Evolution Studios’ Driveclub is having some major engine troubles.
The dares-to-be-different racing game, which puts a premium on “clean” racing (ie not banging into everything in sight) and social interactions, arrived for PlayStation 4 on October 7, 2014, but the game’s online core has been in wretched shape since then. Evolution pins the issue to server load, the same type of problem that plagued games like Battlefield 4 and SimCity at launch. In short, too many people are trying to play online, and the strain placed on Sony’s network hardware is too much.
At first, the server issues simply led to Evolution delaying the launch of the PlayStation Plus version of Driveclub, since a free-for-members download of the game would only have added to the online woes. Even without that release, however, the issues persist. The dev was active on the game’s Facebook page every day during launch week, with updates explaining what was happening and how things were progressing.
Related: Look at a lot of pretty, shiny cars in this lineup of Driveclub screens
The last alert came on Friday, October 10. Things are definitely improving, with the game’s clubs, leaderboards, and online multiplayer races all reported to be working now. That’s in addition to offline components, like Tour mode, custom solo events, and car customization, which weren’t ever affected by the ongoing issues to begin with. Other features, including challenges and social updates, remained inaccessible as of Friday.
While the Facebook page has been silent since then, Driveclub game director Paul Rustchynsky followed up on Twitter with a confirmation on Saturday that the game’s v1.03 patch had been released with the aim of further reducing the server load.
What has your experience with Driveclub been so far? Have you seen any marked improvement in performance or feature availability as we’ve ventured deeper into the weekend?
