Driveclub servers to shut down in 2020: No more multiplayer races, season passes

By Aaron Mamiit March 31, 2019

Sony will shut down the servers for Driveclub, Driveclub VR, and Driveclub Bikes on March 31, 2020, just before midnight British Summer Time (BST) or about 4:00 pm PT, in a move that will eliminate all the online features of the affected games.

The Driveclub games, as well as all their DLCs and season passes, will also be removed from the PlayStation Store on August 31, also at just before midnight BST or 4:00 pm PT.

This marks the beginning of the end for Driveclub, which was supposed to be a PlayStation 4 launch title in November 2013 but was delayed into early 2014. However, upon the game’s release, it still struggled to meet the hype generated by E3 teasers. In addition to connectivity issues, weather effects were not added to the game until more than two months after it was launched. A free PlayStation Plus edition, which was supposed to roll out alongside the game, was pushed back to 2015.

Sony then shut down Evolution Studios, the developer of Driveclub, in 2016, and its staff was hired by Codemasters, which was behind the Grid, Dirt, and Formula One series of games. With Evolution Studios gone, the writing was on the wall for the franchise.

After its servers shut down, only the single player and offline modes of Driveclub will be available to players, which is not ideal for an inherently social game that places a heavy focus on interaction between players. Gamers will no longer be able to compete in multiplayer races, and their season pass will no longer work online. They will also lose the ability to create their own events, represent their club in events and tours, as well as compete with other players in leader boards.

Driveclub was supposed to showcase the PlayStation 4’s capabilities when the current-generation console was launched. The servers being shut down represents six years of failing to live up to the potential of what may have been an excellent social racing game, but things simply did not fall into their right places.

For those who are still playing Driveclub‘s multiplayer features, one year remains before they go away for good. After March 31 next year, players will only be able to access the game’s local modes.

Editors' Recommendations

Servers for PlayStation Vita’s Killzone: Mercenary shut down without warning

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Gaming

The next Batman: Arkham game is a Meta Quest 3 exclusive

Batman stands in front of a bat shadow in Batman: Arkham Shadow.

A new Batman: Arkham was just announced, but it's not what you'd expect. Titled Batman: Arkham Shadow, it's a VR title made exclusively for the Meta Quest 3.

Not much is known about the game's story, with the tagline in a Meta blog post simply stating the following: "Evil stalks the streets. Gotham City is in danger. And you’re the only one who can save it." Shortly after the announcement, Geoff Keighley confirmed on X that we'll get more details on the game during his Summer Game Fest 2024 showcase on June 7. For now, the following teaser, which ends with Batman setting off a smoke bomb to get away from a horde of rats (is Ratcatcher in this game?), will have to suffice.

Gaming

A Nintendo emulator is Apple’s top downloaded app after ban reversal

Nintendo Entertainment System with controller.

The iOS App Store has a new No. 1 app, and it's Delta -- Game Emulator. Recently unbanned by Apple, the app allows players to emulate games from several different Nintendo systems, even though it isn't officially backed by Nintendo.

As a report from The Washington Post outlines, Apple recently loosened its App Store restrictions, which allowed game emulators to return to the storefront even though they were previously banned. Emulators populate a murky gray area in the video game industry, as they are fantastic for game preservation, but also give people ways to play games illegally if they find the ROM online.

Computing

Best GPU deals: MSI, XFX, EVGA

An AMD graphics card in an external GPU enclosure.

Getting into gaming can be an expensive hobby, especially if you're building a new PC from scratch and want to get the best GPU that you possibly can. Unfortunately, in the past couple of years, GPU prices have skyrocketed, especially for RTX 40-series cards, and they don't look to be coming down any time soon, whether you're going for AMD or Nvidia. Luckily, there are still quite a lot of great deals you can take advantage of that will let you snag a card for a great price, and we've collected some of our favorites below. That said if you'd rather go for something that's already been put together, check out these gaming PC deals instead.
XFX SPEEDSTER SWFT210 AMD Radeon RX 6600 Core 8GB GDDR6 -- $230, was $280

XFX is a pretty well-known brand that makes AMD Radeon GPUs, so you're getting a good-quality device right out of the gate. It has an impressive 8GB GDDR6, at least for this price bracket, and will give you a bit longer life out of it when games start using up a lot more VRAM, even at lower graphical settings. While the base clock runs at 2.0 GHz, the boosted clock speed is 2.5 GHz which is pretty good, and the whole thing is unlocked, so you could theoretically boost it higher if you have the right cooling. This RTX 6600 can support resolutions up to 8K, but really, this is an ideal 1080p gaming GPU.