If our gaming future is to exist largely online, then I'm becoming increasingly sceptical of whether Sony deserves my money. The company has built the PlayStation Store into an unparalleled empire, but it's about to gut popular racing game DriveClub and wipe it from its servers. If you already happen to own the Evolution Studios developed racer then you'll still be able to access it, but all of its flagship features will be absent – and certain pieces of content will be cut, too.
Look, I understand that the Japanese giant is a business and it has to make cost cutting measures at times. I imagine that a game like DriveClub, with its underlying emphasis on leaderboards and social connectivity, likely eats into the company's precious coffers. And yes, when there's presumably a small community of people playing, it probably sees that as an unnecessary expenditure. But if that's the case: what the heck are we paying for PlayStation Plus for?
The manufacturer may argue that your annual subscription fee is invested back into the PlayStation Network's overall infrastructure: voice chat, cloud saves, parties, et al. But the price has been going up while the value has been going down, so how can it justify gutting popular first-party games when we're paying for the privilege to be able to play them online? LittleBigPlanet may still be running, but why would you ever want to invest time and effort into the upcoming Dreams when the company is acting this way?
The thing is, this isn't an isolated incident: Gravity Rush 2 recently had its online component removed, after fans campaigned to keep it alive for a few months longer. In the case of Kat's sophomore outing, it doesn't actually detract from the game, but it's a bad look all the same – he sequel was barely a year old before it wanted to pull the plug. Kill Strain, meanwhile, didn't even get to a year – it was shut down and erased from history like it didn't even exist in the first place. Drawn to Death is next in line.
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