Mess: ‘Driveclub’ PlayStation 4 Issues Force Apology From Sony Studios President

DriveClub released for the PlayStation 4 three weeks ago and its launch was so rocky that the launch of the free PlayStation Plus Edition was delayed. Three weeks and several patches later, the racing game can still only be described as a mess due to server problems and other bugs. Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida made the rare apology to purchasers on the game’s Facebook page Thursday and brought more bad news for those waiting on the release of the Driveclub PS Plus Edition.

Message from Shuhei Yoshida @yosp – #DRIVECLUB Update- https://t.co/cdxIkAuRzX

— DRIVECLUB (@DRIVECLUB) October 30, 2014

Yoshida described Driveclub‘s launch as a “little rocky,” which many would call an understatement. The game was originally slated to be a launch title for the PlayStation 4 last November but was delayed for additional polish and two closed betas. When it finally released on October 7, its condition was more like a Gremlin than a Ferrari.

“We have been listening to your feedback and realize that patience understandably is running out,” Yoshida wrote. “Evo is working around the clock to close the gap, and we have deployed additional engineering resources to help resolve the remaining issues as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the time frames required to roll out the fully connected experience will be longer than anticipated and we do not have an exact time frame for when they will be resolved. We will continue to update you on progress and you can find the latest info on the DRIVECLUB Facebook page.”

Because of the ongoing issues with Driveclub, Sony and developer Evolution Studios are “not confident they can guarantee the best online experience” if the PS Plus Edition of the game is made available. As a result, the free version of the game has been delayed indefinitely.

“On behalf of [Worldwide Studios] we are enormously grateful for your patience and we thank you for the continued support and encouragement. Again, we sincerely apologize for the delay. We are committed to giving you the best racing experience on PS4 — it’s taking a little longer than we hoped,” Yoshida closed.

Yoshida would not peg the problem with Driveclub, but head of PlayStation France fingered Evolution’s coding efforts. In an interview with French website Gameblog, he stated, “In the coding of the game Driveclub, a mistake has been made preventing enough people to play at the same time. This is being re-programmed but it takes a lot more time than [to] simply add 1000, 2000, 3000 servers. We need more than a simple patch, the problem resides in the code and the way the network accepts sessions.”

The reaction to Yoshiada’s apology and news of another delay was not met well among Driveclub’s Facebook followers.

Alan Pennell-Smith wrote:

“Wish I wasn’t tied into your unreasonable ‘no refund on digital downloads’ policy or I’d have had my money back already. It’s clearly not a finished game and has had a lot cut/pulled/delayed (weather? replays? etc.) to meet a promised release date. If it wasn’t ready, delay it. Better than releasing a shoddy, reputation damaging game.”

Kevin Palmer added:

“This is a disgrace, never in my 20 years of gaming have I bought a game and felt so angry. I bought the game purely to race online with my mates and after 3 weeks I still can’t! It’s simply not good enough. If I had the disc version I would have returned it by now but I’m stuck with the Digital version seriously dented my confidence in buying this way in future that’s for sure. We need some form of compensation for this shambles.[sic]”

On NeoGAF, Heroman said:

“The [b]iggest launch failure of this year.”

ShockingAlberto chimed in with:

“It seems like this is exactly the sort of thing paying for online multiplayer was supposed to avoid.”

Reddit user KickIt2Peterson7 wondered:

“Interesting that Yoshida was the one to deliver this message. It’s such a huge disappointment that this has happened. Who knows when the PS+ edition will come out?”

HOLY_HUMP3R felt for the PS Plus subscribers with:

“I feel bad for all the people who bought a plus subscription thinking they’d be able to play this game.”

Driveclub was the PlayStation 4’s single big exclusive for the holiday season of 2014 with the delay of other games like The Order 1886. It doesn’t appear to be affecting sales of the console so far but it’s a serious situation heading into the holidays since Sony already gave assurance that the PlayStation Network would be able to handle the increased traffic this holiday season.

What do you think of the Driveclub issues for the PlayStation 4? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via PlayStation YouTube Channel]