- Feb 12, 2009
- 607
- 63
Have you noticed this trend? It seems to be happening every where's I look. PC and consoles alike. From the large amount of console DLC to the constant stream of patches on the PC, it seems that developers are releasing more and more half completed, glitched, bugged games and patching them after release.
On the consoles, developers are releasing shorter games at the full price of $60 and adding DLC, for $5 or $10 dollars more, that completes the game. What was before a nice 30~40 hours $50 game can now be a 10 hour $60 game with another $30 bucks of DLC that brings the game up to 20~30 hours.
As penny arcade put it so nicely...
This trend is highly concerning with many developers no longer making sure what comes in box works a priority. Many games are riddled with bugs and instead of using intense playtesting before public release developers are now counting on the player that bought it to report various bugs and to have them subsequently patched
Another disturbing part of this pattern is the large amounts of content in the DLC that was not included in the game. When DLC contains 1 or 2 new weapons you can understand that. But when the DLC contains a whole arsenal of +10 new weapons, 2 new vehicles, and entire new world to explore added on to the fact you beat the original game in a weekend, you feel quite cheated.
My last concern with it is that some developers never patch the game and update it and instead proceed to make an entirely new sequel.
To close this I wish to share with you the remarks of the Editor-in-Chief from Game informer.
So what's next? Will we have to buy the air-pump DLC so we can inflate our balls in Madden? Will the ability to reloaded be released a month later in the form of DLC? Will the next RPG have a save function patch? Where will this madness end, and most importantly,
On the consoles, developers are releasing shorter games at the full price of $60 and adding DLC, for $5 or $10 dollars more, that completes the game. What was before a nice 30~40 hours $50 game can now be a 10 hour $60 game with another $30 bucks of DLC that brings the game up to 20~30 hours.
As penny arcade put it so nicely...
This trend is highly concerning with many developers no longer making sure what comes in box works a priority. Many games are riddled with bugs and instead of using intense playtesting before public release developers are now counting on the player that bought it to report various bugs and to have them subsequently patched
Another disturbing part of this pattern is the large amounts of content in the DLC that was not included in the game. When DLC contains 1 or 2 new weapons you can understand that. But when the DLC contains a whole arsenal of +10 new weapons, 2 new vehicles, and entire new world to explore added on to the fact you beat the original game in a weekend, you feel quite cheated.
My last concern with it is that some developers never patch the game and update it and instead proceed to make an entirely new sequel.
To close this I wish to share with you the remarks of the Editor-in-Chief from Game informer.
Andy McNamara said:I feel like I do a lot of patching these days. While it certainly isn't as difficult to deal with as it was back in the glory days of the PC, it is getting to the point where I can't put a game in a console without taking a few minutes for an update.
There are plenty of cases where the update is minor, and the patch itself is just smoothing out the edges (like when a developer addresses gameplay balance issues), but there are other times when I get that sinking feeling that there is foul play involved.
Are developers getting lax in their testing stages to meet release dates that have to be planned so far in advance for marketing that we are entering a new age where the patch isn't to fix an occasional mistake, but is an accepted part of the game development process? It is a tough question to answer, simply becuase publishers and developers will never release their known bug list (and trust me, these lists do exist). I've heard the tale, and have been close to getting proof before, but this story is harder to nail down than Watergate (or maybe I'm just no Woodward or Bernstein).
However, I do have a cautionary tale I can tell, even though you are going to have to take it as a hearsay since a second source never came forward. A tipster let me in on the fact that a fairly well-known football franchise (and no, it's not Madden) that had shipped with a number of game-crashing bugs, was, according to the source, knowingly signed off for manufacturing by the producer to get the game out on time.
This happened well before the days of consoles being capable of updates. So it makes you wonder what developers would be capable of doing when they know they have such a luxury at their disposal.
I know this tale makes it sound like all publishers and developers are out to get us, (but they are out to get our money!) and I assure you that is not the case. But there are a lot of games, and the frequency of which things are getting patched these days certainly does give me pause.
Well that's my conspiracy theory for the issue, or perhaps it's just a notice to all the manufactures, publishers and developers out there that gamers are noticing, and the press is watching. Let's not devolve to the old days of shipping incomplete product, and just dealing with it later.
So what's next? Will we have to buy the air-pump DLC so we can inflate our balls in Madden? Will the ability to reloaded be released a month later in the form of DLC? Will the next RPG have a save function patch? Where will this madness end, and most importantly,
Where will we as gamers and consumers draw the line?