Gran Turismo 7 no longer being a PS5 exclusive was a recent decision, according to a report

Gran Turismo
(Image credit: Sony)

Gran Turismo 7 is coming to PS4 as well as PS5, and the decision to bring it to Sony's last-gen console was reportedly a recent one.

Sony dropped the news that Gran Turismo 7 would be released as a cross-gen title alongside a similar announcement for God of War 2. According to apparent insider information cited in a reaction article from VGC, Sony had "always intended" for God of War 2 to arrive on both PS4 and PS5, but for Gran Turismo 7, "the decision to release a PS4 version was made only fairly recently."

Indeed, if you look back to a PlayStation sizzle reel from as recently as December 2020, you'll see that Gran Turismo 7 is described as a "PlayStation 5 Exclusive" planned for release in 2021. Compare that to how Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Sackboy: A Big Adventure are specifically called out as a "PlayStation Exclusive" up top and "also available on PS4" in the small text below, and it's clear that Sony has rethought its approach since that trailer went out.

It's not a bad thing that more people will be able to play these games, of course, and there's a strong chance that the limited supply of PS5 stock ever since the console launched in November contributed to Sony's decision to cast a wider net with Gran Turismo 7. On the other hand, the Gran Turismo series has long been a flagship for visual fidelity and performance on Sony consoles, and players who were hoping for a purely next-gen game may fear that the compromises needed to make the same game work on older hardware will drag down the experience for everyone.

Sony previously planned to release Gran Turismo 7 this year but announced a delay back in February due to "COVID-related production challenges". We've still seen fairly little of the game beyond its initial announcement trailer, though series producer Kazunori Yamauchi has teased that it will incorporate the championship elements of Gran Turismo Sport with the grander racing and car sim vision of the first four Gran Turismo titles.

There's been some shuffling around recently, but there's still a lot of upcoming PS5 games to get excited for. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.