“People have a right to a game that works,” says Battlefield developer

X-ONE: Battlefield Hardline's creative director Ian Millham reveals why the team at Visceral is so dedicated to ensuring a smooth launch for its upcoming cops & robbers shooter.

It isn't because of internal pressure following Battlefield 4, but because "if you buy a game it should work."

[Gazondaily]

Don't mess it up this time DICE!

[Mega24]

really... dice has no say here.

[breakpad]

are the f serious ? people has the right to a GOOD game ...a title that works is considered as GIVEN EA idiots...

[freshslicepizza]

they do have a right and consumers should also have a right to return a product if that product does not work as advertised.

[Crazyglues]

@ moldybread

Yeah if consumers have a right to a game that works why didn't they refund all the people when Battlefield 4 Launched...

At least they could have refunded Premium on that broke game, for all the people who bought it day one...

I really don't believe anything these companies say, because it's always when they are selling you there next product.. (when BF4 launched no one was coming out saying yeah we messed up, at least Assassin Creeds Developers came right out and fessed up on Unity) hell Ubisoft even tried to make up for it, and that game wasn't even no where near as broke as BF4 was on launch.

--Now all of a sudden Battlefield Developers believe the game should be working on launch--

[byronimus]

@crazyues

*Their

Ontopic: then you would have to be able to define "broken". Clearly some games have struggles out the gate, but for everyone to return these games in the first couple days would only hurt the industry. And have fun trying to chat with a representative with your interpretation of "broken".

[WellyUK]

Unity was broken way worse than BF on launch... Atleast Bf had a stable fps, Unity was just completely broken just because it ran like horse shite. BF was slightly playable on launch if you were on at the right times.

[WellyUK]

Ubisoft and EA both have to make good games now to make up for last year.

[Crazyglues]

@ byronimus

I respect you player, but with all due respect, there are some things we just have to look at with common sense..

If the game keeps crashing your PS4, meaning you can't play with out getting a Blue screen ever five minutes..that's a broke game, at the very least that's a game that sure as hell didn't do beta testing..
(how could you have, that wouldn't get pass stage 1 testing)

Now as if that was not enough, shooting mechanics were a complete mess... I mean there are a ton of videos on youtube explaining the problems with the hit detection being broke..

Again (Stage 1 of beta testing) How? how could you even come out of stage 1 being that broke..

How many YouTube videos do you think there are of Destiny having bad shooting mechanics.. I'm going to take a wild guess and say Zero

I can understand little problems, but crashes my PS4 every two seconds, I'm gonna say that's broke.

Asking the company to do the right thing when this many people are having problems, should not be a question.

*And how in the world does being able to get your money back when it's broke, hurt the industry -- name any other product in any other market, phones, car battery, TV's, etc.. that works like that, NONE DO. Companies work hard to make their products good, because when you can return it, they worry about losing money, so they make it good.

If game companies don't have to worry about returns then something is wrong, and someone has fooled you. (because that's not how it's suppose to work)

Think about if I was selling a phone and I said, well if it does not work you can't return it, no returns all sales are final.. (would you buy it, NO) if you would I got a really cheap brand new PS4 controller for sale.. 24 bucks - but no returns if it's broke..

Come on' we gotta wake up, and Sony should have a better Policy in place / How is it that EA can have a --Origin Great Game Guarantee-- on PC where -You may return any EA full game digital download (PC/Mac) purchased on Origin for a full refund but Sony can't do returns if the game is broke.. --ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Come on' when are we going to wake up!

[freshslicepizza]

@Crazyglues

i didn't buy that game but maybe it wasn't broken for everyone? i'm not sure. i only remember it had a lot of issues at launch but i can't recall if it was unplayable online or some had issues connecting.

what should happen (but i can't say for certainty it does) is you get a certain amount of time to return a game if it is indeed unplayable. so if you did buy battlefield and the online part isn't working why can't you get your money back? that would mean you'd have to prove it somehow that it is impossible to play. ea could turn around and say they are fixing log in issues but if they can't get it working in a fair amount of time then the consumer should be able to return it because to me its a defective product.

its a very grey area because they can say a patch is in the works but look at what happened with driveclub and halo master chief collection. both had issues connecting for a long time and i think halo still has issues for some. to me that's not good enough.

for ac unity thats also tricky. some people were able to play but it was filled with glitches. the stem of the problem was it didn't run very well and didn't go through enough testing likely because they had a release date they didn't want to change. the best course of action is to not buy another game by then until you know it is running well.

publishers need to earn our business, not the other way around. if they sell shoddy products consumers should expect more next time to gain their loyalty back.

[Detoxx]

DICE isn't making this, Visceral is.

[Gazondaily]

yeah my bad

[Neonridr]

remember what you just said then when this game launches.

[hello12]

I didn't find the beta all that good. With Ea access i get 10 hours with the full game i might just download it and see if i change my mind about buying?. I will have access to all multiplayer maps and modes 10 hours is more then enough time to see if the game is broken or not.

[MilkMan]

You don't say.

[Roccetarius]

Not only do we have to brace ourselves for bad games in general, but we're unsure if it even works to begin with. It's such fantastic times we live in.

[lennyvon]

720p on xbox with less visuals compared with bf4 is pathetic!!!
On an large open battlefield resolution does make a big difference.
Was wanting to come back to xbox because I prefer the asymmetric controller but think I'll pass, I like being able to make out people shooting me from a distance!!!!! '

[Macdaddy71]

LMFAO!!!!! This coming from someone that dang near every game they have made in the past couple more year all been broken....how funny...but I agree $65 for a game it should Not be broken... Downfall is we play demo, beta, before game release and they claim that they let us play to fix the games, but yet they still release broken...

[MasterCornholio]

Did you think that when you made Battlefield 4?

[WellyUK]

Didn't have time to as EA just shoved it out the door before they even thought about it.

[Detoxx]

Yeah because Visceral made Battlefield 4 right? /s.

Just shows how ignorant most people bashing the game are.

[The-Marb]

A nice sentiment.

I wasn't blown away by the beta for Hardline but it was still fun. I remain hopeful, mostly as I really loved Visceral's other work on Dead Space 1 and 2 and Dantes Inferno and feel they are developer with a really good sense of design, atmosphere and playability.

Its on pre-order anyway, something has to fill the gap between now and Witcher 3 in May.

[JJShredder]

After BF4 I just can't pick this game up on launch. I just see no scenario where this game will be working properly for the first month or so.

I will let all you do the beta-testing lol.

[Chapter11]

Stunning revelation. It's a bit of a controversial one though, don't know how many will agree with that.

[TheCommentator]

A creed all game devs should live by. Too many games are broken and never get properly fixed these days.