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PlayStation Europe boss Jim Ryan doesn’t believe that DriveClub’s troubled launch damaged Sony’s reputation and that fans “understand that mistakes [happen] as long as you apologise and make them right”.
“We have to acknowledge that there have been problems and we’re really sorry to anyone who has suffered from those issues. They shouldn’t happen,” Ryan told MCV, speaking about the technical issues faced by DriveClub and SingStar at each game’s launch. “But in a world that’s becoming more and more technically complicated, it’s getting harder to deliver stuff. That’s not an excuse, because you shouldn’t really launch a game before it’s ready. And clearly we’ve made mistakes and we apologise for that.
“Has it dampened our momentum? No. Has it damaged our reputation? I don’t think so. People understand that mistakes do get made so as long as you apologise and make them right. That’s the main thing.”
DriveClub’s online functionality crumbled at launch, forcing Evolution to disable certain online components and delay the launch of the PS Plus Edition.
Challenges, one of the game’s core elements, were only re-activated yesterday.
“When you spend £50/£60 on a game you’re entitled to expect that it works,” Ryan continued. “If we or anyone else in the industry makes mistakes you should fess up to it and then put it right as soon as possible.”
Ryan’s comments follow those from PlayStation America boss Shawn Layden last month who admitted that it wasn’t possible to “effectively test” DriveClub prior to release.
“In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility,” he said. “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.
“And 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.”
Sony offered DriveClub’s November DLC for free as compensation for the game’s launch issues.
Source: MCV Issue 816
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