Gran Turismo 7 developer Polyphony Digital has apologized to players and pledged to rework the in-game economy to make the racing sim less of a grind.

The studio irked players with a recent update that made vehicles more expensive and in-game credits harder to earn. That situation, coupled with the fact Gran Turismo 7 also uses microtransactions rather liberally, caused a pretty severe backlash.

For instance, the title currently has a user score of 1.5 (also known as 'overwhelmingly dislike') on Metacritic after players left a deluge of scathing reviews over the studio's decision to tamper with the in-game economy to create what some described as a "cash grab."

Writing on the PlayStation Blog, Polyphony president Kazunori Yamauchi has now apologised for the "frustration and confusion" caused by that patch, and said the studio will update the title in the near future to "re-establish the intended equilibrium."

"Thank you for your continued support and feedback on Gran Turismo 7, your voices have not gone unheard. I would like to apologize for the frustration and confusion caused last week with our patch updates which resulted in, not only a server outage but also adjustments to the in-game economy which were made without a clear explanation to our community," they wrote.

"The patch update previously deployed was intended to rectify an issue with inconsistent reward payouts within a part of the World Circuit Events. But, to re-establish the intended equilibrium and provide more accurate rewards based on time investment and completion, it was necessary to recalculate the rewards system as a whole.

"To improve the player experience, we will be rolling out a considerable patch in the beginning of April. The number of events will be increased, and we will reestablish the reward system with greater balance throughout the game to benefit all players."

The full set of improvements, which will come into effect at the beginning of April, can be viewed below, but Polyphony will largely focus on increasing reward payouts for a number of events and allowing players to sell cars. The company will also be offering players a non-paid credit pack worth 1 million Cr. as a "goodwill gesture."

You can read more about the upcoming changes over on the PlayStation Blog.