Test Drive Unlimited: Auto Update for 360 owners

by: Dan - posted: 9/11/2006 2:52:00 PM

Xbox 360 owners will be prompted for an Auto-Update next time Test Drive Unlimited is in while connected to Xbox Live.  Details are in the attachment from Atari, but the update will fix known issues and address user concerns.

Good to see a company responding quickly to fan requests and using Xbox Live Marketplace at its finest.

Thanks to Major Nelson for the tip and baker011 (Atari Forums Head) for the details.

We would like to thank all the players for playing Test Drive Unlimited and reporting issues.

Atari, Eden and Microsoft are working on a Live product update for TDU which will fix various issues found after release. We are also working on increasing the server capacity, which will improve the performance, reduce the Clubs problems and connection issues (“TDU server unavailable”). This will be done no later than the end of the week.

The main issues reported are as follows:

Problem of progression being lost

The problem occurs when you sell a house which contains a car that you’re trying to sell on the E-trade: this creates an issue and the player’s progression is lost.
In order to resolve this, the E-trade system has been temporarily deactivated. You cannot currently trade vehicles with other players, although you can still sell your vehicles via the direct selling option.
The problem is being dealt with as a priority and we will let you know as soon as the E-trade system is operational again.

Issues with CLUBS

During recent peak hours the demand on the servers reached unforeseen levels, resulting in some invitations for clubs being lost and players being unable to resend them.
We are working on increasing the server limit, as well as fixing this issue with an update. The fix will check for lost invites and allow you to re-invite a player if the invitation was permanently lost.

Connections issues (message « TDU servers unavailable »)

Players may have noticed some "TDU server unavailable" messages during peak periods. This is partly due to the number of simultaneous players growing very quickly in a short time.

We are currently tweaking our server to improve the performances, so connection issues will be greatly reduced. The extension of the server’s capacity will also help to solve these issues.

Difficulty to find Friends

This is partly due to the server becoming saturated during peak hours. It will much easier to find your friends when the server capacity is increased.

Currently filters work only on the map - they are not properly implemented while driving. This will be fixed in the forthcoming patch and players will then be able to see only their friends in the game if they wish.

There follows some additional guidelines to make playing with friends easier:

How to play with your friends:

1- The first player goes into a less densely populated area as shown on the map, then zooms in to the island. Other people that want to join him then select him from the map. Players will join a session that’s not full in this area, so the chances are high that this will be the first player’s session.

2- As an alternative, the MS game invite is a very powerful tool, and can be used from a multiplayer lobby as follows:
- create a multiplayer private session
- send an invite to your friends
- race as you want in the created session
- if you get bored of the race you're in, you can change for another one and bring the whole party with you (option available once race is over, before restarting another one)

3- Another way to play with friends is to create a club, meet at the club and start play from there.

Problem in Drive-in


The game freezes when the number of custom challenges in a drive-in is above 256. This is fixed. The maximum number of available custom challenges in a drive-in is now set to 255. This is a server based fix.
The Update will increase this limit so that anyone can post a challenge anytime.

NOTE: The first Update was released on Monday September 11 which deals with a number of issues, but does not include any of the fixes listed above. The first Update fixes a small number of gameplay exploits (loopholes). We’ll keep you posted about the second Update.


We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused. Please continue to send your feedback to Atari and thanks for playing Test Drive Unlimited.