Sony praises developer Evolution Studios, the company behind the recently launched Driveclub PS4 racing game, saying that it prefers an ambitious team that hits problems along the way over those who play it safe to not encounter any issues.

Driveclub was one of the most anticipated PS4 games of this fall, delivering a social racing experience that allowed players not only to race against AI-controlled opponents across all sorts of amazing tracks and environments from around the world, but also to make their own club and compete with others online.

However, at launch, the game's actual multiplayer portion buckled under the pressure and it took many weeks until things were remotely operational, despite constant updates from developer Evolution Studios and extra resources offered by publisher Sony.
Sony is still delighted with Evolution's work

Even so, Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Shawn Layden is still delighted with the work Evolution has done with Driveclub. He emphasizes to IGN that it was really hard to predict the strain imposed on the game's servers and on its multiplayer mode, as neither the internal testing nor the closed beta hinted at any issues.

"In the development cycle, we try to do all things. In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility. 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," he mentions.

Sony believes that ambitious projects might meet issues along the way

Layden also emphasizes that any ambitious project, including Driveclub, is bound to encounter problems along the way, but he knows that Evolution is doing everything it can to ensure that the racing experience delivers a great time to PS4 owners from around the world.

"I get reports from them every day on the progress that they're making, and it is going forward. It is going slowly, but, you know, they tried to do the best, newest, greatest thing ever to happen in the driving genre and they hit a hiccup. I prefer people to have the ambition to try that, though. It's no fun being safe all the time."

Driveclub owners received some free DLC packs this week as compensation for the issues they've encountered. As of yet, there's still no word on when the free Driveclub PS Plus edition is going to be offered for free to all subscribers, as initially promised by Sony.