Driveclub developer Evolution has suffered a number of layoffs, Sony has confirmed to Eurogamer.
In this day and age, it’s rare we experience a warm fuzzy feeling when we boot up X (formerly known as Twitter, of course).
But the past few days have been lovely: our feed is full of people talking about DriveClub again.
The discussion started when someone posted a clip of the game and its infamous rain effects. The caption reads: “Still can’t believe this is a 12 year old game.”
This was one I was hoping would have some kind of boost from the PS5. The devs locked that sucker so tight...
I play the PSVR one even though it doesn't look as good, because that one is 60fps.
I interviewed them twice back in my gaming journalist days... Once at E3 2006 and again on a podcast about a year later. Really nice folks.
The guy we interviewed both times' name was Simon, I can't remember his last name, it was 20 years ago, but he was a really nice guy, and was very passionate about his job. It broke my heart when I saw Sony shuttered Evolution. I do hope they bring some of those folks back, but I remember another studio ended up hiring most of them back in those days, and they've been releasing new games since under that studio... Codemasters, maybe? I forgot which....
But the amount of talent that Sony has shut down over the years, it's disturbing. Psygnosis, Evolution, Zipper... just those three studios produced some of the most innovative games that PlayStation has ever seen... and those games need to be brought back.
If they were to release that game on the PlayStation 5, there would be absolutely no need for a remaster or a remake. The whole appeal of the original game was that it consistently exceeded people's expectations.
Higher rendering res and textures, higher framerate, maybe toss in some global illumination/ray tracing, but other than that, they could keep every polygon the same and it would still look absolutely incredible as a current gen title.
Sony should reassemble the team and make Driveclub 2. Driveclub was so ahead of its time it’s crazy.
This is what I hate about gamers sometimes
There is a segment of gaming communities that always want an old game to come back. But when the game(s) were in their prime, nobody supported them or not enough people supported them. Driveclub, Killzone, Resistance, etc all fit that profile.
I want Driveclub, Killzone, Resistence, and etc all back too. But I say that as someone that bought into, played, and own those games.
Too many people like to talk but not put up the money to support when it's needed. I even lump two of my own personal friends into that. I remember how one of them constantly said "I always wanted to play the Resistance games", yet never made an effort to buy any of them. No way that's an isolated event.
There are certainly games that fit that description, but I'm not sure these are a good fit:
- Driveclub infamously launched in a truly terrible state. It had a central focus on online & social features, and those were broken for about 6+ months before people could reliably play it as intended. It was so bad that the PS Plus Edition was delayed, along with its companion app. It also released less than a year after the PS4 launch, so it had to deal with a smaller total of launch PS4 owners to sell to, and Driveclub's rough launch certainly did it no favors.
- Resistance got 3 main console entries, and one handheld title for the PSP and PS Vita. Killzone got 5 main console entries across 3 generations, and one handheld title for PSP and PS Vita. This was also the era of millions of shooters, especially of the First Person variety, & genre fatigue was getting heavier by the year. So I feel these did pretty good at 5 and 7 titles respectively, pointing to enough people showing up for at least a while.
I'm not saying people don't exist who fit that criteria for these games, but I also don't think they were the primary issue. I think after a solid break from the IPs, as well as a lessening of shooter oversaturation, these titles could find healthy audiences if they came out with new entries at this point.
Killzone on the PS4 had the graphics, but the gameplay was tragic, I only rated Killzone 3, although the first game on the PS2 was decent. The Getaway was another game Sony canned, the sequel was so bad. Plenty of games need a sequel, the likes of Ridge Racer, Wipeout, Project Gotham, Wave Race and F-Zero have been retired. The racing genre these days, I'm sick of Turismo and Forza due to the same tracks and any other clones.
I think the original Motorstorm was the game that convinced me to buy a ps3. Way ahead of its time.
Surprised Sony didn't release a collectio, but all they seem to do these days is release God of War and Uncharted collections. It kills me that I no longer have a PS3, so a collection would be awesome.
PushSquare:
DriveClub, the legendary PS4 racer from shuttered Runcorn studio Evolution, has such an interesting story.
Originally announced alongside the PS4, the game had been intended as a launch title – we even played it in a big London church Sony had rented to showcase the new system prior to its release.
Evolution was done dirty... DC is still the most stunning visual game of its generation. They certainly deserved better in the end.
DriveClub was pretty and I loved the experience of driving in the rain, it was immersive. I had some good races with people from an old forum, but at times I found it to be a bit boring. MotorStorm was such a fun game to play and I loved the controls - it would make sense to remaster that.
I'd give the visual showcase award of the last generation to The Order: 1886. That game was immaculate.
Uncharted 4 was also absolutely insane, and perhaps manages to use the PS4's power in extremely clever ways.
Cause the game was mediocre at best, and surpassed in pretty much every area by Forza Horizon 2.
Apart from visuals, driving model, weather effects, only thing forza had was an open world...
It's multiplayer component was the only thing struggling at launch but the game was still perfectly playable offline. Done dirty is an understatement because how many games after came out with broken online components that got a pass? Now games with an SP and MP get separate reviews for SP and MP smh! SONY shut them down as if Evo had been bleeding money instead of putting out great games. Their fate was undeserved and they were the targets of a media smear campaign due to that one trailer.
Loved it.
Now here's a game that would benefit from a remaster.
4K, 60 FPS
I'd buy it.
See? Another reason why physical is important. Going all digital will have you miss out games like this.
Brilliant game, I really miss it, and it deserved so much better than what Sony did to it.
Most important reason I liked it; It was FUN. That’s it. The actual gameplay,throwing a car around corners, the challenging AI opponents, the entertaining tracks which were peak-design, etc etc, it was above all just FUN to play.
Digital Foundry : Whether it's via FPS Boost or bespoke software upgrades, backwards compatibility on the current-gen consoles delivered an unexpected delight - the ability to liberate older console games from their 30fps limits, running them at 60 frames per second or even higher. FPS Boost did the business for Xbox Series consoles on an impressive range of titles, but there was always the sense that PS5 could do more. It's a hunch that checks out as a range of frame-rate unlocks are available for PS5, covering many must-have games - the major caveat being that only exploitable consoles running on older firmwares are invited to the party.
you love to see new life being breathed into older titles but damn the process to get there. It should be automatic that these work for everyone... not just those who exploit their systems. Really wish Sony and MS would keep this program going officially.
Damn this sucks. I want this shit so bad, but I’m not jailbreaking my console. And frankly I shouldn’t have to. I’m not a tech person, but is it really that hard for developers to unlock the framerate? Or would that have to be a large patch?
"but is it really that hard for developers to unlock the framerate?"
I guess it's not.
But it has become a profitable business if you do so.
So no one would pay for only the framerate patched to being unlocked. So studios need to offer more than that.
But this would take more time, polishing and would cost more money. So they shy away, but won't unlock the framerate, either.
That's just my personal assumption. But from what I can comprehend technically, it shouldn't be difficult to unlock framerates via a patch for older games.
... if it hadn't became a business.
frame-rate unlock should be free ...
We've seen many devs offer free patches and updates to pretty old PC titles, even bonuses ... so why can't devs offer the frame unlock patch for free (in consultation with the platform-producers) for a title from just a generation earlier?
RaidenBlack
"frame-rate unlock should be free ..."
Obviously the result of that thinking is that developers aren't even going to do it.
If they had been allowed to charge $5-10 you would see incentivized developers doing it way more often.
People just always want everything for free, but it's not free to make the patch, people have to code it then other people have to test it, and there will always be other costs involved.
If people want dollar store gaming then expect to get what you pay for.
Raiden I might be wrong but last I thought it cost money to put patches out on consoles.
As far as me paying for it, I'm not all that interested tbh. Not enough to pay for it with older games, and newer games have been pretty decent about it for the most part.
Sounds like the modder has to go in to make changes to unlock it on a game by game basis. "Simple" enough to do it unofficially, but to have it done officially, they need someone to go in a make that change, put out a patch and put it through certification, which I believe is not necessarily a cheap thing to do. It's questionable if going through this would then give them enough sales to make it worthwhile.
If Microsoft boosted several hundred 360/XB1 to 60 FPS without patching the games I'm sure the modder and therefore also Sony could do the same.
But PlayStation gamers aren't really worthy of receiving those kind of free updates according to Sony and the community. You guys enjoy paying for really easy things like a FPS boost and kneeling down to lick the boots.
Many games still have physics tied to framerate, i think it's cause they wouldn't want to go in and do anything extra. Then there's the 10 dollar upgrades they rather charge. The problem is that there's no compromise, cause if I could mod my PS4 and all I'd lose is online play then id jailbreak it immediately. Mods have done so much for PC games and they could do the same for consoles, but manufacturers hafto be willing to compromise.
It's not to hard to do and there's youtube videos that break it down really well. ANyway most of us here arent able to break are console anyway due to being up to date on firmware from playing
Yep, this sucks having to require a jailbreak for something that should be standard in our industry by now. I learned my lesson when PS4 was jailbroken and I didn't keep a console on low firmware for years, but now I'm holding onto two low firmware PS5s specifically because there are features I'll be able to do that you can't do on official firmware, so this will pay off for me soon enough.
Sad that this is still apart of this industry business.
Lets hope that the ones laid off can find something soon.
@Christopher
Sh** rolls down hill, I wouldn't be surprised if all the management were unaffected by the layoffs.
And, let me guess, none of them the managers involved in the poor delivery of the game?
I seriously hope the folks in charge of managing the game aren't given any favors over the developers who worked their butts off to meet the demands of the managers.
Thanks for the best racing game ever anyway. Level 50 and still enjoying it.
Always a hard time when you lose a job and have to find ways to supporting your family.
I hope anyone who lost their job find another work as soon as possible.
Nature of the business this days it hard to find work.