According to leaked information on a Japanese PlayStation blog post, Sony will indeed bring one of their biggest franchises DriveClub VR to market alongside PlayStation VR when it launches on October 13.

Evolution Studios’ DriveClub has had a troubled history, with delays, technical difficulties and luke warm reviews plaguing the title at launch. Since then however, the title has built a steady following and has iterated and evolved into a fun, competitive driving title with a personality of its own.

driveclub-1

Last year, we reported that an early version of a special virtual reality edition of the title was shown to attendees of the Paris Games Show in October of last year, and received words of praise from the few that got to try it out but there was no confirmation if the title would see the light of day. Now, thanks to what seems to be an erroneously published Japanese PlayStation blog post, DriveClub VR has been confirmed as arriving for PlayStation VR at launch. The post was removed, but not before several sites snagged images and details of the title.

The new PSVR DriveClub will apparently sport a cockpit view (well, duh), 3D audio and a new collection of tracks. Commenting on twitter after the leak emerged, ex-Director of DriveClub at Evolution Studios (now working for Codemasters) Paul Rustchynsky said:

DriveClub VR joins the forthcoming Gran Turismo Sport, the latest in the PlayStation’s flagship driving franchise, which is also set to debut in November with PlayStation VR support. Both of these titles sport impressive visuals and push their host PlayStation 4 platforms to the limit in standard, 2D form. DriveClub VR is known to run at 60FPS and uses re-projection to present the experience at 120FPS in the headset, whereas the PS4 original sacrifices framerate for visual fidelity with 30FPS. With that in mind, the team working on DriveClub VR – confirmed by Rustchynsky to be “The same development team who made DRIVECLUB” – will have pulled off a real technical feat.

SEE ALSO
Orion & Quest 3S Signal a New Era for Meta, Here's What it Means for the Industry at Large

According to the leaked blog post, DriveClub VR will arrive alongside the PlayStation VR in October in both hard-copy and digital formats for 4,900 yen (around $49 US).

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


Paul James
Based in the UK, Paul has been immersed in interactive entertainment for the best part of 27 years and has followed advances in gaming with a passionate fervour. His obsession with graphical fidelity over the years has had him branded a ‘graphics whore’ (which he views as the highest compliment) more than once and he holds a particular candle for the dream of the ultimate immersive gaming experience. Having followed and been disappointed by the original VR explosion of the 90s, he then founded RiftVR.com to follow the new and exciting prospect of the rebirth of VR in products like the Oculus Rift. Paul joined forces with Ben to help build the new Road to VR in preparation for what he sees as VR’s coming of age over the next few years.
  • J.C.

    I doubt it’s going to look much like the original game. You don’t magically go from 30 FPS to 60, on TOP of rendering the image twice, without cost. Still, I do hope PSVR does it right, and targets performance over visuals. It’s the real shot at the wider consumer audience, and if they screw it up, the general thought about VR will be that it’s awful, and it’ll be absurdly difficult to turn that ship around.

    • Nigerian Wizard

      It’s not gonna amaze anybody at all in terms of graphics. Look at the image above yours. Rendering ( a car+rear view+side view)x2 at 60fps. They are gonna skimp out as much as possible on ignorable details. And that’s definitely going to make the game look like a wii game at best.

    • James Friedman

      You need to be at 90fps so yeah it’s going to look very blocky. This game already pushed the PS4 pretty hard. Mine got pretty hot when playing the rainy levels with all the water effects.

      • logicman

        Yeah, 90fps should be a minimum for VR. And if you read the article you’ll find that the game actually displays at 120fps.

    • Alan Green

      Got a couple glimpses of the early DriveClub VR Prototype and it didn’t look far from the original game. It certainly didn’t look blocky or horrible.

      The quality and length of the clips didn’t lend to great scrutiny, but, I’m confident based on the prototype that DC VR will look amazing.

  • Good stuff!

  • Sam Illingworth

    Drive Club a release title? We’ve heard that before…

  • John S Johnson

    Sony motto since the ps4 release.. “Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, hear the lamentation of the women”. And Nintendo said.. that is good Conan.. um i mean Sony..

  • Torreth

    You know? I’ve never liked racing games. You try one and you’ve tried them all, and theyre repetitive at best, but in vr it could be the thing that convinces me to give it a shot.

  • Wilco Verwiel

    Ok, the only thing i want to know NOW is;
    Does the original DriveClub getting a patch for VR support?

    • Shaun Madden

      yeah it would be silly to buy it a second time. Road to VR, can you find this out for us?