Delays Are Not a Good Thing

"A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad." - Shigeru Miyamoto

This quote is what most often comes to mind when we hear about yet another delay for an anticipated game. Although most often directly quoted for Nintendo delays due to the origin of the quote, it has found application across all relevant games on any platform either in piece or whole. From the recently announced Final Fantasy XV delay to polish the experience, to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild being delayed multiple times until confirmation of the NX release, recent examples of delays after establishing a release window or even a release date have not been uncommon. Recent examples include the likes of No Man's Sky, XCOM 2, Outlast 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Persona 5.

Often, a game delay leads to a positive result. We get a better functioning experience on day one rather than having to wait two months for the developer to develop a proper patch for issues anyways. Let me establish now that I think releasing a product that represents a complete and refined product is important. There is nothing worse than being excited about a new game only to end up with an Assassin's Creed: Unity. The problem lies in accountability.

At this point, I'm not sure if its publishers pushing to establish release dates and at least semi-specific release windows, or if it's developers completely overestimating how far along they are in the development cycle at any given time. Either way, it seems at least one party is feeling like they need to provide a release date of some kind, and it is hitting a point where we hear "delay" and think it's simply par for the course. Of course the game got delayed, we have come to collectively think. Development these days is complicated and unpredictable in problems that may appear all the way up to the point where the product would otherwise be considered finished.

This way of thinking is giving one hell of a pass to everybody involved with a given game's marketing though. Although it is likely publishers pushing and making these errors much of the time, even an almost completely self contained developer/publisher like Nintendo can't seem to avoid having to announce delays like with the aforementioned Zelda and the likes of Star Fox Zero. They build expectations, abuse gamer commitment, and then say "sorry, we were off by half a year or so". Let's not ignore how unprofessional this can be in cases where just announcing the release date was its own event, like with Final Fantasy XV.

Some delays are less terrible than others. XCOM 2, for example, is having only a three week delay, which is otherwise acceptable in terms of unexpected last minute bug squashing. Other delays make you wonder why the developer even bothered mentioning the game exists to begin with, like with Breath of Wild. Delaying a game so hard it makes it to the launch of a new console is almost an achievement in its own right.

Now, I'm not asking for the industry to completely change how it operates. All I'm asking is for publishers and even developers to take the level of accountability necessary to not commit to release dates or windows until they are confident they can either hit that window, or get so close to it the potential delay could hardly be considered one at all. As gamers, we need to stop rolling over and accepting the liquid movement of release dates and let industry leaders know that jerking around their customers like this is ridiculous.

Let me close out my thoughts with an augmentation to the quote at the beginning:
A rushed game may be forever bad. A game that goes through its full development cycle before release has the best chances of being good. A delayed game will continue to shake confidence and lead to disappointment being the common feeling leading up to a game's release.

[Nitrowolf2]

The way I see it, you never know what kind of game you'll have in the end, delayed or not. A delayed game though, no question, will mostly, if not always, be better than the non delayed version. Even if it turns out being a bad game in the end.

@lucktrouble

Oh for sure! I agree with you 100% on that.

[luckytrouble]

It's not about whether a delayed game will be good or not. Like I said, I want games to feel polished and complete on day one, preferably without a multi-GB patch being necessary. It's how delaying a game has come to be viewed as just another part of the public side of game development, and how problematic that is when maintaining a publicly announced release schedule should be the normal expectation.

Especially as I've started taking part in the more ill advised practice of pre-ordering, delays have become that much more frustrating as my anticipation and trust is met with uncertainty and yet another "sorry, we tried, but we really just need that extra two to six months to really pull things together".

[wheresmymonkey]

Here's the solution to your problem. Stop preordering. It's a mugs game that only benefits publishers.

[Shubhendu_Singh]

It bothers people according to how invested they were in that game.
But logically thinking, you're obviously right.

A delayed game would be better than the non-delayed game, even if it was a bad game since the get go.

[IndominusRex]

I think developers should announce release dates after the game has gone gold.

[Princess_Pilfer]

You miss the patently obvious fact that dev teams can make all the estimates in the world on the time a project will take, but there are like 10 billion things that can go wrong at every stage of development, and many of them will go wrong in ways that couldn't possibly have been predicted. Releasing it anyways or cutting the content instead of taking the time to get it right does not benefit you.

It only shakes the confidence of rational people when games show signs of ending up in development hell, and being dissappointed by a game before it's even released or that it was delayed to so they can do things properly is baseless and counter productive.

Unless it's already in print when they announce a release date, there are going to be delays. End of story.

[overrated44]

I'm pretty sure there has never been a game that was delayed to make the product better and it became worse for it.

[joethetimelord]

The title should be "Premature Announcements Are Not a Good Thing". When you spend two paragraphs disproving your own title, then it's a bad title.

[gamejediben]

I think there is a "golden time" for every game to release where the game is just polished enough and the release calendar is just open enough that said game can get its time in the spotlight and sell well.

Sometimes a game releases too early and too buggy and get tons of attention and ends up being infamously disastrous like AC Unity, Diablo III or Sim City 2013. Sometimes the game releases well polished but gets buried under too many other releases and get overlooked. Like Beyond Good & Evil and Valkyria Chronicles these games should have either been delayed until a better date could be found or released earlier.

Sometimes a game releases WAY too late and still isn't polished like Too Human. And sometimes a game releases WAY too late and even though it is well polished, people laugh at it for being so outdated and crusty. Perfect Dark is a great example of this. By April 2000, FPS games had come a long way since 1997 and GoldenEye 007 was king of the split screen.

Publishers know all this and so they came up with a scam to get people to pay part or full price for an unknown quantity which may or may not be what the consumer thought it would be. They called it "Preording." This way, the consumer feels invested in the game's future even if its a steaming pile of crap.

This is why lots of people are SOOOOOOO hyped for Final Fantasy XV even though Tabata and Square Enix have a very mediocre track record at best and the game has been vaporware for over 10 years. But when so many people have invested in FFXV's future, no one wants to say the obvious. Its kinda like "The Emperor Has No Clothes" actually.

Think about it this way. Has there ever been a game that took over 10 years of development that ended up exceeding expectations? Even one? Also, why release it in the holiday rush period? Why not do like the last several FF games and release in Q1 when it isn't so crowded?

[rocketpanda]

You honestly think devs want to delay their games. Knowing the backlash how a broken buggy game release can vastly damage their sales. How many devs and publishers get trampled on for releasing games in less than passable states because they know they can patch the hell out of it after sales.

Delays shows some devs have actual pride in the product they want to release.

The only time a delay is bad is if it still releases broken and lackluster. If the improvements and performances are clear, then it can only be a good thing.

They have release dates because they have financial targets to meet and to present them to shareholders, it is all outlined.