Layden defends Evolution’s Driveclub, says you can’t test for real-world server strain

The president of Sony Computer Entertainment America has spoken out in defence of UK studio Evolution and its struggles with PS4 racer Driveclub.

The game – which was once a PS4 launch title – has been out for six weeks but is still not at full functionality, and the long-awaited PS+ Edition remains in limbo.

"In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility,” Shawn Layden told IGN. We have a QA 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.

"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."

Layden also defended the studio’s track record, arguing that titles such as MotorStorm has "done innovations in the racing genre that even Gran Turismo creator] Kazunori Yamauchi hasn’t replicated yet”, adding that their ambition with Driveclub was to create this uber-connected experience, melded with the driving experience".