Sony posted an announcement on the PlayStation website back in March, stating that Driveclub, Driveclub Bikes and Driveclub VR will be removed from PSN on 31 August, 2019. Servers will be permanently powered down on March 31, 2020. 

However, as Eurogamer (opens in new tab) reports, despite still touting that date as the official delisting deadline on the official PlayStation website (opens in new tab), the game – and all its accompanying DLC – are currently unavailable, dashing the hopes of those hoping to have picked up a last-minute bargain.

“A lot of people were waiting for the final sale as it’s very common in such cases (DuckTales Remastered, Forza Horizon 6, etc.) but now they can’t buy anything,” one unhappy customer emailed to tell Eurogamer. “I’m a big fan of PlayStation but I suppose that Sony crossed all the borders in this case. People must know that it can happen to any game published by Sony.”

“I JUST bought Driveclub physically and they removed all the dlc yesterday,” complained a player on Twitter (opens in new tab), whilst another added (opens in new tab): “Driveclub is not available on the UK PSN store anymore. I actually wanted to buy it today. The official close down date was the 31st Aug. Any info?”

As yet, there’s no formal word from Sony on why the game was delisted prematurely, and PlayStation has yet to respond to queries from fans on social media. 

Driveclub first hit the skids back when it was released in 2014, and was one of the earlier PS4 exclusives to be released when the PS4 launched back in 2013. Its debut wasn’t without its issues, however, and as we said back in 2016, “the vanilla edition was a fast, decently pretty racer with disappointing crashes, a plodding career structure and a sort of middle-ground identity that was neither fully convincing as an arcade racer or a simulation. What a shame”.

Wondering what else is heading to PlayStation 4? Here’s our pick of the most interesting upcoming PS4 games.

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Sony never explicitly said Driveclub PS Plus Edition would be available on PS4 forever. But I’m still surprised it’s going away so soon. It took eight months for Sony and Evolution to get the PS Plus Edition semi-online (opens in new tab) after Driveclub launched in October 2014 – not to mention how both versions were originally supposed to arrive in PS4’s launch window – and now the power windows are closing on Driveclub PS Plus Edition in less than half that time.

Shuhei Yoshida, president of worldwide studios at Sony Computer Entertainment, told Eurogamer (opens in new tab) that he was happy with how Evolution Studios kept working on Driveclub after its difficult launch, which was plagued by extended connection issues. But he doesn’t seem optimistic about keeping the brand’s engine running.

“The driving genre’s a very difficult market right now,” Yoshida said. “The team, we need to find a great angle for the racing to continue, to come up with a new racing game, if we’re to look at another racing title. Creative ideas come when things are tough, so that lightbulb moment, I’m looking forward to.”

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@undeadrocker666 We’re in the final stages of development now.June 10, 2015

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Driveclub was originally released back in October and has had a bumpy ride not just with the lack of the PS Plus version but with launch issues blighting the release overall. The fact that Evolution is still working on the titles is definitely promising news.

Evolution has also been teasing a partnership with Velocity 2X (opens in new tab) developers Futurlab to create a Velocity Tour Pack. While I’d like to say this will include Lt Kai Tana’s teleporting ship, this might make things significantly more difficult for other players so some vinyl art for vehicles sounds slightly more likely.

We’re making stunning art with @FuturLab for the next #DRIVECLUB Tour Pack! Here’s a little preview for you pic.twitter.com/zRuLBCy2Z3June 10, 2015

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Time makes a fool of us all, of course, but most people are at least spared the indignity of having italicised their naivety. The game went live, and the public servers which had worked so well for me prior to launch fell over spectacularly, apparently unable to deal with the volume of active users. Many couldn’t log in at all, and those who did were routinely kicked out mid-session. The touted PS Plus edition is still yet to materialise.

This wasn’t a launch day, or even a launch week, problem. Servers continued to backfire for long enough after launch that many – justifiably – gave up on the game entirely, and Mr. It Works here was left looking like a madman honking nonsense at strangers in the supermarket with one hand down his tracksuit bottoms. However: that was back in October 2014, which is actually a really long time ago now. Long enough that while we’ve all been going about our lives, not thinking about Driveclub, Evolution Studios quietly transformed its racer into something not just functional, but even better than the promised product.

The list of additions it’s enjoyed since October goes way beyond achieving server stability (which is admittedly crucial). Japan, an entirely new location full of pastel shaded foliage and dramatic views of Mount Fuji, made its way into Driveclub in January, free of charge. Before that, impressive dynamic weather effects were rolled out without much fanfare, likewise Photo Mode. Shortly after release, both the Ignition and Photo Finish DLC packs – previously penned in as a paid content drop – were released for free by means of apology, adding five new cars, 22 new events, new livery options and trophies.

Fearing a backlash from season pass owners seeing their paid content released for free, Evolution extended the season pass content to include even more cars and events – it’s still going on actually, and won’t be finished until July. As if to perfectly illustrate my point, there’s a Lamborghini expansion out today in North America, March 25th in Europe, adding four Lambos to an already teeming car list.

On the same day, update 1.12 goes live (for free) and adds replay functionality and a level 50 reward car, among other nips, tucks, and trinkets. Evolution’s failure to get its game up and running at launch is inarguable, but the British studio has done anything but run and hide from the resulting disaster. In fact, it’s done the opposite: it’s made the game better than the 9/10 experience I played. It deserves a second chance.

Not just so that my initial review reads less like the lunatic scribblings of someone who found a Ritz cracker on the floor and proclaimed it to be an uncut diamond dropped by the gods themselves. Although – sure – saving face is a factor. But mainly because we’re all sitting here missing out on a genuinely great racing game on PS4 because debacles like Driveclub’s launch tend to seal a title’s fate forevermore. This isn’t an industry that forgives slip-ups, because generally the market’s fertile enough that we can find a replacement for our unfulfilled fix instantaneously. As any driving game aficionado will tell you, that couldn’t be further from the case right now on PS4. Project CARS will probably fill the void when it arrives in May, but all the while poor old Driveclub’s sitting there, all reinvigorated and excellent… in exile.

Earlier this week the news broke that Evolution’s laying off roughly half its staff. That’s upsetting news to hear about any studio, but it strikes a particular chord with me in Driveclub’s case because I think it’s handled the post-launch fiasco brilliantly, and even though it took much longer than expected, did eventually deliver a truly wonderful driving game.

The exception to that statement comes with the continued absence of its promised PS Plus Edition. The team has recently confirmed that it is still in the pipeline, but its continued nonattendance only furthers the damage to Drivelub’s reputation and stifles its potential online community. Perhaps people will come crawling back to the game once the PS Plus Edition drops, perhaps they won’t. I can understand why you’d want to wait for it on principle, but if you were to take the financial plunge on the game as it is today I think you’d be genuinely surprised.

Driveclub’s legacy is a many-tentacled beast: it made us here at OPM re-evaluate our approach to reviewing online-dependent games pre-release. It’s no doubt given terrible nightmares to developers the world over, and redoubled the industry’s efforts to stress-test game servers before the public swarm them. But the one aspect in which it’s perhaps overlooked is as a pioneering, utterly beautiful racing game – and diving back into it now can rectify that injustice.

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