You’ll Have to Drive with Your Club Later

Anyone dead-set on buying a next generation launch console is still reeling from the news that Watch Dogs was delayed earlier in the week — and, to a lesser extent, The Crew. Though as bad as they’re “suffering,” it’s nothing compared to Ubisoft’s financials, where the company’s stockholders didn’t take kindly to the news of heavy hitters being saved for a later date. They’re now coming outside this fiscal year for video games, ending in March. Add news of Rayman Legends and Splinter Cell Blacklist not meeting sales expectations, and you have a company that’s now in desperate need of a huge “AAA” hit. They’d better hope those Assassin’s Creed IV sales are stellar.

Meanwhile, the Playstation 4 launch lineup received another unfortunate blow today. We received a tip two days ago saying DriveClub would be delayed, though many weren’t convinced at the time. The original source was a blog not read by a sizable audience (though it’s probably bigger than the one we attract), but it appeared to be legitimate when one of Kotaku’s sources (who have been accurate in the past) corroborated the rumor. That it wasn’t being shown at some recent, smaller events was also taken as a hint.

Good news! It’s not #DriveClub anymore.

But today, Sony officially confirmed that DriveClub has been delayed until sometime early next year. Apparently it needed more time before it could measure up to the competition, quality wise. If it released this fall, it would have competed with Xbox One launch title Forza Motorsport 5, and, funnily enough, Sony’s own (and Polyphony Digital-developed) Gran Turismo 6 on Playstation 3. DriveClub was releasing within the shadow of the latter, and now it might have a fighting chance on the market. The development team at Evolution Studios (of the Motorstorm games on PS3) should take this time to add more features, like a 60fps framerate.

This isn’t news anyone who planned on purchasing the game with their PS4 in a month wanted to hear, especially if they preordered the bundle including it. The launch lineups for both next generation consoles are predictably underwhelming, but this makes the Xbox One’s look better in comparison, as far as “AAA” titles are concerned. However, this makes PS4’s lineup stronger for the first half of 2014. DriveClub will now be joining the heavily-anticipated Infamous: Second Son early next year.

It also stings for Playstation Plus subscribers (a subscription you’ll need if you want to play online on PS4, by the way), who would have received the game as a freebie on day one. That’s an incredibly generous offer, by the way. With the amount of free titles offered, it’s as if Sony is trying to condition people to not pay for anything on Playstation Network, because there’s a good chance it will be free later. DriveClub will still be free through the program when it releases next year, but the console launch date replacement will be indie puzzle platformer Contrast. It’s not being seen as an adequate replacement, as fans of the racing and platforming genres don’t tend to overlap. Though there’s another group of people who didn’t care about DriveClub that don’t mind a free platformer.

There was never a #hashtag here, though.

But Contrast is being given the short end of the stick simply because (a) it’s indie, and (b) it’s a cross generation title, and that’s unfortunate. It’s not the next gen-exclusive experience people are looking for to justify the $400+ they’ll drop come November 15th (or sometime around then), but it could be a worthwhile game. Upon observing it, the classic noir-inspired aesthetic that stands out the most. The gameplay looks eerily similar to Wii title Lost in Shadow, one of the last titles Hudson Soft made before their murder and burial at the hands of Konami. The lady in the shadow is Dawn, a detective on a quest to mend her broken direct family. It received good impressions from the conventions it’s been demoed at, so hopefully the final product delivers on the promises the developers at Compulsion Games have made.

Meanwhile, it seems the PS4 will have a slower start out of the gate than anticipated, in terms of the number of games available on the retail shelf. But it should find its footing once more games release throughout next year, though it might be able to coast along due to the plethora of indie titles hitting the platform. And it’s likely there are plenty of exclusive titles we don’t know about yet, so keep your eye out for future events — especially the Spike TV VGAs in December.