Sony and Evolution Studios have expressed their mutual disappointment over DriveClub‘s launch, stating that the long-running server problems and bugs were a cause of embarrassment for both publisher and studio.
In an interview with IGN, head honcho of PlayStation UK, Fergal Gara spoke candidly about the problems that plagued the racer from day-one.
“It’s a disappointment. 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 apologise 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.”
Given that DriveClub was originally planned as a PlayStation 4 launch title — one that was aligned as a direct competitor to Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport 5 — only for it to suffer a year-long delay that, evidently, wasn’t long enough, it’s no wonder that Sony and Evolution are a little red in the face.
Still, the majority of the racer’s problems are, for the most part, residing in the proverbial rear view mirror, with Evolution Studios claiming that the game’s servers are finally beginning to perform as originally intended.
However, such a commitment to server stability had led to the studio delaying the free PlayStation Plus edition of DriveClub indefinitely, and it looks unlikely the subscribers will be able to get their hands on the trial version until 2015.