Ubisoft Dev Hopeful of Stable Launch for The Crew

A lead developer working on The Crew, Ubisoft’s open-world racer, is confident of a smooth online launch when the game ships on December 5.

Network errors and server-side problems have mired numerous key games released this year, such as Microsoft’s Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sony’s Driveclub, Activision’s Advanced Warfare and Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Unity.

In response to Assasin’s Creed Unity’s rocky launch, Ubisoft issued an apology and offered free DLC to those who purchased the game. Those who bought the DLC season pass have also been offered a free Ubisoft game.

But the developer behind Ubisoft’s next big release, The Crew, appears confident that enough has been done to ensure a steady launch. Serkan Hasan, of the Lyon-based studio Ivory Tower, said that several betas of the game has helped stress-test the game’s online functionality.

“For The Crew, we’ve reaped the benefits of a long term beta program, designed specifically to push our infrastructure as far as possible in real world situations, with thousands of players from all over the world playing the game at the same time,” he told the Metropolist.

That doesn’t rule out unforeseen problems and problems out of the studio’s control, Hasan clarified.

“The launch of any online game these days has potential issues, but I hope that players will be encouraged by our open approach. If you had any doubts that we could pull this off, I hope that the betas proved our credentials and the game’s stability.”

The Crew ships across North America and Europe on December 5. It’s available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and PC.