Have you ever noticed that pretty much every 360 game you buy on release needs an update patch on day one!! I mean, the last 5 games I've bought on day of release all needed an update on the very first day before I even started to play the game. Are these games really being updated and if they are then why the hell are the games shipped with known issues? Or are these updates actually not updates at all but sending info to Microsoft so they can see just how many people bought a game and played it on day of release? Yakumo
Games go "gold" long before the release date. The game was likely rushed to meet a release date, then fixes done while the discs are being pressed and released as an update. You dont need the game to be 100% when you can patch it after the fact. When you are making maskroms that cant be rewritten - there is more of a need to make it 100% Also, games are much much more complex and therefore takes much longer to find all the issues.
Rushing for release dates is just stupid, I'd rather a near polished game than having to download patches. I guess it's better than making revisions like Nintendo 64 had
Yes its not uncommon for games to be shipped with bugs now, when I was testing games providing the game didnt crash then we were to report the bugs but not expect them to be resolved in the near future (if at all) and to concentrate on anything that fully crashed the game some games i tested had some great extra features that they abandoned right at the end of development due to rushing the game out, its not the developers fault as they are told what areas to work on, a real shame really, some examples of bugs/errors that were ignored: - Graphics corruption on a well known sports title (if you went through the menu a certain way then your characters clothes would look like someone had thrown up a jackson pollock) - Missing textures, sounds etc. - Random bugs that trapped your character when performing certain actions in certain places basically they never seemed to feel that bugs were a problem unless they really screwed up the game, this was on systems that didn't have the ability to use Xbox live etc. to issue updates so they were happily shipping them out knowing that some of these minor bugs were present, obviously you can't get rid of every bug but it was the attitude more than the actions, I have mentioned on here before about them also have a DLC policy where it was already present on the disc, something which is coming to light more and more with the newer releases With later systems where updates could be pushed out to people their policies became even more lax as the true fix it later (apart from the wii releases) culture came in
It's because we are playing PC games on stripped PCs (360,PS3) vs the true consoles and games of yore.
That's not entirely accurate. Let's ignore the fact the term "PC" is a very subjective. Videogame consoles are, and always have been, computers. They're computers made with the single intent of playing games (or other functions, in some cases). There were "computers," "PCs," whatever you want to call them, in the 80s and 90s that used the Motorola 68000 chip, the same chip used in the Genesis and Neo Geo. The Nintendo 64 was basically a very stripped down SGI workstation. You get the point.
We aren't buying finished games anymore. We are simply paying to be part of a perpetual beta. It's truly disgusting how lazy game developers have gotten merely because they can push an update after the fact. Yes, things can always slip through, but when you have day-0 bugs that break the game for a vast majority of the players, then you didn't test the damn thing properly.
I remember Hydro Thunder for XBOX Live Arcade was so broken on a few courses that you could drive through the walls and around the actual course! Pretty cool to see the outside of the course but how on earth could they let that pass? On the Korean stage there was a hole in the water that you could actually fall though resulting in a reset of the game! It took them a month to patch those issues. Both of which I found on the day of release.
I remember Hydro Thunder for XBLA being released with a known issue of it being massively inferior to the original. Unfortunately, they never patched the issue.
Anyone remember Jet Set Willy and the Attic Bug? They released a series of Pokes to correct the issues.
It's not stupid from a stock holder's perspective, the value of the company is affected by what it delivers and that it's delivered on schedule. The technical quality of the product has a lesser impact, especially as it's possible to fix it up afterwards. And in the end, it's the stock holders, not us, that are in charge. Also, failing to deliver on time introduces logistical problems in the repro and distribution chains, I guess that affects the choice to ship an unfinished product too. I do however agree that it gives a very sloppy and lazy impression from a customer's point of view, I'd rather wait a bit longer for a finished product.
la-li-lu-le-lo : you are completely correct, my meaning was more that these games that we play now would be released on PCs, except now consoles can handle them. Devs dig it because they can charge an extra $10, piracy is there but far less a concern, etc.
It is getting to the point to where Sony and MS need to start acting like Nintendo did during the Nes days. Force developers to patch and fine them every time they have to. I bet we will see the number of glaring bugs drop dramatically after a few developers have to pay a few 100k+ fines.
I wonder where you would stand if you bought a game & it was broken due to a massive bug & you didn't have internet access on your console to patch it, they just assume everone will have access to live or PSN. I wonder if you could send your game to them & demand that they either give you a patched version of the disk or a refund. Back in the day when games used to come on floppy disks if you had a problem you could actually ring them up & speak to someone who was helpful. Nowdays they are just faceless entitys that churn out games. If it don't work tough shit, we may or may not release a patch. In the meantime enjoy your £40 drinks coaster. This is the problem nowdays they just can't be arsed to make sure their product is as bug free as possible, you hear excuses like "oh we tried to fix it but we didn't have enough time" then simply don't release it till it's fixed then. The industry needs a shake up thats for damn sure, they complain about second hand sales. Maybe they should start releasing higher quality games that don't contain so many bugs & people might pay full price for them.
I don't think anything has really changed, games have been rushed to meet release dates ever since the 2600 days. Only difference is that today you can actually fix the issues.
I do think it's true that thanks to online patch updates they have gotten a bit lazy with bugs. But it also is because games are more complicated perhaps. But perhaps game testing is worse too. The games of the past would have bugs or glitches but usually they were something hard to find or get to happen. In newer games it seems more often. Afterall I can't even count how many times my Xbox 360 has frozen/crashed. Games didn't use to crash like that. It's sad. But they probably don't spend enough of their budget on programming and testing and more on marketing which is why you get this crap.
Bad_Ad84 pretty much nails it. Since video games are a much larger market now, developers are forced to lock in release dates so that they can pass that info to marketing and the like. Shareholders don't like delayed releases, even if it means a better product down the road.
