The downfall of DRIVECLUB is an interesting story. What was once set up to be a premiere PS4 launch title is now facing permanent deletion from the PlayStation Store. While the game itself isn’t bad, and the critical reception wasn’t anything to brag about, DRIVECLUB never seemed to be in a good place. In the video below I go into what happened to DRIVECLUB - why this game went from prestige to deletion, and why its still worth playing years after the games troubling release.

DRIVECLUB would eventually get its first delay into the spring of 2014 weeks before the launch of the console due to the team needing “more time in order to deliver on their vision." It would eventually be revealed later on that this delay was due in part to the game's live menus needing more time to fix as well as a general improvement to the online team system and visuals. While a delay at launch is a critical letdown for eager fans, even more so when that title was set to be the first “free” offering from Sony's PlayStation Plus service, the game's second delay would hurt its reputation among gamers even more.

By the spring of 2014 there still had been no word of a definite release date for the ambitious racer until an IGN interview with the game's director Paul Rustchynsky, where he alluded to a further delay that was later confirmed by Sony to give the game more time to get its dynamic online systems right. The reasons for this second delay were expanded on by Rustchynsky in a blog post on the Official Playstation Blog.

When DRIVECLUB did finally release, the game was plagued with server issues and general disinterest from fans and critics alike. While its review scores weren’t bad, it didn’t meet expectations fueled by a decent marketing campaign and a little under a year of delays and failed to launch alongside its PlayStation Plus version. The following day after its release in a rare break from PR speak, Evolution studios posted a lengthy apology on their facebook page as well as a temporary offline solution for gamers.

DRIVECLUB was not in a good place at launch, and while the game would eventually get patched into a playable state, its PlayStation Plus version wouldn’t see the light of day until the summer of 2015. Soon after Sony and Evolution Studios would try to re-ignite the buzz around DRIVECLUB by expanding the game to Bikes and eventually a decent VR port for the PlayStation VR. Unfortunately this just simply wasn’t enough and the games developer Evolution Studios would be shutdown before Sony announced that they would be removing the entire game and its DLC from the PlayStation store before its servers would be permanently closed.

Despite all its faults and problems around launch, the game itself is still worth checking out. Whether you’re into sim like racing games such as Gran Turismo and Project Cars, or you’re looking for something more lighthearted like Forza Horizon. DRIVECLUB has something for everyone, and with the games current new price at about $19 its not a difficult sell. Just make sure to download all its free DLC before the game gets de-listed.

How fast do you wanna go?

What do you think about DRIVECLUB shutting down? Did you ever give the game a chance? Will you play it before Sony closes its servers down forever? Let us know is the comments below!