PlayStation Exec Responds To Driveclub Server Woes

One of Sony's top PlayStation gaming executives has now responded to the server issues facing PlayStation 4 racing game, Driveclub. SCEA president Shawn Layden told IGN in a new interview that while Sony's stance on pre-release quality assurance is to test for "every possibility," it was not possible to test for hundreds of thousands of users coming online at once at launch in October.

"In the development cycle, we try to do all things. In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility," he explained. "We have a [Quality Assurance] team, we have a QA plan. You do a beta test, you scope against that. But now, 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. And the guys [at the studio] are struggling with that. It's throwing up things they had not anticipated."

"You know, they tried to do the best, newest, greatest thing ever to happen in the driving genre and they hit a hiccup" -- Shawn Layden

Layden went on to say that he receives reports about the status of Driveclub's server issues "every day." He said things are moving forward, though he admitted it is "going slowly." All the same, Layden said the team at Evolution Studios had a grand vision in mind for Driveclub, and he would rather take risks than tread familiar ground.

"You know, they tried to do the best, newest, greatest thing ever to happen in the driving genre and they hit a hiccup," Layden said. "I prefer people to have the ambition to try that, though. It's no fun being safe all the time."

Layden is not the first PlayStation executive to address Driveclub's server woes. In October, PlayStation worldwide studios president Shuhei Yoshida apologized for the issues in an open letter to fans, where he said he is "truly sorry" for the game's problems.

As a result of Driveclub's technical hiccups, Sony has put the free PlayStation Plus version of the game on-hold indefinitely. Driveclub was originally targeted as a PS4 launch title, though it was delayed several times before finally releasing in October.

To make it up to fans affected by Driveclub's widespread server troubles, Evolution recently announced that the game's November DLC will be free for everyone. This was previously included with the Driveclub DLC pass, which has now been extended through July 2015.

A new Driveclub update was released today, introducing a Photo Mode, bug fixes, and lots more.