DRIVECLUB - being put to sleep by Sony in March 2020

[partious]

I think shutting down the servers for a game while the console it's on is still current gen is a bit scummy, especially when the company doing so is the console manufacturer. Maybe with annual cash-ins like Fifa people know what they're signing up for but as someone who bought Driveclub and Driveclub VR I'm not impressed with Sony's decisions here. It comes across as unnecessarily penny pinching but I suppose PS4 performed well enough that they don't have to care about their image for now.

[MattyP]

It does concern going forward with so much online dependency in games these days.

 

On a slightly related note I  recently powered up my 360 much of the content on that was no longer available or delisted. Don't think any of the things I had bought were unavailable but I could not find anything pre 2013 listed on my purchase history on the MS web site (although they were listed on the actual console).

 

So not sure how well all this affects gaming going forward in particular playing old games in future. Now that I'm mostly digital guessing just have to see how it pans out. :-/ 

 

Think all companies will drop off the legacy things at some point. Be interesting to see how Nintendo in particular handle transition to newer consoles after the switch. All my games bar one are digital on that.

 

Suppose in the end I'm an older gamer so kind of have an idea that when I buy something I expect it to be for life  Digital kind of changes that idea I guess. Just hope the manufacturers, publishers etc look after their art form a bit better going forward. Now we have kind of standardised architectures it should be easier to keep things accesssibe MS in particular have shown how it can be done although licensing will always be an issue.

 

In other news ran out of AA batteries for my 360 controller and don't have a play and charge cable so my recent new found love for PGR4 and my Gold backlog has to be mothballed for a bit. Although might make an essential trip for groceries and batteries later.

[Dudley]

4 hours ago, partious said:

I think shutting down the servers for a game while the console it's on is still current gen is a bit scummy, especially when the company doing so is the console manufacturer. Maybe with annual cash-ins like Fifa people know what they're signing up for but as someone who bought Driveclub and Driveclub VR I'm not impressed with Sony's decisions here. It comes across as unnecessarily penny pinching but I suppose PS4 performed well enough that they don't have to care about their image for now.

 

Plus let's not hear "7 year old game" here.

 

It was re-released on Budget less than 2 years ago and can still be bought new on Amazon where there is no indication some of it won't work.

[MattyP]

1 hour ago, Dudley said:

 

Plus let's not hear "7 year old game" here.

 

It was re-released on Budget less than 2 years ago and can still be bought new on Amazon where there is no indication some of it won't work.

True. Guessing Sony know people will just lap up the PS5 anyway and let's face it most gamers won't really care about servers been shut down.

 

Would any of you for example not buy a PS5 and a PSN sub based on this behaviour by Sony?

 

Why to some degree I stick with the PC and Steam. I can still play say Half Life 2 after all these years (bought it in 2004). It's been enhanced over the years too and still works on my current PC. Steam and Valve have demonstrated a stable and dependable platform and a commitment to the customer. MS to a degree tend to support things for a while to.

 

Sony will keep doing what they are doing unless enough people stop buying their kit and services. 

 

Thing is though going forward we will all be at the mercy of the corporations our content and services could be withdrawn at any point. 

 

Just the way things are going.... I mean it won't be in their favour if they go too far. Just finding a balance I guess.

 

I try and think of any new content I buy as consumable.... different mindset I guess. But relatively speaking games have never been cheaper.

 

Anyway probably derailing the topic here a bit. Shame Sony are shutting the servers down for this. Maybe it's perhaps our fault if we played it enough and gave Sony feedback on this they might not have made the decision? Just a thought.

 

Anyway enjoy your last bit of time online with this for anyone who still plays! 

 

[Xevious]

The thing is, this game was really built around the online side.  You get challenges throughout the laps based on other people's performance.  On time trials it shows you a nearby time and ghost.  The club part of the name was a huge part - even if the size of the clubs was a bit too small, it meant you could team up together to compete.  Once the online part is turned off, it's going to be a much lesser game.

 

And that puts me off buying anything similar in the future.

[MattyP]

6 minutes ago, Xevious said:

The thing is, this game was really built around the online side.  You get challenges throughout the laps based on other people's performance.  On time trials it shows you a nearby time and ghost.  The club part of the name was a huge part - even if the size of the clubs was a bit too small, it meant you could team up together to compete.  Once the online part is turned off, it's going to be a much lesser game.

 

And that puts me off buying anything similar in the future.

Think it's an issue for all online games to be honest they live or die on their userbase.

 

Sony should have offered this (as it was originally pitched) as a PSN game and given it for free as part of the sub. Soon as they charged full price for the game the expectations changed along with that.

 

IMHO it was a wasted opportunity for Sony to build a community and get people subbing to their PSN network. See how popular Fortnite is.

 

In essence Driveclub should have been Sony's freemium game. Ah well.

 

And yes I will not pay full AAA price for something largely based on online play and requiring a sub for sure. Hopefully learning lesson for Sony perhaps?!

[Dudley]

I'm amazed they didn't recall the physical copies when they announced the end date, that's the only real problem I have with this, that they're still allowing them to be sold with no indication half the features don't work.

[rgraves]

I've no problem with the overall concept of shutting down old servers, I don't think anyone expects them to go forever, but I do think doing it for a game on a *current* console is just too much. They should have, IMO, at least waited until PS4 was not their current platform.

 

If you can't walk into a shop and buy a game for the very hardware they have on the shelf without total confidence it's still working, then that's a bit off.

[dumpster]

If you play Driveclub (normal game or the VR one), can you switch off the messages about how the game "can't connect to the server"?  We know it can't and probably never will again  , but it's still an exceptional 1 player experience and these continual messages are spoiling it.

[rafaqat]

Is there an easy way to buy the full VR game still?  

[dumpster]

30 minutes ago, rafaqat said:

Is there an easy way to buy the full VR game still?  

Cex physical copy I think. They want 28 quid for it though....

 

Personally, I think Driveclub is such an incredible game that DriveClub VR was unfairly criticised.  If you have your VR Legs  and you will need them, it's the best race car experience on PSVR. It's very low Res and the graphics are toned right down from the original game, but the gameplay is fantastic. Beats the hell out of Gran Turismo VR (which is good but only has one car on the track with you).

  

[rafaqat]

5 hours ago, dumpster said:

Cex physical copy I think. They want 28 quid for it though....

 

Personally, I think Driveclub is such an incredible game that DriveClub VR was unfairly criticised.  If you have your VR Legs  and you will need them, it's the best race car experience on PSVR. It's very low Res and the graphics are toned right down from the original game, but the gameplay is fantastic. Beats the hell out of Gran Turismo VR (which is good but only has one car on the track with you).

  

 

Me and the kids absolutely love the demo.  I had like a week window where I could have bought it on the store before it got taken off and I'm kicking myself now. We'd only just got VR I think so I won't have been sure whether we'd play it much. 

[T Pot]

I bought a PS4 again, turns out I had DriveClub on my account. 

 

Fuck me, this game still looks fucking great 7 years later:

 

 

@Rushy - You guys out did yourselves. Seriously.

[MattyP]

12 minutes ago, Mr Tony said:

I bought a PS4 again, turns out I had DriveClub on my account. 

 

Fuck me, this game still looks fucking great 7 years later:

 

 

@Rushy - You guys out did yourselves. Seriously.

Think I'll be buying DC again as I recently acquired a PS4 again. Might be time to put the 360 and PGR4 to bed and stick with DC a bit.

 

Just don't know how annoying all the server down messages will be?!

[FiveFootNinja]

It’s a wonderful game. I was thinking of it just earlier actually when there was lots of goings on in the Xbox thread about Forza. I didn’t want to get into a tit for tat about it there, I actually quite like Forza, but Driveclub is the racer of this gen for me.
 

It’s a real shame Sony didn’t support it (and Rushy’s team) like they should have, but I’m so glad it was made. I’ll never forget going to the press launch/preview event and playing (read: winning) the team challenge with the Rllmuk lads, seeing the reveal of the full weather mode, and being involved with the awesome league on here. Great memories of a fabulous game. 
 

 

[Mike1812]

They really should have made a sequel, it would have been a gamble for Sony but I think it would have paid off. There's nothing else like it. 

 

I want to play it again but it's a pain in the arse downloading every add on individually. 

[dumpster]

Just release a patch to remove the "server unavailable" messages - it's still the best racer on the PS4.

[amc]

Oh that's good. Was playing just the other day and that red message was doing my head in at the start. 

 

And yeah I love my racing games. Play a ton of both GT Sport and the Forzas and whilst they are great and have their place they don't compare with Driveclub for shear racing thrills. It balances both feelings of being in control and "oh shit I'm about to lose it on this corner" perfectly. I think the difficulty is great as well, fairly tough. Fed up of winning AI races pretty easily in the above mentioned competitors, pushing up their difficulty doesn't really equate to better AI or a tougher challenge, they just seem to follow their path quicker. Driveclub feels like your racing a bastard fast speed demon (sometimes called Rushy) which ramps up the will to win. I always restart when I get beat, the feeling of winning an event that's been tough is brilliant, I get a nice dopamine hit every hard fought win. Something I rarely get in the other games.

 

It's by far the most exciting racer to play this gen, the best racer perhaps ever? No racer gets me pumped as much as Driveclub. Thunder, lightening and a XJ220. Incredible. Love the drift challenges too. 

 

Fucking criminal what happened to Evolution after delivering this. Yeah I know it was a bag of trouble to develop and launch but surely people who make decisions at Sony knew how brilliant a product and talented a team they had when all was said and done.

[SweatyTravolta]

Did they patch it post launch then? I remember giving it a go and it just felt absolutely awful to play, with some of the worst car handling around and then the VR mode was vomit inducing, which is odd because GT Sport has great VR support and I'm fine in PCars 2 and Assetto.

 

It is a shame that Sony love nothing more than to Ole Yeller their games though, especially when they have a fan base. I wonder if these days of live games and Ubi showing how to grow a game over years, if it would have been given a chance to become more than it was.

[SeanR]

Remember when we considered whether the “track streaming” would mean we couldn’t turn the car around, and drive the other way round the track?

 

Good times!

[Thor]

48 minutes ago, SweatyTravolta said:

GT Sport has great VR support

Have they patched in more functionality? Last time I played GT Sport in VR it was just you vs your ghost. No actual racing, and no online.

[spatular]

46 minutes ago, SweatyTravolta said:

Did they patch it post launch then? I remember giving it a go and it just felt absolutely awful to play, with some of the worst car handling around and then the VR mode was vomit inducing, which is odd because GT Sport has great VR support and I'm fine in PCars 2 and Assetto.

 

yes and no, there was patching but mainly for the online stuff which was broken at launch, the handling didn't change much. personally i thought the handling was great, it's like a new PGR though,  it wasn't a sim like the other games you mention.

[SweatyTravolta]

16 minutes ago, Thor said:

Have they patched in more functionality? Last time I played GT Sport in VR it was just you vs your ghost. No actual racing, and no online.

 

My quality level for racing VR games is "Does it make you puke?" If the answer is no, then it's great. I remember the feeling of driving the cars was fun in GT VR.

[Parappa]

So no 2 player of any kind on this anymore?

[dumpster]

Just to be clear my post said "just release a patch to remove the message". It was me telling them what to do. They have not patched it out and surely have no plans to.  

 

In response to other comments:

 

Driveclub was a wreck on launch, with weather , stable online play etc all added later. The patches came frequently and eventually (after a lot of messing about) the game became in my opinion the best arcadey sim racer on PS4. In an industry where the majority of sales come in the first few weeks I assume everyone had moved on to other things by the time this game was fixed, it was months after launch. 

 

The VR game was unfairly maligned IMO as it was a launch title on PSVR, and as such no-one has their VR sea legs.  Also, expectations seemed to be a carbon copy of the original in VR which we now know would never have been possible.  Revisiting it as a seasoned VR player , it's a great game, plays really well and has a lot to offer.

 

GT Sport IMO is a weird one. I see loads of comments about how great the VR mode is but it is really stripped down with only one other car on the track.  DCVRs best moments are when you are in the pack, jockeying for position.

[bumgut]

Mate we would be on driveclub 3 as a ps5 release game if the broken online didn’t  kill it with Sony.

 

 

[amc]

Don't remind me. I could cry thinking there will probably never be another Driveclub. I would give anything to see a Driveclub 2 on PS5. Insanely good graphics and a 60fps screen update, damn

[MattyP]

Just picked this up again. Just love the scenery and staggering amounts of detail in this. Driving around those moody Scottish roads etc is just fantastic.

 

Also found all my old DLC on PS account happy days...... Shame there was never a 60fps patch for the pro

[Dimahoo]

Its back....kinda...

 

[Minion]

Is this an official patch or something?