Video Games Are Broken - and Why Complaining Won't Fix It

Gamersledge Editor in Chief Mark Bohdanyk takes a look at how this fall's releases have established a pattern of brokenness that cannot even be solved via voting with your wallet...

[zeal0us]

I understand some games aren't perfect upon release but games release like Unity should have the publisher fined or punished in some shape or form. So long as there no system in play the publishers will keep releasing broken games.

I highly doubt the QA team could overlook these problem. It was all about releasing a game to gain a quick buck.

[brish]

I stopped buying games on release and I don't have to deal with broken games anymore.

If you wait until the game works before purchasing it the problem of buying broken games is solved.

[thorstein]

Did you wait until September 2014 to play Battlefield 4?

That is a long wait. I'm sure people are still playing it. I uninstalled it. It was broken on launch and I still enjoyed it, in spite of its frustrating glitches.

[brish]

@thorstein

"Did you wait until September 2014 to play Battlefield 4?"

I didn't buy it on release because it was broken. It took so long for them to fix it that I lost interest in it. I have never played bf4 and have no intention of ever doing so.

[kurruptor]

You don't like it, return it to the store.

You can't fine a company for a shitty product. Unless it causes harm or something.

[uth11]

The fact that games can now be patched is being used as a way to buy extra development time.

It used to be that development stopped when the discs were pressed, and that happened a month or so before release date.

But now the discs get pressed, and they keep working on it to produce the day-1 patch. And then they work on any remaining bugs.

I don't know which is worse.. today where they keep patching games until they work, or the old days where if the game was broken, it stayed broken.

[MadLad]

While I'm sure developers were pushed a bit more to make sure games were in a solid state back in the day, I still prefer it now that we have a solid means of updating a game after release.
That said, developers and publisher are indeed taking advantage of this. There really should be a system in place that dictates just what a commercial release needs to be in order to appear on shelves. If something truly broken still makes it onto store shelves, then there should be a solid means of obtaining a refund.
It's certainly not the case here in the U.S.

[uth11]

Everybody compares games to other consumer products like cars. I think the key difference is cars don't change a whole lot year after year, so they have been able to work on improving their processes and quality.

On the other hand, we expect games to always push the boundaries. So instead of refining their process they are instead spending all their time making ever bigger games, and bigger means harder to QA

[kurruptor]

Not to be argumentative, but are there examples of games in the past that were broken to the point where the game was unplayable? Just never personally really experienced any major bugs pre-patch day.

[Godmars290]

The only examples other than when online patching became an option, where unlicensed NES and SNES carts. The only thing that comes to mind anyway.

[INTOmyMOUTH]

That's the way the cookie crumbles in today's global atmosphere.

[Godmars290]

Sadly, not buying wont fix anything either. It'll just stop the game from being made.

[PS3Freak]

Complaining doesn't fix anything.

[Godmars290]

Well, aside from the ending of Fallout 3.

[PS3Freak]

Haha, that's a good point.

[Der_Kommandant]

Complain with your wallet

[balth99]

I think that's what's being pointed out, is that even voting with your wallet won't fix the issues anymore.

[N4g_null]

Certification won't work ethier. This is a cash grab. They know they have you so now they are going to squeeze you. Most of you will never go pc or nintendo so you gave them a monopoly. This is what companies with monopoly do.

The idea that you are hurting us and your self is silly. There are old fps that you can do the same exact thing with. They may be on different platforms but they exsist.

Nintendo doesn't make god of war well I'll just buy a ps for that. Opps I can't get yoshi and kirby.... oh well. Now if you can't afford that you have to realize this is not a cheap hobby. Sure nintendo might have got you into it but the price rises as you get older. You will have to vote with your wallet.

There is already a cert process. Plus you are now asking sony and ms to block games like how Nintendo did in the past. Yeah that is right evil a×* nintendo was trying to stop this. That is hostel to 3rd parties. Yet you guys are sending a loud azx message to everyone. 3rd party is king and Sony current success is only because of that one potential.... better 3rd party games.

You guys have effectively took the power out of the hands of these consoles makers by buying only for 3rd parties. Good games are ignore due to political reasons which we call fanboys. Yes they are masked by tastes but it is mostly because of cost, bad decisions on purchases due to hype or blind fanboys aka naive inexperience.

[kurruptor]

Not sure what you mean? Sure if a few people vote with their wallet, it isn't going to change everything.

But if collectively a mass amount of people did it, it would work.

Complaining surely had an affect on AC:Unity. Free DLC and even a free game for anyone who purchased the season pass. I would think Ubisoft will change their ways so that it doesn't happen again. We'll see though.

[OpinionSmasher]

But if you say nothing about it and bring the flaws to public than the developer will basically get away with selling you a product that is broken, yet you sat by and said "well what is me complaining gonna do". Its not gonna fix the game but hell it might make the developer take notice.

[ShadowNextGen]

The picture used for this story was from a hacked version of the PC version of Unity before downloading any patches.

[rmedtx]

The solution is simple: Don't pre-order nor buy games from companies that release this 'broken games' and I'm pretty sure they will stop releasing them. They just got used to us putting up with that crap!