Patch It Later, It’ll Be Fine

Critical Gamer writes: For a long time now games have been released before they meet a commercial launch standard. It continues to happen today, though it is mystifying why it happens at all. I am reminded of this practise by two games I’ve played recently that, for different reasons, did not launch to the public in any kind of playable condition.

Before moving onto the two games in question, I would like to ask you; is patching really an acceptable excuse?

[DoomeDx]

Great article!
Very entertaining, and quite funny too!

[smoothdude]

Developers want more money and are releasing games like this. Why do they hate pre owned games again?

[FragGen]

Agreed. It's getting worse, too: DLC encourages publishers to release products that are "incomplete by design", so they can ask for more $$$ at a later date for features that were designed for the game but intentionally omitted.

Between this DLC trend and the oblivious attitude toward bugs as called out in the original article, it's no wonder a lot of intelligent customers are turning to used games or GotY/collected editions and holding off on day one purchases.

[Lifendz]

It's not acceptable. What's worse is that many reviewers give games high scores despite being littered with bugs.

But whatever. I'll get Fallout New Vegas when the GOTY version comes out. By then they should have patched all the bugs away and I'll get the dlc also.

[kaos_fish II]

Oblivion GOTY and Fallout 3 GOTY still have plenty of bugs/glitches that weren't fixed.. So, in all honesty I wouldn't hold my breath on Fallout New Vegas GOTY (when released) will have it's bugs/glitches totally removed too.

[Lifendz]

Good point...but it'll be better than it is now. Fallout 3 still has bugs galore. Last game I played had cars falling out the sky.

[CrippleH]

Reviewers are a joke this generation. They should clamp down on bug riddled games. Take away at least 1-2 points from the total score, yet some games get clamped down for simple screen tearing (IGN).

[DoomeDx]

I meant, funny in a 'good' way..the pictures for example

[scruffy_bear]

I love that we can patch consolse games, back in the dark days Morrowind was released on the Xbox with a memory cach error that crash the game after about 20 hours and made the game unplayable. Had to wait till Morrowind GOTW was release for the memory cach bug to be fixed

[Nihilism]

But errors like that were extremely rare, now BECAUSE OF the ability to patch, all games are released with game breaking bugs.

I'm not buying games on day 1 anymore because the fully patched and DLC inclusive version will be released for half the vanilla games price in 12 months.

[imvix]

Funny Console gamers actualy used to complain about PC gaming having patches. Not to mention hard drive installs etc. How the times have changed lol.

Now they actually like it that consoles can patch too(obviously after they have seen the advantages first hand) and they actually want games to install on hard drive.

[Gamesauce]

It's understandable that some consumers choose to wait with buying games, just so their major issues have already been patched. Even big retail games should no longer rely on their first launch months, but instead be taken care of by their publishers to have a more service oriented approach. It might even result in a longer shelf life!

[divideby0]

patch it later and I MAY buy it later...

[Downtown boogey]

There's the problem exactly... They get less money later AND people are less likely to buy an older game.

[DARK WITNESS]

right... but if the great majority of gamers held off buying the games day one and bought the games months later when they were patched and cheaper as Divideby0 sugested... it would not be long before the publishers ( the ones who care about making money and nothing else ) start to sit up and ask why this trend is happening.

Once they did that and realised it's because of the attitude that they can release a pile of trash and and patch it later, maybe they will actual change their ways.

the one thing to understand is that no amount of complaining/ moaning/ articles on the issue will ever make them change their ways, only when the practice affects their sales and profit will it then become an issue they have to address.

if they know people are holding out, they may realise it's more in their interest to delay release, give the dev's time to workout all the bugs and issues, pack as much content as possible into it and then when it is released we will feel we are getting better value for money and hence be more inclined to pick it up on the day of release meaning they will get more money in their pockets for it.

I vote with my wallet nothing else. I liked Fallout 3, but will leave Vagas for game of the year. Many other games I was interested in I have completely lost interest in. If I am going to spend my hard earned money on something that is only going to go down in value ( $$$ i am talking about ) then it better be giving me the value back in some other way.

[rymanb]

Patching can give developers a chance to give the game a new lease of life, but I don't think they should abuse the system by patching bugs after release - some people may not be able to access the patch after all due to lack of internet connection or whatever.

Media Molecule (with LittleBigPlanet 2) delayed their game for that reason, there are problems that need to be fixed and they don't want to have to patch it as some may miss out, simple.

[va_bank]

This is the worst part about current gen. They will learn, though. I see a lot of people no longer buying games on day 1 because of this.

[Dark_king]

The only games that I buy day one are games that I was apart of the beta and liked what I played.Other then that I don't buy games day one,at least not anymore.

[dredgewalker]

Activision is the biggest offender in this department. I've been waiting for the patch to fix the glitches and bugs in Transformers multiplayer but all they do is shove out more dlc's. I ain't buying anymore Activision games.

[Immortal321]

when it should be the other way around. I mean, sht all we get are incomplete games then later pay extra for the content that should have been in the disc in the first place.

[Vortex3D]

As long there are enough gamers who are willing to buy broken and buggy games on the day 1 release, the game publishers will continue to do it. It's all about sell now and fix later. Also it looks better on business because the game publishers are more likely to meet the release schedule and show profits first.

The most amusing part is gamers who are willing to buy the games on day 1 release still "surprised" and complain about how broken and buggy the games are. It should be expected since those gamers are the primary reason that game publishers have made it into a standard practice. Of course, if you ask those gamers, they will never agree.

I stopped buying any new game on day 1 release. Also since game price drops faster now, waiting has become the best thing. Not only the games are more patched from nasty bugs a few months later, they are also cheaper. That makes waiting a win-win. Let those gamers who can't wait to buy the games at day 1 release be the beta tester.

When I'm in stores nowadays, the easiest way to respond to the salesguys asking me to pre-order or buy new games are why do I want to pre-order or buy broken games at day 1 release? There are only two responses from the sales, try to look puzzled how the newly released games can be broken or pretend new games are so exciting by ignoring my question.

[DARK WITNESS]

Totally agree with you.