Polyphony Digital’s upcoming Gran Turismo Sport will add a new twist to the increasingly-popular eSport aspect of virtual racing, becoming the first title to offer FIA-sanctioned online competition.
Part of this official blessing for virtual racing is a planned FIA Digital License that will be mandatory for players to compete in the sanctioned online racing events.
In order to obtain their license, current planning includes asking players for mandatory completion of the game’s??Racing Etiquette Mode that will school drivers in terms of respecting flag rules, safety cars and caution periods. Furthermore, players will likely be required to maintain a certain level of Driver Class & Sportsmanship points, a system similar to iRacing’s driver rating.
Up to this point, these ideas are all very sensible and will likely encourage cleaner online competition and fairer racing. The Digital License plan has a bit of a controversial twist though as the local motorsports governing body in each country may charge players annual licensing fees to obtain their license.
???We [Gran Turismo] won???t be taking any money for it, but to the FIA or your local automobile club, you may need to pay an annual fee, which is normal for any racing license,??? Kazunori Yamauchi explained.
Details on this are not yet available as Polyphony Digital and the FIA are still signing up local motorsport authorities for the program as right now, big name federations from countries such as Germany, France and the United States are yet to sign up to the Digital license program.
Via GTPlanet
