Is Gran Turismo 7's 'spec III' December update worth getting excited about?

The accountants have completed their calculations, and their findings are as follows: Gran Turismo has done quite well. It’s now sold over 100 million units since the original game debuted back in 1997, which everyone at publisher Sony and developer Polyphony agrees is, to use the technical parlance, 'loads'.

To celebrate this milestone, there’s a substantial ‘spec III’ update to Gran Turismo 7 arriving in December. There are two new real-world track locations in that update – the Yas Marina circuit and circuit Gilles Villeneuve – and eight new cars including a Ferrari 296 GT3 and the Formula GT, an F1-style open wheeler which has popped up in various series entrants since the PS1 days.

Along with those headline features are a list of additions which we can’t help but hear the sound of a trumpet being played badly while reading: Dunlop tyres, a data Logger, the collector level cap increased, unlimited car invitations in Brand Central, 'enhanced weekly challenges', a new opening movie, a new menu book seasonal menu, new events in Circuit Experience, new 'curations' in Scapes, and improvements to online races.

Look, they’re all welcome. And in the live service era when a lot of players play one game and one game early, it could very well be a big deal that Dunlop tyres are coming to GT7.

But the overwhelmingly positive reception to Polyphony’s spec III update announcement presents an interesting question: has the live service games model sent us all a bit bonkers?

Not that free stuff isn’t nice, you understand. But when you find yourself feeling a tremor of anticipation for an update to a game you paid north of £50 for on release, you wonder whether the marketers haven’t won.