Sony Computer Entertainment America president Shawn Layden is defending UK-based DriveClub developer Evolution Studios, despite continual problems with the PS4-exclusive racing game since launch.

The game has been out for six weeks and in that time has been continually plagued with technical issues and problems with connectivity. The game was also supposed to be launched as a freebie for PS Plus subscribers - but that version of the game has been put on hold until everything can be ironed out.

"In the development cycle, we try to test against every possibility,” Shawn Layden told IGN. "We have a QA team, we have a QA plan. You do a beta test, you scope against that."

"But now, in a connected world, you can't effectively test in your house or in your beta group what it means to have 50,000, 100,000, 200,000 users hit your service. And the guys [at the studio] are struggling with that. It's throwing up things they had not anticipated."

"I get reports from them every day on the progress that they're making, and it is going forward. It is going slowly, but, you know, they tried to do the best, newest, greatest thing ever to happen in the driving genre and they hit a hiccup. I prefer people to have the ambition to try that, though. It's no fun being safe all the time."

Layden also pointed out that the studios last title, MotorStorm brought "innovations in the racing genre that even Gran Turismo creator Kazunori Yamauchi hasn't replicated yet," and that "their ambition with Driveclub was to create this uber-connected experience, melded with the driving experience."