Driveclub

Completely unexpected and from out of nowhere, Sony has announced the closure of Evolution Studios – the first-party development studio behind the WRC, Motorstorm and Driveclub series of racing games that was acquired by Sony Europe in 2008.

Our first look at Evolution Studios’ first Virtual Reality offering comes courtesy of French gaming outlet ‘Jeux-Video’, who recently posted a 9-minute recap of the VR offerings from the Games Developer Conference held in San Francisco last week.

Following the reveal of Driveclub’s March update content, Evolution launched the update yesterday and went into further detail about what to expect on the 22nd March from the next round of DLC Driveclub has to offer.

March has already been a busy month for numerous racing titles. Unwilling to simply idle along, the folks at Evolution have loosened the taps on the drip-feed of information for this month’s Driveclub update.

Hot on the heels of last week’s new tour packs, Evolution Studios have finally pushed out their smartphone application to the masses with the official Driveclub app hitting iOS and Android storefronts yesterday afternoon. Initially promised for launch in October 2014, the app’s core functionality allows players to track in-game challenges they are currently competing in and accept recommended challenges from around the Driveclub community.

Driveclub’s latest batch of DLC went live last night with paying players being treated on both car and bike fronts. Let’s take a deeper look at what the packs include:

Looking at my in-game statistics for Driveclub, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’m a superfan of the title. Maxed out XP, all Elite levels achieved, platinum trophies for both vanilla DC and the Bikes expansion plus more accolades than a war veteran. There’s no doubt whatsoever – no current generation game has even came close to the time I have played Evolution Studios’ middling racer (outside of a certain kart racer). I’ve raced in over 2,000 events, earning every single star.

Driveclub’s community team promised us February would be a cracker for the Playstation exclusive and they weren’t lying… this update, due to go live today, is bound to please fans and tempt potential purchasers alike.

Update 1.25 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 400MB the update introduces the Mercedes-AMG S 65 Coupé and the KTM 1290 Super Duke R as new accolade rewards, a new easy difficulty setting for all tour events, new options for private lobbies, and more based on the continuous feedback from the community.

Update 1.24 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 400MB, the update introduces the long-awaited private multiplayer lobbies that were talked about earlier this year. The new feature has a variety of adjustable options and modifiers for the likes of grid position, gear changes, and camera perspective to name a few.

With all the hype around Gran Turismo Sport from Paris Games Week, we can’t forget about Driveclub, which remains a popular game that continues to receive strong developer and community support.

As teased in last week’s news, Ferrari’s twin-turbocharged 488 GTB is now available in Driveclub as a free downloadable add-on. This isn’t the first time Ferrari has used video games as a way of introducing their newest models to potential customers as Forza Motorsport 3 and Gran Turismo 5 were used to showcase the 488 GTB’s predecessor, the 458 Italia.

Update 1.20 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 500 MB, the update introduces new “Elite” driver levels, new club leaderboards for every tour event, updates to club challenges, photo mode improvements and more based on the continuous feedback from the community.

Sony have announced that the Playstation Plus Edition of Driveclub will be released on June 25th. The ‘lite’ version of Driveclub will be free to all Playstation Plus members, however Sony have also stated that while off-line play will be available for all, on-line play will be rolled out gradually.

Update 1.18 is now available to download for Driveclub. Weighing in at 420 MB, the update brings with it new accolades, more driver levels, a fix for the “Hoon-a-Tic” trophy, and many more improvement to the game based on community feedback.

Driveclub Game Director Paul Rustchynsky has been busy on Twitter over the last few days, dropping hints about “More surprises” coming in June and then confirming that “A certain Japanese car Manufacturer is coming to”!