Trials Evolution players overload servers

UPDATE: RedLynx has told Eurogamer that Microsoft has braced itself for a surge of activity today and over the weekend and has taken steps to prepare for it.

We asked RedLynx for an update on Trials Evolution and it provided us with the following statement:

"Trials Evolution launched yesterday and it's been an absolutely amazing start. We prepared for heavy demand, but sometimes it takes going live to find out just how things will work out.

"Because the Leaderboards are such an integral part of the whole Trials experience - players are constantly checking their performance of that against their friends, and everyone else on the global leaderboards - the stress on the servers became severe for a while on the evening of launch.

"Microsoft worked quickly to deploy more hardware and the situation seems to have stabilized, and they are preparing for any surge in activity that might occur into the weekend.

"We apologize for the inconvenience and obviously we're working closely with Microsoft's team to improve the situation and prevent this sort of thing from happening again."

ORIGINAL STORY: Trials Evolution players have reported online connectivity issues after over 100,000 players flooded Microsoft's servers the day the Xbox Live Arcade game launched.

Trials Evolution launched on XBLA on Wednesday, and fans have found problems with the game's multiplayer ranks and online leaderboards. Trials Evolution developer RedLynx said this was the result of servers being overloaded and collapsing. "Good and bad," it said of the situation. "Over 100,000 day one."

Now, Microsoft has implemented new hardware to meet the demand - but some players are still reporting issues.

"There are currently issues with MP ranks and the leaderboards," RedLynx tweeted. "We are looking into the problems and apologize for the inconvenience."

Then: "We apologize for the leaderboard issues in the past hours, servers were getting overloaded but MS has put up new hardware."

Tom Bramwell awarded Trials Evolution 9/10 in Eurogamer's review. "It offers simple, one-player gameplay that uses leaderboards to provoke excitement and competition among strangers, and in this sense it has a lot in common with the original Xbox Live Arcade games," he said. "The way that it makes its challenging content accessible to a majority of players, however, is what singles it out as one of the best."