DriveClub "back to the drawing board"

Link.

“What I will say is that it all comes back to that fundamental principle, and that’s that we want to build great games,” Rohde said. “And we really don’t want to release a game before it’s ready. And sometimes, this happens in the normal course of business, where we think we’re on track to deliver what we think is going to be a great game, and when we get closer, we realize that we’d be doing everyone a disservice if we shipped it before it was ready.”

“So, I think that at PlayStation, perhaps more than at other places, we’re willing to kinda eat that [cost],” Rohde continued, “and go back to the drawing board and make sure the game is great before we ship it. And that’s what’s going on right now with that game.”

When asked about when it’ll launch, Rohde said, “We’re not announcing any specifics on that yet.” When pressed on if it would still come out sometime in 2014, Rohde refused to say, though Sony PR stepped in to say that we’d get more details soon.

Gamestop now shows a release date of 09/30/14. Super disappointing, to be sure. Game looks superb as is, but the constant waiting is dampening my enthusiasm. It wouldn't be so bad if it had not been delayed as is so often.

S0lid, time to enter extreme hyperbolic panic mode.

Delaystation 4.

Seriously though, delays this ridiculous are almost always bad for the product. It went from a launch title to near year after release? Yikes.

I wonder what's so wrong with it that they need to restart? The game looks fantastic right now.

At this point I barely remember what Drive Club even was. That was the one where the guy was just going all orgasmic about car stuff? Rendering individual threads in the seats and all that crap? Or was that "The Crew"?

Meh, whatever. I'll stick to Forza.

Greatness continues to await. This really puts an awful lot of pressure on Infamous to deliver the goods. Thankfully for Sony, as of now, they sell as many PS4's as they can make, so the lack of high quality exclusive software has yet to really hurt them.

Yeah, that's the one. Looks like a sim racer, plays like an arcade racer. (sort of) Basically, a lot like Project Gotham, so naturally I was heavily looking forward to it. This is why I prefer Rockstar's way of handling things. They don't show their new games until they have a very firm idea of when exactly it will be coming out, so none of that making people look at videos and salivate for it for a year(s) or more crap other devs pull off. (Team Ico, looking at you.)

A launch title that might be delayed up to 15 months? HS. The hits keep coming for Sony.

Yeah, I went and looked at the videos from E3 in the interim.

I do remember having quite a bit of fun with Project Gotham back in the day. And I think I played a good Need for Speed game once. So... maybe? There are plenty of racers out every year so if it comes out to good reviews and word-of-mouth then I'll probably look into it. If it never does, I can't say I'll be too deflated over it.

I hope, for the sake of the team working on it, that they can turn it around and get a product out that people enjoy though. I can imagine that a troubled project is probably quite stressful. Wishing luck to the developers on this one. :)

Yeah im not happy about it. Especially since I planned on playing this the day ps4 came out.

Oh well, im having fun with Gran turismo 6 right now on ps3.

Carnage's Reply to this news.

@S0lidSnake said:

Carnage's Reply to this news.

Ahhh, Baghdad Bob. The highlight of 2003 for me. Used to see this one in System Wars a lot.

In all seriousness, this is a game that should've never been made. People STILL dont know if this is an Arcade or Sim racer and that speaks volumes about how terrible the hook is for this game. I mean seriously, what IS the hook? Car porn? We've been getting that from Forza and GT for over two decades now. How cares if they modeled the fibers on the car seat? When do you look at the car seat anyway?

They should've instead tried to recreate the Motorstorm E3 2005 trailer as faithfully as they can with the next gen specs. It's probably impossible given how detailed it was, but even at 50% it would've blown minds. Sure, Motorstorm wasn't exactly selling like hot cakes, but sell it at launch and watch it sell millions like Ryse, Dead Rising and Forza did.

I want to say that both KZSF and Infamous should've never been made, but Infamous has around 3 million views for all four of its trailers on youtube which is pretty impressive. I guess people want a new Infamous game.

I personally would have preferred a new Motorstorm on the PS4. I love those games. Make it buttery smooth with such jaw-dropping gorgeous graphics and cities and wilderness tracks that fall apart in random ways it'd be the best of Pacific Rift and Apocalypse while looking amazing on that new PS4.

I say with no hint of hyperbole, that inFamous: Second Son is the game that sold me a Playstation 4. So you can count me among those who are eager for a new chapter in the InFamous franchise. :)

@S0lidSnake said:

Carnage's Reply to this news.

LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

@Randolph: SMH!!! Why!!! This is really disappointing news for me. By far one of the most anticipated games I have been looking forward to on the PS4. Lets hope we get some better news come E3.

@S0lidSnake said:

Carnage's Reply to this news.

Don't put words in my mouth drama queen.

As I've observed before, the original Motorstorm (despite the backlash over the fake trailer) was a big and deserved hit, but Evolution's games have been trending in the wrong direction ever since then. I blame most of the decline of Motorstorm on Motorstorm 2 failing to address the rubber band AI that was people's big issue with the original though its also true that the decision of Motorstorm 3 (and Split Second) to feature massive CoD style setpieces didn't thrill gamers.

The fact Drive Club, a game Evolution claims it has wanted to make for decade and has had a lot of time to make (its a safe bet most of the team didn't work on Motorstorm RC), has had to be delayed repeatedly is crazy. Judging by the team's track record and the state of the racing genre, its not going to be a big hit. If it had hit early it might have done okay (early in generations when pickings are slim people tend to give original games chances) but I'm not sure its going to do well if it launches against AC5, CoD and well, half of the industry's release slate Christmas 2014. Furthermore, as the shutdown of Irrational showed, giving a team unlimited time to make a game with limited commercial prospects just kind of allows them to make it harder for their game to be profitable even with solid sales.

I love all the Motorstorm games (the mainline games are a combo of Burnout 3, Sega Rally and Road Rash, three of my favorite racers of all time) and am somewhat interested in Drive Club (though I tend to prefer my arcade racers over the top) but honestly at this stage Sony should cut Evolution loose. Maintaining a big studio devoted to arcade racers (an increasingly niche genre) doesn't make a ton of commercial sense, especially when that studio is having problems shipping games.

@CarnageHeart said:

@S0lidSnake said:

Carnage's Reply to this news.

Don't put words in my mouth drama queen.

As I've observed before, the original Motorstorm (despite the backlash over the fake trailer) was a big and deserved hit, but Evolution's games have been trending in the wrong direction ever since then. I blame most of the decline of Motorstorm on Motorstorm 2 failing to address the rubber band AI that was people's big issue with the original though its also true that the decision of Motorstorm 3 (and Split Second) to feature massive CoD style setpieces didn't thrill gamers.

The fact Drive Club, a game Evolution claims it has wanted to make for decade and has had a lot of time to make (its a safe bet most of the team didn't work on Motorstorm RC), has had to be delayed repeatedly is crazy. Judging by the team's track record and the state of the racing genre, its not going to be a big hit. If it had hit early it might have done okay (early in generations when pickings are slim people tend to give original games chances) but I'm not sure its going to do well if it launches against AC5, CoD and well, half of the industry's release slate Christmas 2014. Furthermore, as the shutdown of Irrational showed, giving a team unlimited time to make a game with limited commercial prospects just kind of allows them to make it harder for their game to be profitable even with solid sales.

I love all the Motorstorm games (the mainline games are a combo of Burnout 3, Sega Rally and Road Rash, three of my favorite racers of all time) and am somewhat interested in Drive Club (though I tend to prefer my arcade racers over the top) but honestly at this stage Sony should cut Evolution loose. Maintaining a big studio devoted to arcade racers (an increasingly niche genre) doesn't make a ton of commercial sense, especially when that studio is having problems shipping games.

Ha! Nice comeback.....LMAO

That is a bizarre argument. The Infamous games have grown in popularity and all of them have been profitable. With the possible exception of KZ3, the KZ games (at least the console ones) have been profitable for Sony (also with the exception of KZ3, the series has grown in popularity as time has passed).

Staying away from mid-tier games and painting one's console into a corner is a mistake both MS and Nintendo have made (okay, MS is no longer making it, but Nintendo is). It would be a shame for Sony to fall into that trap. Of course, the trick to making profitable mid-tier games is to budget realistically (which is why the repeated delays of Drive Club are problematic).

Solid...Not that you will respond. But I am curios why you believe that KZSF and Infamous should have never been made?

I have no problems with mid-tier games, but launching a new console with not one but three mid-tier games is not exactly a great decision. Infamous 2 sold well in its first month but was no where to be seen after that. Did it sell a million in NA? It was the first game to go on PS+ as well which doesn't say much about its sales prospects.

Start of the generation is historically the best time to launch new IPs. They could've done something special with a new IP. Thats all I am saying.

If SP focused franchises were killed merely for putting up strong sales in their first month but falling off in subsequent months, there would be very, very, very few SP focused franchises out there. Infamous 2 doubled the first month sales of Infamous 1. If that didn't exceed Sony's expectations, then their expectations weren't reasonable. Also, Infamous was the 57th game to hit PS Plus and it did so a year after its launch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Instant_Game_Collection_games_%28North_America%29

I agree the start of the generation is a great time to launch new IPs because its less crowded, but one can launch a new IPs outside of launch windows and still be successful (nods towards Gears of War, Borderlands, Uncharted, The Last of Us, Heavy Rain, LBP and of course, the original Infamous).

I would have been fine if Sucker Punch decided that they were ready to move on to something new (greatness springs from developers, not franchises) but they are still passionate about the franchise and its profitable, so them sticking with it is fine.

@Randolph: I'd like to say Sony needs a great E3 this year with all the bad news coming from them: the loss of Amy Hennig and Jack Tretton, cancelling a Sony Santa Monica game three years in development, and yet another delay of Drive Club.

But that's unfair to say, considering the PS4 continues to sell record breaking numbers. Which is weird, since they've hardly announced any games. Granted, we know they're coming, but still.

The reason why DriveClub is delayed is because they are working on implementing VR for the new VR headset from Sony. My guess is that DriveClub will be the flagship for VR gaming on the Ps4.

Either it's going to be released or it's going to be canceled. My guess is on the latter. I'm hoping to see a new Ridge Racer title on the PS4 eventually. That should have been one of the launch titles on the PS4, IMO, instead of this.