460°

Sony’s excuse for DriveClub’s lack of testing is lame and arrogant

DriveClub's launch was awful and Sony's excuse is even worse.

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ps4daily.com
Dramacydal3432d ago (Edited 3432d ago )

"Layden said that “you can’t effectively test” a game like DriveClub, which is a ridiculous claim. All you need is a proper open beta to adequately test the back-end server infrastructure. For example, Destiny had an open beta which had over 4 million participants."

So...Destiny, the game that threw insect labeled error codes at launch? The game that was unplayable for some due to the net code issues? Great example. Hahaha! Throw The Crew in there too!

IGiveHugs2NakedWomen3432d ago

This story is two weeks old.

http://ps4daily.com/2014/11...

“In the development cycle, we try to do all things. In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility. 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 are struggling with that. It’s throwing up things they had not anticipated.”

Whoever wrote this cherry picked from Layden's original statement in an attempt to create a silly flamebait article.

DriveClub servers are up and running and the free PS Plus Demo version still isn't out. Get over it.

jebabcock3432d ago

He is right... you can gripe all you want.. but it's hard to account for all the points of failure in a massively asynchronous environment. When you argue against his points you only prove how little you know of software development...That's why so many games have these same issues. Network games are very challenging when you go outside the normal templates and attempt to do something new.

elninels3432d ago

Sounds like you are trying to provide justification for game that shipped extremely broken.

And you would like us to get over a feature for a service not being available over month after it was supposed to be available.

We as consumers should not "get over it".

Sony has money. Sony has time. Sony has better IPs than driveclub.

Sounds like a poorly developed game that we won't even get the promised plus version of in 2014(originally planned for 2013).

Many complaints in the gaming industry are illegitimate. This complaint is very very legitimate.

ShinMaster3431d ago (Edited 3431d ago )

Most Beta tests lately are just demos anyway.

u4one3431d ago (Edited 3431d ago )

I love how people on here throw ms under the bus for any little thing but will twist and distort something as flubbed as driveclub into something only minimally inconveniencing or deflect onto some other title that was also broken as if to justify a horrible experience. That launch was a freaking train wreck even after a year long delay and the apologists should just accept that sony doesn't nail it 110% of the time. No one does. Just like the MCC launch was a train wreck too. i like my xb1 and my ps4 but i won't defend either one of them passing off a polished turd as gold. Do any search for driveclub on the web and about 80% of the results will confirm how awful it was to some degree or another. I have friends that worked on that game and even they know. They knew before it launched.

andibandit3431d ago Show
Jdoki3431d ago

Rubbish...

DriveClub on Day 1 was far too broken to sweep it under the carpet of 'hard to account for all possibilities'.

1. They could have called the PS+ version a Beta, and got data that way

2. They could have released a limited open beta

They didn't. They did a small internal beta test. And they probably ran synthetic tests.

Even Bungie, who did their massive beta test for Destiny still had a few Day 1 problems with login queues. These days if a dev wants to release an ambitious online game - they need more than a behind closed doors beta run through their QA dept.

The debacle with this game has made me wait until the PS+ version launched so I can gauge the quality for myself.

r1sh123431d ago

@IGiveHugs2NakedWomen

Whilst I understand every possibility cannot be tested, there are many tools to automate a lot of tests..(The dev team use them in my job)
And a beta will test the immediate back end infrastructure due to the number of requests etc..

An open beta might have provided enough capacity to show some of the bugs, not all.

You cannot justify a broken game on day 1, when many games have betas and launch significantly better.
GTA V had no online for the first month (And probably still doesnt have hesits), but when they launched online it did work.
Destiny launched well.

XanderZane3431d ago

They should have had an open beta for the game and then they would have found all the issues well in advance. Same thing could be said for Halo: MCC as well, even though their issue was mostly with the code and not really the servers. Still, Driveclub was a complete disaster and what's worse, we never got the PS+ version to try, even with just the single play modes. Completely sucks.

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 3431d ago
radler3432d ago

b-b-but Destiny!!

Right, because other games having problems totally justifies DriveClub being a broken mess.

Dramacydal3432d ago

The point . You missed it. I bet you hear that a lot.

radler3432d ago

Haha. Someone's upset that they're being called out for their fanboy drivel, huh? :)

esemce3432d ago

Yes there really is no excuse for this kind of shit both Sony and Microsoft should feel ashamed that they took peoples money for driveclub and Halo and release unfinished broken games.

They both should of had open betas, these are first party flagship titles ffs not some 3 man indie deved first release.

Anyone defending broken releases should be bummedinthegob.

Mega243432d ago

Wow, it went over your head...

His point is the article bashing on Driveclub not having an open beta to fix its issues before release, while comparing it to Destiny's open beta which had 4 million participants, which after release, the game had connection issues and NAT compatibility segregating the player base a lot, for a couple of weeks.

Which was the point of Dramacydal the point which went right over your head, because of your fanboy point of view.

freshslicepizza3432d ago (Edited 3432d ago )

destiny's online issues are nothing even remotely close to driveclub's mess and i imagine destiny has and will continue to have more players online. even if we just compare ps4 numbers.

Alsybub3431d ago (Edited 3431d ago )

@Mega24 & @Dramacydal

I think the point is that even when you have a massive open beta you still can have issues, at least Destiny's issues were to a lesser degree which is probably due to them actually having the beta. Driveclub didn't have a beta at all and look at how much more of a mess that game is.

Get it?

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 3431d ago
GUTZnPAPERCUTZ3432d ago ShowReplies(4)
3-4-53432d ago Show
showtimefolks3431d ago (Edited 3431d ago )

Yeh great job picking part of what he said and try to bash Sony, bottom line is servers are back up for majority. Free psn edition should be out there is no excuse for Sony. We should blame a company when it's needed. Also real journalists gives the whole interview not cherry pick what he or she likes to mend their own agenda

Some of the biggest game in next gen have struggle with server issues and games even struggle when they are single player games like AC:unity

BF4 struggled for months man
Halo MCC still struggling
Destiny at launch had issues
GTA5 at launch and heists still missing
Now drive club

Get use to having games not launch smoothly because it's true next gen, release a game have the paying consumers tell you what the problem is than fix it and say sorry while charging for season pass

That's why it's better to wait at least 3-4 weeks and let the game be fixed. Because none of the gaming sites have the guts to call out a major release in fear of damaging their relationship with the publisher

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 3431d ago
AngelicIceDiamond3432d ago

I dunno if Shawn Layden knows how games work.

3432d ago Replies(3)
Gority3432d ago

I don't think you know how the infrastructure behind games works. To be fair, most of us don't but most also pretend to know. Have you ever deployed software to a mass group before? Now, I don't have any experience with PSN/XBL infrastructure or an infrastructure like DriveClub, but you are ALWAYS going to run into some issues when you deploy to so many end users based on a smaller sample, even if say you tested with 500,000 users and production was 1M, you could still run into unforeseen problems. Would it have helped to do an open beta? Sure. Did the studio behind Driveclub test inadequately? Apparently so.

But, with that said, it's not an easy task and I wish people would stop thinking the problem is always as simple as "You didn't do enough prep." or you "You rushed the product."

Disclaimer: I have not played and do not intend to play DriveClub so I have no bias for/against the title.

uth113432d ago

I work at a software company, and I agree with what Layden says. You can do all the careful planning in the world for a release, QA everything that think can go wrong, and then when we put the software out there it might break in a way that was completely unexpected, which will leave us scrambling for a fix. And our software isn't as complex as modern games, and only has a fraction of the users.

It's not easy- QA must test and retest the same things as the code is being developed, looking for regressions. It's nearly impossible to test every scenario that can happen in a game, let alone retest them all frequently as the code develops. QA has to develop test plans that everyone thinks will cover the important things. This means it's possible and not uncommon to have test plans that miss important things.

In the case of DC, it sounds to me like the net code they wrote doesn't scale. That means they can't simply throw more hardware at the problem because it's bottlenecked. They must rewrite it to get rid of the bottlenecks. Not a quick or easy task.

I know these sound like excuses to the general public. But it's the way it is. All these games are shipping broken for a reason.

Gority3432d ago

I don't think people will ever be able to relate. I understand people expecting games to work since they pay $60 for the game... But it's like buying a MS OS RTM and expecting everything to work flawlessly. Buyer beware.

donthate3432d ago

uth11:

I work with software development as well and I can tell you that yes, odd things do happen, but there is a level of comfort and trust you have in your code. It isn't completely unknown.

It isn't as if they were employing some crazy @ss new game. In comparison, there are games that essentially releases to 10x the amount of players with far less nascent issues.

There are also issues of:

* just coming clean about not doing a good enough job
* poor communication
* slow fixes

On top of all this, Sony continues to sell DriveClub at discounts to pad their sales, and witholding the promised free PS+ edition I have been waiting for. Even if they release it now, I would have already been over it.

I was somewhat upset with Halo:MCC, but at least that game worked. It just had slow matchmaking after the first day. MS continually fixed it, had clear communication fixes where being done, and accepted fault for it.

Outthink_The_Room3432d ago (Edited 3432d ago )

@uth

That's totally wrong on almost every level.

The fact is, had they done an open beta, the "1 in, 1 out" infrastructure issue would have been noticed.

What we've been told is that it's far deeper than simple scale of server issues. They said it's rooted inside the codebase forcing players in and out in a single file line.

Again, that is something they WOULD have caught if they did a proper beta.

Secondly, weeks ago, they said they were deploying new servers. The problem is, they've stated from the beginning it wasn't a server load issue, it was the codebase itself.

So the problem is, it can't be both. Like you said, the way it was explained is that it's not a scalable issue you can brute force through.

But if that wasn't the problem, then why would they need to deploy more servers? It's a broken problem in most likely more than one specific aspect. Obviously it's a codebase problem itself, but until that is fixed, nobody knows what other problems may occur as well, once it's fixed.

Fixing one problem does not immediately make it become less vulnerable to others. 2 months after launch and we're still unsure of all the fixes and when they're coming.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 3432d ago
Crazyglues3432d ago (Edited 3432d ago )

“you can’t effectively test” a game like DriveClub" - President and CEO Shawn Layden

Ok so that's a pretty lame excuse, but ok, let's say that's true.... What's the reason why even a Month later it still doesn't work???

Why is the game still broke right now? “Challenges” still don't work.. :(

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xx4xx3432d ago

Completely agree.

You can't test a game like this..so just release it to the public and hope for the best? That's not a good strategy.

Intentions3432d ago

Not to mention they had an extra year to test/polish the game.

Summons753432d ago

Yeah, they delayed because it wasn't finished and needed extra time to finish and test and it still came out broken. Probably needed an extra year but at that point nobody would have interest in the delayed launch game since Gran Turismo is said to be on schedule to release next year.

Ripsta7th3432d ago

So why havent we seen the PS+ version yet??

Khronikos3432d ago

Because they are completely redoing half of their server code? They have pretty much confirmed this via tweets and facebook. I have no idea how you could have missed it.

MasterCornholio3432d ago

In my opinion they should polish it up and release as a free title for plus. That would be a good compensation for not sticking to their promise in my opinion

WitWolfy3431d ago

WTF does a server code have anything to do with the PS+ version??

I think its a BS trick they tried hoping some people couldnt wait for the PS+ version, then went and bought it retail.

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150°

Sony Patents To Prevent You From In-Game Harassment By Reading Your Emotions

A new patent recently published by Sony wants to gather biometric data of gamers to track whether one is being harassed using AI tools.

Profchaos1d 13h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

I hope this is one of those patents that never comes to fruition.

I already dislike the fact you can pay a significant amount for a online service buy associated games and content on said service and get banned from that service over potentially a misunderstanding the bans are already handed out for flimsy reasons

I'd rather see money invested in a ban that simply removes the offensive players ability to communicate with unknown players allow them to continue party chats with friends but not with Joe blow on cod.

exputers1d 9h ago

Agreed. Blizzard recently banned a college Overwatch 2 player who's dependent for saying "shit." Pretty harsh.

Profchaos18h ago(Edited 18h ago)

How rediculas really. You can't say a word that's allowed in most PG films and prime time TV but the game is based around killing the enemy team using guns, explosives etc.

It's just backwards.

just_looken20h ago

What your talking about is called block list

In 2006 a spaceship dropped of the playstation 3/xbox 360 i say that that generation was the last great gen with game functions/tech that has yet to comeback

Anyhow the playstation 3 if you block listed a id they could not talk to you in chatroom with either text or voice. But that was pre mind fucked 2018 when people were more human than sheep.

But hey gta 6 is coming out billion dollar budget without a single player custom character creator and without singeplayer coop off/online something saints row 1-3 had on the xbox 360.

z2g1d 5h ago

Take my social security and bank account numbers too! Here’s a picture of my wife and our address.

phoenixwing1d 5h ago

Cmon where's the pictures of your children. Don't hold out on them.

H91d 5h ago

At this rate I feel Sony will eventually sell a room to play games in it where they can monitor your every breath

jambola1d 1h ago

I genuinely get a bit worried sometimes when a friend says something that could be offensive In a party
Because I have no trouble believing some bans would happen when in a private party for saying something wrong

SegaSaturn6691d 4h ago

I want them to censor erotic content by measuring my groin temperature so i dont get too distracted while playing black ops 2.

Popsicle1d 4h ago

Terrible idea. Not only do I not consent to providing my biometric data, the potential for mishandling biometric data is almost a certainty. Positive stress and negative stress can produce similar changes in biometrics. Interpreting the precise emotion a person is feeling is not only invasive but could be easily misconstrued. I hope this never comes to fruition.

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130°

Sony Could Increase Your Game's Difficulty If It Sees You Complain About It

Sony has recently published a new patent that wants to dynamically handle the games' difficulty and gameplay based on the player's emotions.

jznrpg1d 21h ago

This is something I might use. Sometimes I play some good games but they don’t have difficulty option and are a little too easy.

Profchaos1d 20h ago

Souls games will be like that players struggling make it harder

PassNextquestion1d 20h ago (Edited 1d 20h ago )

I think if used correctly it could work well

jambola1d 16h ago

cool idea
cool idea for horror games especially
the way it's explained here sounds like it could never be forced hopefully, so that's ok with me

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280°

Sony Taps Bungie's Head of Revenue to Lead Live-Service Games

Sony has recruited Bungie's head of revenue Jaremy Rich to head up its live-service gaming division, Rich has announced on social media.

Read Full Story >>
techraptor.net
ChasterMies22d ago

Please do not put Destiny’s monetization into Sony’s first party games. The monetization is what’s driving players away from Destiny.

just_looken22d ago

The new temp boss is the sony cfo bean counter so i can see this being a thing get every penny.

Cacabunga22d ago

PlayStation officially losing it.. fans will never support gaas games

just_looken22d ago

@car

The new boss did a interview in japan he wants to tap into the mobile market like nintendio so he give 0 fucks about gamers/fans

https://www.pushsquare.com/...

Redemption-6421d ago

@Cacabunga
You only speak for you and those who think like you, but most fans will support what they want. Playstation and PC fans are literally supporting Helldivers 2 and that is a gaas. Maybe you wouldn't, but many more would if they like it.

Huey_My_D_Long21d ago

@Redemption-64
Look, Im not making any judgement calls about this guy, but I will say that Helldivers 2 GaaS model is unique to Helldivers, and legit the only other game I can think of thats similiar was the Avengers game except HD2 pass is still better.
The fact that you can earn in game currency in a way that doesnt make you feel like you have to grind forever, as well you being able work on that pass that you bought...on your own time without a time limit...that right there is fucking huge to me, and I can't name any game other than avengers that avoided trapping players with FOMO logic...I think GaaS on HD2 shouldn't be compared to the rest of the industry...it should be copied.

Einhander197221d ago

Cacabunga

Helldivers 2...

Redemption-64

In Europe it's a 60 40 split favoring PC.
In the US its a 60 40 split favoring PS5.

So PlayStation owners supported the game just fine, it's not getting carried by PC or anything like that.

FinalFantasyFanatic21d ago

@just_looken,
I'm perfectly fine with the way Nintendo entered the mobile market, I never touched their mobile games, meanwhile, the console/handheld stayed the way it is. As for being a bean counter, he's probably going to reel in these massive budgets that Sony's studios have had lately, I haven't played Spiderman 2, but I cannot see how they almost tripled the budget for that game.

@Redemption-64,
That's an exception to the rule, I'm expecting a lot of these GAAS games from Sony to fail, to be fair, they only need a few to succeed, but I would have preferred that they put more of their resources into other types of games.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 21d ago
DivineHand12521d ago

True their monetization is driving players away and at the same time, their decision to chop out content and convoluted systems is keeping new players away from the game.

Joe91321d ago

I don't think that will happen based on how things worked out at Naughty Dog now that we know what we do, seems they had the option to fully commit to live service games or stay making single player experences so they gave up on their live service game. We are not sure how things came about with Bend making a live service game but I hope that was not a forced situation. Sony doesnt seem like they are forcing studios to switch up but we will see, Sony's bread and butter is single player games it is how they dominated the console market.

Obscure_Observer21d ago

Yeah, I though Sony learned something from all their failures in the LS segment under Bungie´s disastrous leadership and supervision which led to games been cancelled, studios closed and all the people laid off.

Looks like Bungie still plays a major role in Sony´s LS initiative and Sony is not backtracking on their GaaS plans.

S2Killinit21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Are we forgetting that Destiny is also a highly successful franchise? I feel like that definitely deserves mention here.

Besides, there is no reason why a person cant learn from past experiences.

Joe91321d ago

I agree, people act as if Destiny flopped when it came out lol it took 9 to 10 years for the numbers to fall yet people are still playing it add the success of Helldivers 2 no wonder Sony is going forward down this path.

S2Killinit21d ago

Personally, I see no problem with Sony also having service games as long as they make good ones, and more importantly they deliver the AAA story driven games that they are known for. So yeah, I agree 100% with you.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 21d ago
Christopher22d ago

I mean, this person made some pretty bad decisions at Bungie. I hope they've learned from them because I definitely don't see those type of ideas as good for PlaySation in general.

CrimsonWing6921d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Honestly, what’s to learn from? How to make people happily continuously dump money into a single game over its life-time? Buy season passes continuously for several years with a smile on our faces?

GaaS is a design decision that is everything wrong with this industry. The fact that Helldivers 2 did so well and people defend the monetization because it was $40 and is a fun game, scares the sh*t out of me to see that the door is open and all shift will probably be to replicate that in future games. We already know the ROI for traditional game dev cost isn’t doing it for them.

I thought with Jimbo leaving we’d see a change for the better… I’m not so sure now.

S2Killinit21d ago

Service games are being offered by everyone. Sony cannot afford to only create single player AAA games. No one can. They already said they will be doing both.

Abnor_Mal22d ago (Edited 22d ago )

Ps5 gamers in 2023 seemed to play more live service types of games, so regardless to how people feel about them, numbers don’t lie and Sony is going where the money is. I mean look at the excitement around Helldivers2, people are showing that they want live service games.

Christopher22d ago

They play long-time existing live service games like CoD, Fortnite, Apex Legends, Destiny 2, and the like. Mass majority of new live service games are considered failures and aren't moving gamers away from older games.

just_looken22d ago

Yep the huge issue with live service is they need paid players along with a reason to play them.

You forgot mobile market that also taps into that player base as well as the eve online style games there is only a certain amount of krakens/whales blind supporters compared to the amount of live service games we have its not sustainable math wise.

700 restaurants making food for every seat for 1000-3000 eaters just does not work out

Einhander197221d ago (Edited 21d ago )

Christopher

I am not a big live service fan and literally own zero of the games you listed, but that is not true, unless you call games that aren't the top games to be failures.

There are tons of live service games that are profitable.

Games don't have to be the biggest game ever they just need to make more than they cost.

I challenge you to show professionally prepared data that shows that more live service games fail than make enough to keep going.

Because all the data that I have seen shows that live service is less of a gamble than making a big AAA budget game which needs to survive off retail sales.

FinalFantasyFanatic21d ago

I sometimes wonder if we're at saturation point, where it's hard for a new game to join those ranks unless it's particularly exceptional, people only have so much time and money to devote to these types of games.

romulus2321d ago

Correction, they have no issue playing good live service games

shinoff218321d ago

Lol it's not even a quarter of the ps5s sold. Helldivers may have been a hit but let's not say most are enjoying it because truth is most(the real most ) don't care about it.

S2Killinit21d ago (Edited 21d ago )

I play what is fun. If a live service game is good I’ll play it as long as its not a money scheme which Helldivers is not.

And Im a single player gamer.

mastershredder22d ago

How do you kill a franchise that already been killed?
Destiny’s grind, cash-in-on-playbass-cha-Ching, and pop-culture-insertion mainstream-me-too bs totally killed any rep Bungie had. Sony/Bungie, if you are doing this to ward-off players, it’s already working.

crazyCoconuts22d ago

Headline truncated:
"... off a cliff"

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