Driveclub: One Month On

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last year, you’ll be quite aware that Driveclub’s release hasn’t exactly gone to plan. Initially set to be a launch title, just a month ahead of the PlayStation 4’s launch it was revealed that the game would be pushed back to 2014. That delay turned out to be a lot longer than initially expected, but as Evolution Studios gradually started to talk about the game once more ahead of E3, it seemed that they were starting to win people over. The year-long delay might just have been worth the wait.

As reviews landed a few days ahead of Driveclub’s launch at the start of October, opinions were generally favourable. The very focussed approach of pitting you against other players’ record and challenges is a smart and compelling one, which combines well with a handling model that balances sim and arcade sensibilities. It wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, certainly, and launched in the wake of the very well received and vastly more expansive Forza Horizon 2, but with the PS+ Edition also on the cards, it had the potential to win a number of people over that were still on the fence. At least, that was the plan.

Come launch day in North America on October 7th, Driveclub suffered from a fate that has become all too familiar in this age of constantly connected games. Just as with SimCity and Diablo 3, the Driveclub servers went offline under the weight of the general public, practically immediately. Taking to their Facebook page, Evolution rattled off quick fire updates on the situation. Outwardly, it seemed as though this could be down to the added pressure of those playing the PS+ Edition of the game and so this was quickly pulled from the store and blocked from connecting, restricting access to paying customers. However, as the week rolled on to include the EU and UK releases – today being the one month anniversary of the UK launch – it became clear that the issues were more fundamental than that.

The problems also seemed to have Evolution stumped. On October 8th, they announced a kind of ‘one in, one out‘ policy, October 9th came with an announcement of essential diagnostics and October 10th then saw server updates that allowed more players to log in, albeit with the core system of challenges and social updates disabled.

However, it clearly wasn’t simply a case of throwing more servers at the game – though bringing more servers online was something they were certainly doing – and as patches 1.03 and 1.04 rolled out rather soon after launch, the patch notes pointed to client side fixes required to reduce the load of each individual user, which had been compounding the issues. Whether server or client side, the game is still not running as originally intended.

It even came to the point where there was simply too much information about the game’s state floating around, to the extent that Paul Rustchynsky stopped replying to tweets on Twitter – though potentially related to a somewhat inadvisable reply noting that they were considering compensation of some sort – and Facebook updates were reduced in regularity.

“We know we have been quiet over the last few days,” they eventually wrote on October 28th, “which was because we wanted to offer you news when it has a meaningful impact on your experience of DRIVECLUB.” They continued on to state that “Our diagnostics show the majority of you are now able to get online and racing.”

Yet the game is far from out of the woods. Challenges are still disabled, of course, but while the “majority” can connect there were often a handful of comments to say that they still have issues. Let’s not forget that the PlayStation Plus Edition is also still missing in action. Eventually Shuhei Yoshida took to Driveclub’s Facebook page at the end of October to apologise and announce the indefinite postponement of the PS+ Edition. Since then, with Shu stating that time frames for fixes remain unclear, there has largely been silence.

https://www.thesixthaxis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/DriveclubWeather-IL1.jpg

But where does that actually leave Driveclub? During October, it was the most purchased game on the EU PlayStation Store – though it was 5th in the US and didn’t really set the retail charts alight in the UK – and though this was certainly helped by the cheaper price for those on with a PS+ subscription, a number of regular commenters on TSA have caved in and bought the game despite the troubles, many of whom have subsequently had positive things to say about it and happily played their way through the single player Grand Tour while waiting for more fixes.

The server troubles continue to be plain to see when you log into the game. The challenges system is still blanked out on the main menu, removing one of the key points that would have me returning to the game on a regular basis, and everything that requires a link to the internet is sluggish and prone to not working. Loading up my club and its status took me several minutes, for one thing, while trying to join a multiplayer race was particularly painful, with numerous disconnections and time outs before I could actually connect to a lobby.

With such problems, it’s difficult to see how they can conscionably push ahead with their original plans for DLC, with the Season Pass originally set to add cars, liveries, tracks and events from November onwards, none of which have appeared so far. The weather patch will almost certainly have been put on hold, as resources are shifted around. This all puts Evolution as a whole in a tricky position, with Driveclub already having been delayed for a year and at great cost to Sony, and sales almost certainly lower than they might have been with a smoother launch, the lack of a quick resolution to the game’s problems and sell through with DLC could have Evo’s existence hanging in the balance.

As with so many things, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.

38 Comments

  1. “If they do ever release the PS+ edition it’ll be when all the Driveclub hype and interest has died down or when most have given up on it”

    … You mean it’s available now?? ;)

    • Balls. That was supposed to be a reply to Lyts – Now it just looks like I am quoting randomly!

      Posting fail.

  2. I’m still enjoying the game offline, at it’s core it’s a really decent driving game and having picked up the plus upgrade i feel i’m getting my moneys worth but i do find myself wondering about all the social aspect that they were selling the game on. Obviously the online aspect isn’t fully working but i’m beginning to wonder now what it is i’m actually missing out on… a few notifications that someone did better/worse than me at a particular section of a race? A few extra points for my club which seems designed primarily for the collecting of points? I’m not sure i really care about that to be honest.
    The biggest issue for me is that it’s probably going to delay the weather and dlc rollout.

  3. Isn’t PS4 supposed to be a lot more developer friendly compared to the PS4. The PS4 was developed in conjunction with developers and certainly Evolution would be one of them. How has this been so royally screwed up from a developer with such a good track record…(pun unashamedly intended) :-)

  4. I don’t understand why the weather patch would be delayed, if its a problem with the online portion of the game. Surely the graphics programmers/art people won’t be picking up the net code issues as its not their department? Though I can see them halting all future DLC stuff as its a bit awkward throwing new stuff out even if its already made.

    Agree with Bonyman, I just love driving in this game. Love setting picking a track in Scotland, setting the time of day and weather, the rate of time and trying to set a fast time in time trial on my own. The multiplayer is fun but its more of a bumper car sort of fun.

    • Very good point, fella. The net-code chaps are a totally different department so hopefully the weather patch/update won’t be too far off being implemented to whatever prospective date they had in their heads (before this whole launch-fiasco).

    • I wonder if it might be more of a marketing decision. It might not look good to be releasing new features when core stuff doesn’t work. Logically that’s not a reason to delay it but, sadly, a lot of people are idiots.

  5. I will honestly say if Sony can fix the bugs like the AI cars getting huge boosts of speed as if Nos was applied .. as well as the silly impact penalties … add huge amounts of free dlc
    ( cars races n maybe a drag racing mode) this game can be saved .. imo this game is kinda cool n went beyond my expectations

  6. In spite of all th problems with the game I’m really enjoying it but I have found a strange anomaly with the handling of the cars. I find there is a bit more oversteer while driving using cockpit view than there is in other views. That was with the DS4.

    On Thursday I hooked up my new T300RS wheel, looking forward to the precise control to overcome the oversteer, and set off racing. For some reason the oversteer was ten times worse with some cars nearly un-drivable, even the front wheel drive hot hatches had loads of oversteer which is completely opposite to the way they should handle.

    I’ve never before played a driving game where changing views has changed the way a car handles. I hope Evo will add this to the list of what needs fixing.

    • I’ve found I like chase view with ds4 but in car view with a wheel. Can’t drive for toffee the other way round. This was with other games as I don’t own Drive Club.

    • Aha! I’d noticed that you were topping my friend list high scores in a lot of drifting events…..of course that’s when the lists actually materialise between connections. You have natural oversteer drifty tendencies :P

      As mentioned by 3shirts earlier, the red sentenced disconnection warning just before the end of an event has bled so many Club XP points from my final scores that it’s almost farcical, although I have managed to eventually get the Club up to a decent level through perseverance and D/C frustration.
      I seriously don’t imagine that the connection could stay active for the duration of a single race of online play!
      Final verdict has to be that It does seem like one month on and not much progress if I’m honest though, which is a pity as the core game is pretty ace.

  7. The handlings great as are the graphics but everything else on offer is so woefully average that i really have to wonder just how it got so screwed up.

  8. Just for the record. I had a good word with the chap on the entertainment counter at Asda where I bought my copy of Driveclub. I explained the situation and he said that there is absolutely no problem with getting a full refund as the game is only 50% functional.

    I will confirm again over the next day or so after I take it back.

  9. I noticed someone on here stated a simple beta would have helped. Well there was a Beta and I was lucky enough to be in it.
    I can assure you that there were no issues like this at any point during it. The racing was very tight and the whole thing online with not even a hint of a glitch. I’m truly gutted at the epic sized failure with this game, especially as I only need to be able to use the challenges to get the last few trophies!

    • Yeah, but as far as I am aware that beta didn’t test the load.

      What they should really have done is to have as many people as possible try & connect at the same time to see how it fared. Sure, that probably won’t have solved all issues, but I can’t help but feel that they might know a little more about what was going wrong at an earlier time had they done that & could have negated some of the bad press.

      It’s just a shame really – I had my eye on this & was likely going to get it, but seeing as it still doesn’t work as intended a month after release (& a delayed release at that) & still no sign of the free PS Plus version (which is looking increasingly less likely to happen now), I’ll probably just end up giving it a miss & go with the crew or something instead.

  10. Where can I find the number to request a refund???? I paid for the PS+ upgrade before release and I am thoroughly hacked off. Although in another light it’s the main reason I went out and bought and xbox one so it kind of did me a favour I guess.

    Either way whilst the game handles quite nice and looks quite pretty it’s nowhere near as good as horizon 2 IMO and it should not have been released when it was obviously still not finished.

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