Payday 2 dev - next gen consoles may drop crippling game patch costs

According to Double Fine's outspoken frontman Tim Schafer, via Hookshot, it costs no less than $40,000 to patch a game on "modern consoles". You might want to bear that in mind next time you comb a Battlefield 3 update log and complain that your personal niggle hasn't been addressed. Overkill Software's Simon Vikland suggests, however, that change may be in the wind.

[majiebeast]

I still think if your game is trash at launch you should pay the price otherwise they will just keep releasing broken games.

[Gimmemorebubblez]

Yes, Bethesda for example used to have my respect. But the games they have released in the last few years have been broken, utter messes. You can't blame the CELL chip for the thousands of bugs on the Ps3 versions of there games. I own the PC version of Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas but even those games were terrible at launch, thanks to the amazing PC community I can say that I really enjoy both games but without mods and patches the game is an embarrassment because there games have so much potential but fail to live up to it, not because of over-ambition, hardware limitations but because of pure sloppiness. Patches allow them to literally finish the game after launch. Bethesda must pay the price and learn from their mistakes but there are many other lazy game-developers these days that also need to learn.

[AngelicIceDiamond]

Don't be surprised to see Bethesda at MS conference to show off Zwei or Fallout 4 at E3.

As far as Patch prices go I can see it being done much quicker on next gen consoles which is a huge plus thanks to PC tech.

I also believe cost will go down if MS and Sony open up their platforms more towards it.

[mochachino]

I think gamers lose when devs are dissuaded from patching ASAP by monetary barriers.

I'd prefer that devs can patch immediately without thinking on how much it will cost them, or waiting until they discover enough bugs to make patching worthwhile.

Certainly, it would be better if games released perfect day 1 but the truth is early adopters are quasi-beta testers. Games are a lot more complicated these days, especially considering online.

This gen serious bugs have gone unpatched because publishers didn't think it was worth the cost given the game sales.

Too many games that didn't sell millions haven't been patched because it just wasn't worth the cost to find a fix and then pay to release a patch.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

I agree. Fact is, its always the people who have no clue about software development who want to complain about everything and call devs lazy. Some games/studios/teams have better talent and quality controller than others. That's a given. But nothing is ever going to be perfect without a single bug. Before online connectivity was standard, we didn't even have the option of receiving updates and fixes for our games, but nobody is thankful for that. They would rather complain that its broken in the first place. If developers could self publish patches on console, not only would would it eliminate the cost barrier, it would also ensure we would get these fixes in a more timely manner.

[Gimmemorebubblez]

I disagree, there is no excuse for something that costs 40(PC)-60 USD (console). I can understand a few bugs but millions, some making the game on lauch unplayable. It is LAZYNESS, there is know excuse to finish a game only months after launch.
The reason why some games aren't patched because they didn't sell well is true. But they didn't sell well because they were broken messes to begin with. Developers who release horrendously buggy-games should pay the price, whether it be in cash or fanbase.

[Jek_Porkins]

People want to complain about this or that, but I believe this is a huge obstecle that many smaller devs just cannot afford. I'd love to see them cut the price to patch a game.

You might assume that if a game needs a patch that it's broken, but EVERY single game this generation got a patch. Even with testers and beta's it's easy to miss something, and when a million or more people are playing through a game, it's easy to find bugs and issues.

Console companies need to be more open in this way with their future consoles. Keep smaller devs on consoles and away from more attractive and less expensive phones and tablets.

If I'm a small developer I'd much rather get my game out on the cheap, then pay 40 grand per patch for Xbox Live or PSN.

[Dms2012]

You are correct, beta testing only goes so far, when its released to the masses there is no telling what bugs will surface.