Sony France Suggest Driveclub Was Coded Incorrectly

Philippe Cardon, head of PlayStation France, has said that the Driveclub’s ongoing problems are nothing to do with a lack of severs, rather that the game was programmed incorrectly.

I should state that this is going through Google Translate so there is always the option of Sony telling us something was lost in translation, but this is what he allegedly said.

I really apologize to all the players who have difficulty connecting. (…) We actually connection problems, ie, in fact,in the programming of the game, there was an error that prevents us from welcoming enough players at the same time. This is the “same time” is most important.

All this is being reprogrammed, but it takes much longer than simply add 1000, 2000 or 3000 servers, if it was not a problem server.

This is more than a patch, it is truly programming and how the network can accommodate a number of sessions. I do not know when all this will be resolved. Every day that passes can accommodate more players, but we are not yet at maximum.

The revelation that the error is in the code rather than servers makes sense as Evolution did not detect any problems when they were running the closed beta with a small number of players. I guess this shows you really need to do an open beta when planning a game as connected as Driveclub.

Source: Gameblog.FR

29 Comments

  1. This has been said elsewhere previously.

    It’s just absolutely ridiculous that a more expansive beta wasn’t carried out to rewrite & then fine tune the game’s netcode

    • With Chris on this one. They’ve said it wasn’t the servers all along but it’s shedding a touch more light onto the actual problem.

      Still want a full debrief just for the sake of interest. Hope they let us know what eventually happened. :-)

  2. Evolution said it was the code from the beginning. It was reported on this site.

    • Actually they said there were “bugs”. The quote above seems to suggest its not a bug that can be patched because someone has put an A where there should be a B, but a huge fuck up in the coding that means the whole thing needs re-writing, which is different.

  3. If it was just adding servers it would have been sorted very quickly.

    Played it yesterday for the first time in over a week and didn’t notice any improvements. Still dropping in and out of servers and a lot of the friend’s challenges had stupid (28000mph) speeds etc.

    What was worse than the last time I played was my own ghost taking up to a minute to show on screen.

    • Yup same with me last night.

      Never thought I’d be so eager for the new cod to come out.

    • “What was worse than the last time I played was my own ghost taking up to a minute to show on screen.”

      You really need to drive faster, fella. ;-)

      • Don’t know if it’s that – Could be a little lag when entering the afterlife.

      • Maybe my ghost is busy doing other things, it is Halloween.

    • Sorry to hear you passed away camdaz ;)

      • Say hello to Patrick Swayze for me cam :)

  4. Someone needs to find that hardcoded value for maxNumberOfPlayers pronto.

    • Yeah, I have a feeling someone may have set it to 2 by mistake.

  5. I think i would be asking for a refund by now if i had the game.

    • I have rehearsed the conversation between me and the bespectacled sloth that works on the entertainment counter at Asda about 100 times.

      I honestly never come out of that daydream feeling anything less than seething.

      “yes but it’s called driveclub and the CLUB doesn’t work like my window cleaner doesn’t work. I. E. He works once a week but doesn’t tell anyone so he can still claim benefits. In the case of driveclub I PAY THOSE BENEFITS GIVE ME A FUCKINGBREFUNFARGHGHGHG”

      I have been known to have anger issues when faced with poorly trained customer service staff. :)

      • Ha ha, “bespectacled sloth”, must have been the beast that used to work at Tesco near me!

  6. I wonder how long until we hear Evolution is being shutdown, or at least large job layoffs leaving behind just a small team to maintain the game. Considering it was meant to be the PS4’s flagship racer, I can’t see Sony’s bosses funding another game from Evolution in the future.

    • Too dark. They’re a good team but they don’t deserve any layoffs or closure. They’ve some good games in them such with Motorstorm the old WRC series I’d say they deserve another shot at something different.

      • I agree, but these are the same morons who shut down Studio Liverpool…

      • Everything these days is about review scores and sales, Sony won’t care about Evo’s pedigree after this mess, if anything, Evo’s pedigree should have prevented this from happening, it’s not as if this is the first online racer they’ve made.

        For an online social racing game where the online part doesn’t work, it’s pretty damning of the developers.

    • Aye I’m wondering about this too. The studio could be looking at major support problems in the future given that their credibility will have been hurt by this issue. Had Driveclub not been a flagship title…

  7. Cg_maxplayers 100000000000

  8. Smh

    • Please urinate in your own time and then comment. ;-)

  9. They’re having a beta now, except some unlucky people are paying £54.99 for the privilege

  10. What a mess. There’s another patch downloading now, let’s see..

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