We all know the story by now. Driveclub , a PS4-exclusive racer from Sony-owned Evolution Studios, was introduced at the PS4 reveal in February of 2013, was supposed to be a launch title , and then was delayed for nearly a year . Now that the game is out, players have encountered lots of issues with it , specifically when it comes to online connectivity , souring much of the PlayStation 4's audience on what Evolution was trying to do with its ambitious, socially-connected racer.

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“ I prefer people to have the ambition to try that, though. It's no fun being safe all the time.

In a conversation with IGN, Sony Computer Entertainment America's President and CEO Shawn Layden candidly discussed Driveclub, noting that some of its issues simply weren't anticipated through the course of its tortured development.Discussing Evolution's previous racers, like WRC Rally and Motorstorm, Layden noted that the studio has "done innovations in the racing genre that even my good friend Kazunori [Yamauchi, Founder and President of Sony-owned Polyphony Digital] hasn't replicated yet in [Gran Turismo], about deformation of the environment, of the cars, of that type of thing. Their ambition with Driveclub was to create this uber-connected experience, melded with the driving experience..."He went on. "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."UK-based Evolution Studios was founded in 1999 as an independent developer. However, having made nothing but PlayStation games, and with their WRC series being a staple on PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, Sony purchased them outright in 2007, following the successful release of their PS3-exclusive launch window game, MotorStorm.Driveclub is Evolution's tenth game, and the first to be developed outside of the WRC and MotorStorm series. We liked the game , though we reviewed it in a more stable environment before server load and other issues began unraveling the experience.

Colin Moriarty is IGN’s Senior Editor. You can follow him on Twitter.