Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown’s Early Access has unfortunately been plagued by server issues that have prevented continued play. Nacon and the developers at KT Racing… are working to find solutions to shore up the game’s servers ahead of its full launch on September 12th.
The studio released statement on Steam explaining the problems and steps being taken to remedy the situation:
Since the official server launch today at 08:00 AM UTC, many players have encountered earnest issues connecting to the game, mainly with login, lobby, and various online functions. These issues affect all platforms: PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.
Our teams are working tirelessly to stabilize the servers so everyone can enjoy the game as quickly as possible. To give you more context on the current situation, we’ve tried multiple solutions to resolve these network issues:
- Our server team has been actively investigating the root causes of connection issues.
- We have implemented server optimizations to handle the immense number of players trying to access the game.
- We’ve increased server capacity to reduce queues and dropped connections.
- Our quality assurance team conducted thorough testing to verify the stability of the fixes before they were deployed.
While each solution proved helpful to some extent, some of them also introduced recent technical challenges.
We are actively working to resolve all network issues and thank you again for your patience.
These issues existed prior to the public release, preventing us from publishing our review of the game as maintenance prevented all journalists from playing the game on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a separate bug and issue blocked us before that.
The game currently has a queue system in place, with around 1,600 players waiting for PS5 tonight, which has been gradually decreasing and then, in our case, leading to a more general “Login Error” screen. SteamDB is recording a peak player count of 4,300 on PC – that would simply be the total number of players with the client open, so it’s unclear how many of those are actively able to play.
All this is a pretty earnest problem that immediately arouses the interest of fans of the series and early buyers. turning around and demanding a refund or whining about the game being required to always be online. This wouldn’t be as large of a problem with offline play, though it obviously has implications for the game’s internal economy and progression.
Another potential factor is the fact that in the past few weeks, game developers have gone on strike against publisher Nacon, organizing under the banner of a labor union. Video Game Employees Union (SJV)RPG developer Spiders went on strike last week, and on Monday they were joined by colleagues at Kylotonn who complained:
“The board regularly raises the issue of the alleged independence of the studios, but every request we make is rejected with the argument that there should be cohesion in the Nacon group. Similarly, negotiations are hampered on the same pretext.
“If we do not offer any improvement in working conditions because ‘this would force other studios within the group to demand the same’, then it is logical that we will make these demands jointly.”
Nacon began talks with workers last week, but the complaints have not yet been fully addressed, and further strikes could potentially hamper Solar Crown’s launch.
In conclusion, it seems like KT Racing is going through a tough time right now. We hope they can resolve their server issues soon, and that the negotiations with employees across the company come to a satisfactory conclusion.
