DriveClub PS Plus Edition arrives prematurely, full release coming soon (update)

DriveClub PlayStation Plus Edition, the trial that was supposed to be available alongside the game's launch last fall, was briefly up on the PlayStation Store, but quickly disappeared.

Evolution Studios' racer launched Oct. 7 in North America, but due to severe network problems at the time, publisher Sony Computer Entertainment decided to push back the release of the free PS Plus Edition in order to avoid overloading the servers further. By the end of October, Sony said it had indefinitely delayed the launch of the PS Plus Edition.

This past February, a day after Sony Computer Entertainment Europe boss Jim Ryan couldn't guarantee that the free trial would ever be released, a Sony spokesperson said the company was still working on getting DriveClub's servers to a level that would allow the publisher to launch the PS Plus Edition.

Today, eight and a half months after DriveClub's debut, the PS Plus Edition is available on the PlayStation Store. The release date is listed as Oct. 7, not June 23. Either way, we've been unable to add the game to our library; each time we try to "buy" it on the website, a message pops up saying, "We've encountered an error while processing your order. The transaction has not been completed. Please try again later." A different error shows up when trying to download the PS Plus Edition on a PlayStation 4.

We've reached out to Sony for comment, and will update this article with any response we receive. In the meantime, you can read our DriveClub review, which we updated in April after Evolution seemed to have addressed the game's network issues.

Update: The PlayStation Store page for the PS Plus Edition is no longer accessible, but you can see a screenshot of the page below. We've edited the story to reflect this.

Update 2: Evolution Studios is "preparing to launch" the PS Plus Edition of DriveClub, the company said in a Facebook post this afternoon. However, said Evolution, the game's appearance on the PlayStation Store today was "premature" because "the servers aren't ready yet."

Evolution apologized "for any confusion and inconvenience caused" and added that the company "will have news for you soon."