Driveclub VR
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| Driveclub VR | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| VR/AR | Virtual Reality |
| Developer | Evolution Studios, SIE Immersive Technology Group |
| Publisher | Sony Interactive Entertainment |
| Platform | PlayStation VR |
| Device | PlayStation VR |
| Operating System | PlayStation 4 |
| Type | Game |
| Genre | Racing |
| Input Device | DualShock 4 |
| Game Mode | Single-player, Multiplayer |
| Release Date | October 13, 2016 |
| Price | US$39.99 (launch, digital) |
| App Store | PlayStation Store |
Driveclub VR (stylized DRIVECLUB VR) is a virtual reality racing game for the PlayStation VR headset on PlayStation 4, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is a standalone VR version of Evolution Studios' PS4 racing game Driveclub, and it was released as a PlayStation VR exclusive on 13 October 2016, the day the headset launched, at US$39.99 for the digital edition.[1][2]
Sony closed Evolution Studios in March 2016. According to Sony, most of the game had been completed by Evolution, and a team of Evolution veterans, several of whom had moved to Sony's Immersive Technology Group, finished it.[1][3] Reviews were mixed: the game has a Metascore of 66 ("mixed or average") on Metacritic and a Top Critic Average of 67 on OpenCritic, where critics often praised the sense of sitting in the car while criticizing the reduced visual quality compared with the original game.[4][5] Sony stopped selling the game on 31 August 2019 and shut down its online servers on 31 March 2020.[6]
Gameplay
Driveclub VR is played from the driver's seat of licensed cars, with the player's head movement tracked by the headset. Sony's announcement listed online multiplayer races in VR, a single-player career, drifting and time trial challenges, classic and new Driveclub tracks including five new urban locations, and an Inspection Mode for examining each car up close.[7] Two modes were added for VR: Cruise Mode, in which the player can drive any track at their own pace and "open the throttle or just coast", and Passenger Mode, which replays the player's own hot laps from a separate viewpoint.[7] Road to VR reported 114 tracks and more than 80 cars at launch.[2]
The game's Tour contains races, time trials, drift events and multi-race events, with speed and drift challenges placed on sections of each track. The club features of the original game, in which players form clubs and challenge each other, are also included.[8] According to TheSixthAxis, clubs had to be started again in the VR version, there were no leaderboards shared with the PS4 game, and races ran with eight cars on track instead of the original's 12.[9] UploadVR noted that save data from Driveclub was not carried over.[8]
The PlayStation Store listing gives one player offline and two to eight network players online, with a PlayStation Plus membership required for online multiplayer. It requires PlayStation VR and the PlayStation Camera, and supports DualShock 4 vibration.[6]
Development
A PlayStation VR prototype of Driveclub was demonstrated at Paris Games Week in October 2015. Road to VR, reporting on Eurogamer's hands-on, wrote that the prototype represented about three months of work, ran at 60Hz on PlayStation VR (the PS4 game ran at 30 frames per second) and was paired with a Thrustmaster T300 steering wheel. Paul Rustchynsky told Eurogamer: "At the moment it's just a prototype. We don't know what we're going to do with that just yet."[10]
On 22 March 2016, Shacknews reported that Sony had shut down Evolution Studios and that it was uncertain what would become of the studio's VR project.[3] The game was confirmed on 17 August 2016, ahead of Gamescom, in a PlayStation Blog post by Nico Orru, principal programmer at the SIE Immersive Technology Group, who wrote that the team had been working on it for over a year.[7] Road to VR described Orru as a former Evolution developer and said work had continued with an internal Sony team.[11]
In the launch announcement, Orru wrote that the team rebuilt the game to render everything in stereoscopic 3D "natively at 60Hz and then adding the head tracking with 120Hz visuals", and added several VR-specific features. He stated that the majority of the game was completed by Evolution, with a dedicated team of Evolution Studios veterans, several of them now in the WWS Immersive Technology Group, finishing the rest.[1] TheSixthAxis wrote that reaching 60 frames per second for each eye required cutbacks from the original game, including the reduced number of cars on track.[9] CGMagazine noted that the dynamic weather of the PS4 game had been removed.[12]
Release
Driveclub VR was released on 13 October 2016 as a PlayStation VR exclusive, on Blu-ray disc and as a digital download from the PlayStation Store.[1][13] Owners of the Driveclub Season Pass could buy a discounted digital upgrade. In North America the offer applied to Season Pass owners as of 28 September 2016,[1] and in Europe to Season Pass purchases made before 00:00 BST on 29 September 2016.[13]
| Region | Release date | Price (digital) | Season Pass upgrade |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 13 October 2016 | US$39.99 | US$19.99[1] |
| Europe | 13 October 2016 | EUR 39.99 (RRP) | EUR 19.99 (RRP)[13] |
On 31 October 2016, the Urban Tracks update for the standard PS4 version of Driveclub added the VR game's 15 tracks (counting reverse layouts) across five locations: Gujo (Japan), Bryggen (Norway), Ashii (India), Port of Vancouver (Canada) and Iquique (Chile). TheSixthAxis reported that it was the final update for standard Driveclub.[14]
Delisting and server shutdown
PlayStation stopped selling Driveclub, Driveclub VR, Driveclub Bikes and all related DLC and season passes from 31 August 2019 at 23:59 BST. The online servers for the three games shut down on 31 March 2020 at 23:59 BST, ending all online features including multiplayer modes.[6] The store page states that the games remain playable "in single player offline modes".[15]
Reception
On Metacritic, Driveclub VR has a Metascore of 66, "mixed or average", based on 35 critic reviews.[4] OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 67, with 24% of critics recommending the game.[5]
| Publication | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Metacritic (aggregate) | 66/100 | 35 critic reviews[4] |
| OpenCritic (aggregate) | 67 | Top Critic Average; 24% recommend[5] |
| IGN | 5.9/10 | Luke Reilly[16] |
| VideoGamer | 8/10 | Tom Orry[16] |
| Hardcore Gamer | 4/5 | Jeremy Peeples[16] |
| TheSixthAxis | 7/10 | Stefan L[9] |
| Push Square | 6/10 | Sammy Barker[16] |
| CGMagazine | 6/10 | [12] |
| Metro GameCentral | 5/10 | [16] |
| Eurogamer | No score | Martin Robinson[16] |
Several reviewers singled out the in-car view. David Jagneaux of UploadVR wrote, "Turning my head physically to either side to check my surroundings never gets old", and called the game one of the most feature-rich PlayStation VR launch titles, but found that assets carried over from the original game "were clearly not fully optimized for VR", producing jagged lines and blur. He also found little new for returning Driveclub players and a small online population, and recommended it mainly to newcomers.[8] TheSixthAxis gave the game 7/10, noting that the headset's resolution made text away from the center of view indistinct, and called it "an essential purchase for racing fans on PSVR".[9]
Other critics were less positive. CGMagazine wrote that "Racing in VR is a thrill, but playing Driveclub again isn't", criticizing the handling, the music and the removal of dynamic weather, while crediting Evolution for not making the game cause nausea and calling its stable frame rate "a godsend".[12] In Eurogamer's review, as excerpted by OpenCritic, Martin Robinson wrote that the game was "stripped back for this VR standalone, losing more than it gains in the process". IGN's Luke Reilly wrote that the game "delivers a functional example" of seated VR racing, and VideoGamer's Tom Orry called it "an essential launch title".[16] Comfort reactions varied: CGMagazine credited Evolution with not making the game a "virtual vomitorium", while Digital Spy's review was excerpted on OpenCritic under the line "A game so bad it'll literally make you sick".[12][16]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Nicola Orru (2016-09-29). "Driveclub VR Out October 13, Upgrade Details for Season Pass Owners". PlayStation Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/2016/09/29/driveclub-vr-out-october-13-upgrade-details-for-season-pass-owners/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ben Lang (2016-10-01). "'Driveclub VR' Gets Day 1 PSVR Release Date, Price, and Season Pass Upgrade Option". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/driveclub-vr-release-date-price-season-pass-upgrade-playstation-vr-psvr/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Daniel Perez (2016-03-22). "Sony shuts down DriveClub studio". Shacknews. https://www.shacknews.com/article/93809/sony-shuts-down-driveclub-studio. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "Driveclub VR". Metacritic. https://www.metacritic.com/game/driveclub-vr/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Driveclub VR". OpenCritic. https://opencritic.com/game/3390/driveclub-vr. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "DRIVECLUB VR". PlayStation Store. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://store.playstation.com/en-us/concept/222253. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Nico Orru (2016-08-17). "Driveclub VR announced for PlayStation VR". PlayStation Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2016/08/17/driveclub-vr-announced-for-playstation-vr. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 David Jagneaux (2016-10-21). "'DriveClub VR' Review: Sim Racing Meets Arcade Aspirations (Update)". UploadVR. https://uploadvr.com/driveclub-vr-review-psvr/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Stefan L (2016-10-12). "Driveclub VR Review". TheSixthAxis. https://thesixthaxis.com/2016/10/12/driveclub-vr-review. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ Paul James (2015-10-28). "DriveClub May Come to PlayStation VR, Prototype Shown at Paris Games Show". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/driveclub-may-come-to-playstation-vr-prototype-shown-at-paris-games-show/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ Dominic Brennan (2016-08-20). "'Driveclub VR' Confirmed Exclusively for PlayStation VR in 2016". Road to VR. https://roadtovr.com/driveclub-vr-confirmed-for-playstation-vr-psvr-2016/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Bella Lara Blondeau (2016-10-20). "Driveclub VR (PS4) Review". CGMagazine. https://www.cgmagonline.com/review/driveclub-vr-ps4-review/. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Nico Orru (2016-09-29). "Driveclub VR launches 13th October, with upgrade option for Season Pass owners". PlayStation Blog. Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://blog.playstation.com/archive/2016/09/29/driveclub-vr-launches-13th-october-with-upgrade-option-for-season-pass-owners. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ Aran Suddi (2016-10-31). "Driveclub Receives Urban Tracks Update, VR Tracks Added To Base Game". TheSixthAxis. https://www.thesixthaxis.com/?p=277267. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ "DRIVECLUB VR". PlayStation Store (UK). Sony Interactive Entertainment. https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/concept/222253. Retrieved 2026-10-13.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 16.7 "Driveclub VR Reviews". OpenCritic. https://opencritic.com/game/3390/driveclub-vr/reviews. Retrieved 2026-10-13.