‘Driveclub’ PlayStation Plus Edition Is Now Free For Download; Sony Explains Delay

PS4 DriveClub — After two delays, "Driveclub" is finally here. Sony/Evolution Studios

After a couple of delays, “Driveclub” PlayStation Plus edition has finally been released and is ready for download for PlayStation Plus members. Players can now enjoy the offline mode immediately after download.

Online access also will be rolled out for the PS Plus edition, though the goal is to steadily allow players online so that the system will not experience crashes. According to the developer, even with the PS Plus edition now released, the team still wants to avoid taxing the servers.

“We have to take this precaution because ‘Driveclub’ connectivity is demanding for a multiplayer game, with countless ever-growing social connections across clubs, challenges, multiplayer and hundreds of thousands of dynamic leaderboards and activity feeds,” said Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida in a post at PlayStation Blog.

The official announcement follows the accidental premature release in which the “Driveclub” PS Plus Edition was spotted on the PlayStation Store before it was ready. It was recalled because the servers were not yet ready for release.

“Driveclub” has been delayed for online issues since October. Sony has spoken about the delay and the causes. In a previous interview with IGN, PlayStation U.K.’s Fergal Gara apologized for the delay, stating the company's embarrassment about not delivering on time. But he said Sony did not want to deliver a game that was not fully ready.

Gara reiterated that the team wanted to be confident in releasing the “Driveclub” PlayStation Plus to its millions of subscribers with minimal hiccups. Server problems have been dominant cause of delays.

Coming on the heels of the “Driveclub” PlayStation Plus Edition will be the RPM Expansion Pack. The developer has been teasing a lot of new cars at the official “Driveclub” Facebook page. Some of the cars included in the pack are the 2015 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the Dodge Challenger SRT8, the Nissan MY15 GT-R, the McLaren 570S and the Nissan 370Z Nismo.

The “Driveclub” RPM Expansion Pack will introduce those five cars, 11 events and five additional PlayStation Trophies. It will be released on Tuesday.