Seriously, Sony? #PatchDriveclub
I love Driveclub.
Crazy, I know. The “simcade” racer for Playstation 4 had a rough development cycle and an equally rough launch that was mired in middling reviews and server woes. Evolution Studios (Evo) did a great job at righting the ship and Driveclub’s post-launch support was incredible—their season pass may be one of the best ever, across any genre. The turnaround and modest sales success didn’t save Evo from getting the axe—the team was quickly scooped up by Codemasters, yay!—but then August rolled around and Sony announced Driveclub VR. More surprisingly, Driveclub VR wasn’t an upgrade to the old Driveclub, it was a completely new game with five new urban environments (something fans had been clamoring for) and a “Passenger” mode. But wait, Evolution Studios is dead, so who made this? Well, Evolution Studios did.
This was truly fantastic news. We were getting new locations, new tracks, and the same fantastic racing experience in VR. Even sweeter than that, Rushy also confirmed that the new tracks would be coming to vanilla Driveclub (for free) and that season pass owners would receive a discount on the digital version of Driveclub VR! This was the stuff of dreams. EVO LIVES!
VIVA LA DRIVECLUB!!!
The PS4 Pro (then codenamed Neo) had been all but formally announced, so players begun wondering if Driveclub would be patched to make use of the additional horsepower. There was a completely new game coming, so a patch didn’t seem like a radical idea. Quick! Someone go ask Rushy! Well, it looks like our luck has run out. Driveclub will not be receiving a PS4 Pro patch and neither will Driveclub VR.
Now it’s understandable for the original game to not get a patch. Driveclub didn’t exactly set the NPD charts on fire, so justifying the cost is hard. Sony is building the case for Playstation VR and having a beautiful racing game on store shelves (we all knew damn well it wasn’t going to be Gran Turismo Sport) helps them tremendously. But why isn’t the VR version getting a patch? It’s not like Evo (or whatever’s left of them at Codemasters) isn’t willing.
If the language on the leaked PS4 Pro documents is still valid, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, games launching in October must have PS4 Pro support. Does this mandate stand for everyone except Sony? Besides, have you seen that list of PS4 Pro supported titles? The system needs all the support it can get!
Say what you want about Driveclub, it’s still the best looking racing game on the market, imagine what Evo could do with a little more horsepower. A 60 frames per second update seems out of the cards—Digital Foundry’s Uncharted 4 60FPS test video is the stuff of dreams—but I’m sure anti-aliasing, LOD (level of detail) streaming, and reflections could be improved, alongside the inclusion of HDR support. It’s a shame that Sony seems unwilling to ask. This decision isn’t going to make or break the PS4 Pro or Playstation VR, for that matter, but it would make some of their die hard fans, the same fans passionate enough to buy a PS4 Pro on launch day, happy. And after the last few weeks, Sony could use a little good PR.
