. Though racing games generally get overlooked by the wider gaming media, GT is still a title that sells consoles – and it’s hard to argue that fact with over 14 million copies of GT7 reportedly sold. Heck, this author pre-ordered a PS5 just to play GT7 on its eventual release.

But in 2025, we’ll see Forza on a PlayStation console. Sony is already publishing some of its biggest titles on PC. Locking games to one platform is seemingly an outdated concept, yet one of the biggest franchises in gaming remains so.

Could it really happen? If you believe the rumours, a GT7 PC port was reportedly cancelled recently, so the idea has clearly been mulled over. Only time will tell.