The free DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition may never be released, Sony has revealed.
Sony has admitted you might never see the free PlayStation Plus Edition of the PS4 exclusive racer, DriveClub.
Speaking during an interview with the Metro, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe President and CEO Jim Ryan admitted the company couldn’t “guarantee” that the free version of the game would ever be made available.
“That’s still being looked at,” said Ryan. “I can’t say anything at this stage.”
DriveClub was released in October 2014 and was plagued with technical, server-based issues. The problems were so bad that the game’s free PlayStation Plus Edition was first delayed, and then “postponed until further notice”.
In November, Sony maintained the PS Plus Edition was still on the cards, but obviously there’s been some changes since then.
“In the context of Driveclub, which as you say did not work correctly at launch, I gotta tell you that everybody [Sony’s London-based European HQ] and in the development community was absolutely distraught that that was the case,” Ryan added, speaking of the game’s post-launch struggles.
“Now, should the game have worked at launch? Of course. Should people pay £50 for something and expect it to work? Of course.”
When DriveClub was released the servers for the game failed, meaning gamers were unable to get online and experience the online features that helped made the game so appealing.
“QAing this stuff… a lot of it is load placed on servers, simply due to concurrency. It’s hard. Again, that’s not to excuse publishing something that’s not fit for purpose”, Ryan said.
“One would hope, and certainly we’ve learnt an awful lot from the DriveClub experience, that those mistakes, once made should not be repeated.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.