After The Crew was so abruptly delayed, again, the only racer we had to look forward to was Driveclub. Well, looks like those that opted to take advantage of the PS+ Edition may have to wait quite a bit longer.
At the moment, Driveclubs’ servers are taking a hit, rendering various options of the “social racer†useless. Such a hit on the servers solely through gamers that purchased the retail copy is quite disappointing, knowing that this game was going to be in the hands of millions of more gamers is much worse. Driveclub PS+ Edition was first talked about during the launch of the PS4, so it’s strange that the servers weren’t up to snuff to keep this racer on track.
During a February conference call, a Sony CEO claimed that more than half of PS4 owners have PS+, thus factoring in that 4.2 million units were sold in 2013, we can surmise that, at the time, there were approximately 2.5 million plus subscribers. Assuming the trend continued, and we are looking at around 10 million units sold (VGchartz data, not the best metric but close enough), we can come to the conclusion that there are over 5 million Plus subs. Surely a rush at the servers should have been anticipated.
It’s not so much that the game isn’t on the Plus list of free games, more so that we were left in the dark well after the store was updated. Had they done a tiered launch by region, surely there would have been a multitude of complaints, but we would have known well before hand. Getting caught off guard is never an enjoyable experience, and I am sure that goes for the dev team as well. But, how could Sony or Evolution Studios not known this was going to happen? Hopefully this all gets sorted out sooner rather than later because Driveclub has been on my radar since it was first announced.
Check below for the official word on Driveclub’s woes by Paul “Rushy†Rustchynsky:
Hi Everyone,
With DRIVECLUB, we are dedicated to delivering a dynamic and socially connected racing game that everyone can enjoy, and along the way we’re facing new challenges which we haven’t encountered as a development team before. We are seeing a lot of activity and new social behaviours right now, but unfortunately this is pushing the servers to their absolute limits.
We are sorry if you are having a hard time getting online as we know many of you are. Please be aware that the game will automatically keep trying to connect you. Once you’re online, you should have no further problems during your session.
Everyone at the studio is now working hard to get new updates ready for the game servers to improve connectivity. We will be rolling out these updates day by day and will keep you informed.
In order to help all DRIVECLUB players who have the game already, we’re temporarily holding back the PS Plus Edition and the My DRIVECLUB app to ease the load and traffic to the servers. This should give players a better chance of connecting to the game servers and, once the servers are operating well, we’ll be sure to let you know when the PS Plus Edition and My DRIVECLUB app will be available to download.
To our PS Plus fans, we’re sorry you’re having to wait longer to play, but we want to ensure that when you come on board, you get the best experience possible. Rest assured, if you’ve pre-ordered the full game upgrade from the PS Plus Edition, you will still get the full version of DRIVECLUB digitally, and if you can’t get online you’ll be able to get started offline like everybody else with single player mode as you start your DRIVECLUB tour. You’ll still be able to earn fame, unlock cars and get to grips with all of the options for playing and creating your own events and challenges – and everything you do will be synchronised with the servers when you do get connected, so you can set-up a bunch of challenges to send out to your friends as soon as you are able to join each other online.
We fully appreciate how frustrating this is for everyone. We want you to get online with your club because racing, challenging and having fun together is what the game is all about. We know that racing with your friends online is what you’ve been waiting for and we are doing everything we can to deliver that experience to you as soon as possible.
Sorry again for the difficult start. We’ll keep you regularly updated on our progress as we work round the clock to improve connectivity. We want everyone to know what’s happening so please tag your DRIVECLUB friends or SHARE this message to let them know.
– Rushy
