DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition to Finally Launch

After eight months of delays and the shaky launch of DriveClub's retail version, its free PlayStation Plus edition is going to finally launch this week.

Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida has announced on the PlayStation Blog that Evolution Studios' PS4 racer, DriveClub, will finally be launching its PlayStation Plus Edition on July 25. This version of the game will be free for anyone with a PS Plus account. Only the game's offline mode will be ready during this time (DriveClub suffered some heavy online issues during its retail launch) and Evolution Studios will slowly open up the games servers over time.

Here's what Yoshida had to say about DriveClub's gated 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.

Everybody will have full access to the offline mode of the Driveclub PS Plus Edition while this is happening and we will keep you fully up to speed via driveclub.com with updates on access as we bring everybody online.

Thank you to everyone who has stood by Driveclub during the past year and for everyone who has accepted the extra wait for the PS Plus Edition and the companion app which will come after. The team at Evolution Studios is working incredibly hard to make Driveclub great for you, to get everyone to have fun racing in clubs and continue the evolution of the game with spectacular updates every month. I can’t wait to see all of you enjoying the game online together.

A few months ago, Evolution Studios was hit with a substantial number of layoffs after already getting a round of pink slips back in early 2014.  After the 2014 series of layoffs, the game's original Creative Director, Col Rodgers, stepped down from the project and left the company, which delayed the game's original debut. While Sony promised everything was still just fine with DriveClub, it still suffered tremendous delays and had substantial server issues during the weeks after it launched. The PlayStation Plus version of the game was originally intended to launch on alongside Oct. 7, 2014 release date.

Well Sony, this is what happens when you hit a studio with multiple rounds of layoffs and still expect big things from them afterwards.