Driveclub’s launch has been rocky, pockmarked with severe server issues, a stream of patches and the delay of the game’s free PS Plus version. With all of this in mind, Sony UK Managing Director Fergal Gara told IGN that he and the Driveclub team are “embarrassed” by the game’s performance so far.
“It’s a disappointment,” Gara said. “When you lay your soul out as being ‘4ThePlayers’, then what you certainly don’t want is games that are not fully ready. It certainly wasn’t any ill-intention on behalf of the team. It’s ambitious as a game; they’re as embarrassed as we are and all you can do in those situations is say sorry. We apologize to any players affected and are doing our damndest to make things right. So that’s what we’ve been doing and the game is pretty near-complete now. We don’t want to introduce the PS Plus Edition until we’re confident the servers can take the load.”
Sony America President and CEO Shawn Layden previously said that Driveclub’s issues stemmed from the developer’s inability to fully test the game’s online systems. “In a connected world, you can’t effectively test in your house or in your beta group what it means to have 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 users hit your service,” he said. “And the guys [at the studio] are struggling with that. It’s throwing up things they had not anticipated.”
