With recent release of Mafia III, I started wondering if we ever get a triple-A game that is considered a finished product the moment it's released. Nowadays developers and publishers abuse the digital distribution systems to the maximum, prolonging development cycle, and intentionally fixing remaining problems even for a few months after the game is released. The question is, do we really have to go through this?
Not that long ago, when the Internet wasn't that common and the Steam platform didn't exist, we had a classical distribution system via stores. When you were buying a game from such a store, you knew that it's a finished, working and tested product - after all you were paying for it, and you expected to enjoy it for a long time. Game patches were extremely rare, and usually they were distributed only for selected popular titles, mainly via various magazines, such as CD-Action in Poland, which I'm sure many of you still remember. How has the industry changed since then?
Nowadays, it's very rare to actually buy a game that is not connected to any digital distribution system. Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam, Origin or Uplay... Those are only a few words that you for sure met with if you consider yourself a gamer. There are various opinions about those - some people love them, some people hate them, but the fact is that all of those services drastically changed availability of games, as well as delivering fixes after the game is delivered, mostly through various patches and hotfixes, very often released even on the first day of the game getting released.
Of course, we're only humans, and sometimes indeed various accidents happen that are out of control and could neither be foreseen nor dealt with in time. But we're not talking about a single accident here - we're talking about people being scared to pre-order any upcoming game title, even from the most famous and popular studios, because it's almost guaranteed that it'll take at least several weeks for a game to be considered playable, and sometimes even after months of trying, a game might still be considered in "work-in-progress" state. I got inspired to write this article after pre-ordering Mafia III that turned out to have a 30 FPS-lock, making playthrough an absolute slideshow, ensuring me to never ever pre-order anything again.
I really hope that eventually developers will stop treating the release date as an 80% development milestone, but until then, we're doomed to see this:
My questions to you:
1. Do you pre-order video games? Why yes, why not?
2. How do you feel about companies releasing unfinished products? Do you think it's acceptable in our current technological situation, or maybe they should feel ashamed of even considering such an approach?
3. What is your opinion about digital distribution systems, such as Steam? Do you consider them useful, or maybe you'd prefer to buy games in a traditional way?
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
http://attackofthefanboy.com/opinion/game-developers-releasing-broken-games/
http://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/unbelievably-broken-games-released/
https://gamerant.com/broken-games-launch-batman-halo-diablo-155/
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/error-37
http://static9.cdn.ubi.com/resource/en-US/game/far-cry/primal/ncsa-far-cry-primal-news-day1_patch_notes_239685.jpg
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--HYCBYcbB--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/17mrlzsm4dgvajpg.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGmjJ8swT-w
Nowadays, it's very rare to actually buy a game that is not connected to any digital distribution system. Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Steam, Origin or Uplay... Those are only a few words that you for sure met with if you consider yourself a gamer. There are various opinions about those - some people love them, some people hate them, but the fact is that all of those services drastically changed availability of games, as well as delivering fixes after the game is delivered, mostly through various patches and hotfixes, very often released even on the first day of the game getting released.
I really hope that eventually developers will stop treating the release date as an 80% development milestone, but until then, we're doomed to see this:
1. Do you pre-order video games? Why yes, why not?
2. How do you feel about companies releasing unfinished products? Do you think it's acceptable in our current technological situation, or maybe they should feel ashamed of even considering such an approach?
3. What is your opinion about digital distribution systems, such as Steam? Do you consider them useful, or maybe you'd prefer to buy games in a traditional way?
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
http://attackofthefanboy.com/opinion/game-developers-releasing-broken-games/
http://wegotthiscovered.com/gaming/unbelievably-broken-games-released/
https://gamerant.com/broken-games-launch-batman-halo-diablo-155/
http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/error-37
http://static9.cdn.ubi.com/resource/en-US/game/far-cry/primal/ncsa-far-cry-primal-news-day1_patch_notes_239685.jpg
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--HYCBYcbB--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/17mrlzsm4dgvajpg.jpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGmjJ8swT-w
Comments
Releasing products which aren't properly finished is in my opinion not fair. Such manufacturer can cause that they became unreliable. If they lied for customers once, customers next time wouldn't chose their product. I think it’s the general fact. In my opinion such approach can’t be acceptable.
When it comes to digital distribution systems, it’s very common now in lots of aspect of our lives. It’s very comfortable because you don't need to leave your house to buy in this case a game. On the other hand, there’re still traditional people who wants to posses a real think for example a book. They feel more comfortable with the fact that they received sth in return of spending money.
It seems to be really simple - when you pay full price for a product, you expect it to be fully functional. On the other hand, the more you get into it, the more complicated it becomes - if someone is really looking forward to his favourite game, he takes the potencial risk without further reflection.
I'm also wondering what's the real reason for such behavior of game studios. Do they do so because they simply can (thanks to digital distribution systems and easy distribution of patches)? Or maybe it's just a clever way of financing the final part of game development?
Anyway, I belive that in the long term this could seriously harm publishers.
I think it's good that developers are releasing an unfinished game. They remind players about themself and show what you can expect from the game. However, the unfinished game and demo versions should be free of charge. It should just work like in the real world. Getting a free sample of the product has to encourage you to buy the right product. But of course, the company producing the game are doing it mainly to earn money. Therefore I understand their behavior. Production of such a game usually lasts more than a year, costs are high and the budget, unfortunately, did not return until the game will release on the market. That's why they release demo, which derive profit. But in the Internet age, where generally I do shopping without leaving home, I can not imagine that I'm going to the store to buy the game with CD. That's why Steam is my savior.
Preordering is most usually a trap. A company can shout out a few amazing words about the game, release a trailer (that shows something completly unrelated to the game in release state) and get players hyped. Riding on that, consumer buys the product sooner, without access to reviews or opinions. Hopefully people will stop doing that so often after No Man's Sky or Watch Dogs happened.
1. Nowadays development is much harder then it used to be. Gaming industry requires more and more work - better graphics, users demand for longer story and a lot of details, results in higher prices and demand to involve more people in development process. Also it promotes considering players as "beta testers" to save some money on detail testing and release game earlier.
2.Gaming business - became battlefield for corporations, there are no longer small studios creating impressive games, as it used to be. Indie games cannot compete with big superproductions, and games are profitable projects, rather than consequence of few developers dedication.
3. Gamers fall for "preorders" - it is stupid. People used to be beta-testers for free, and now what? They have to pay for it?
Games nowadays are often very big, they offer open-world gameplay, superb graphic etc. However, i think production time of modern games didn't changed, or might be even shorter than few years ago. In my opinion this is the main cause of releasing unfinished products.
If we are talking about beta versions, I think it's acceptable to release it. There are some features, which could be tested only in "real" case. When people gains some levels, awards or play with thousand others, I mean.
What's more, beta testing is good situation to hear gamers and add missing features (or nice to have).
In my opinion, digital distribution systems such as Steam or Origin are very useful solution. Let's say 'invention'! :)
It's very comfortably to have online library with all games. It avoids a lot of problems such as scratches on disks or loss of it. I would change only one thing - I would connect all systems in one, much bigger. Unfortunatelly, I'm aware all platoforms belong to different companies and that's why it's impossible.
Traditional way has one advantage - touchable disk that gives you the joy of buying, which I remember from childhood. :) Awesome feeling!
a) Many (especially casual) gamers buy games blindly based purely on title, company or a trailer.
b) With power of digital distribution, it's easy to release nearly-finished product, and assume that it's alright to patch it after release without causing too big troubles.
c) Especially with release of early access titles on Steam, people very often pay for unfinished products intentionally, in hope to test it and help development. But it's very rare for early access game to be actually finished - developers got their money, so they don't have a reason anymore to work on a product. That is a subject for totally different article though.
Finally a subject without politics and philosophy :)
First of all to be fair. Games development errors are common and I think that making games available via platforms like Steam isn't really the issue of that.
Just to make it clear - the most awaited PC game in last 10 years - GTA IV was mostly sold in traditional way (DVD - three of them if I remember correctly). It was almost unplayable at the release date and many months after. It cost a fortune and 1/8 of it was DRM's budget. The number of errors in this game and bad comments on the Internet was something truly insane (the game was released in 2008).
I can show one significant difference that changed through time - in 2015 Batman: Arkham Knight's - was officially taken down from Steam because of numer of errors reported by the users in first few days from release date (everyone received their money back from Steam when that happened). I personally bought GTA IV in 2008 - I couldn't play it because of many errors (my computer configuration at that time was above average) - I couldn't do nothing about it but wait about 2 months for a patch that made it playable...
Waiting for a patch in 2008 was the only option, in 2015 i received money back after 4 days - for me that's big and positive change also a big warning for developers.
I also think that main problem with a new games is that the producers focus way too much on protecting the game using anti-tamper like Denuvo etc. and this kind of protection usually makes the game work slower. For PC the most loved feature when buying games through portal like GOG - is that, they're DRM free and mostly work better and without many problems from their DRM protected Steam versions.
I personally liked what Shadow Warrior 2 developers (recently released game) said about DRM - "it is a waste of time - There isn't a good way to stop [piracy] without hurting our customers". And I must say that money that was saved was not thrown away - the game released few days ago is just purely awesome, works great and after playing about 10 hours of it I didn't find any major or even small bug. It was made by Polish developers - so if you're a FPS fan, it's a must have.
P.s. To go back straight to Mafia III, the FPS limit on PC was easy taken away in about one day :) So sometimes it's better to wait for comments on the game and not to pre order it - you can buy every game in ten minutes anyway :)
I think in the old days patches were released less frequent because users rarely used and there always had to be official update notification. Today Steam and other platforms release patches every few days because it's easy and no user action is required in most cases (I think about 75% users don't even notice that game was updated).
As a gamer - I think it’s a shame that companies release unfinished products. But as a software developer, I think it’s just a reality. It’s extremely difficult to make the product stable in a short period of time. So I kind of accept this new approach in game dev.
I prefer Steam because mostly I play a multiplayer with my friends. And Steam is all about playing with friends. I wish I’d have a Steam when I was 14 years old
Xbobx live, Stream... I don't have any opinion about these things, because I didn't use them. But if distributors of games offered us a possibility to test demo version then I think this it's the best option for me.
Buying game online we save money, time and we have possibility to test a game before. We are partially guilty that released games look like unfinished. Buying pre-orders we give the distributor guarantee that he will have money from our pockets. Then he doesn't feel any pressure to make a game with high quality. For me this marketing gimmick seems as teleshoping. On tv everything works beautifully, but reality is different.
about unfinished games, i do remember Diablo 3
and i think it happens because the fans was really pushing them out to release the game.
and my opinion about steam, its acutely very nice and organised way to buy and download games, i used most of the times.
I think it all depends on situation on the market. Companies are competing each other what causes that time to finish the game is improbably short. It results with unfinished games released on market. I think this situation is acceptable, technology allows us to make huge things, however working under pressure, while deadlines keep changing is really hard. Technology only helps humans and I think that we should remember about this. I think this situation is caused both by clients, who want every new game ASAP, and the market. In terms of digital distribution system I think it is very convenient, fast and easy way to get a game.
I think selling an unfinished product is horrible thing and should never happen as for me it is cheating and maybe it would be better to postpone it for ex..
Talking about steam, it is good thing for small studios. The would not be able to go on market and show their products without it.
I like to play rpg's mostly an for me the most important thing in game is great story with many thing I can do in there and with many path to take on.
2. I think that we are just humans so I accept the fact that they release an unfinished product. However, they shouldn't overdo it and they should create at least 90 % of the game.
3. I prefer to buy games in a traditional way. I like to feel it under my fingers and I like when the box stand on my shelf and there is a thick layer of dust on it... mmm... ;)
2. Well, it's hard to tell. Videogames are a business and some companies are a part of the stock exchange. In a situation like that postponing a date of release can be very hurtful in terms of money. Of course, everyone would like to get completely finished games, but they're still a business.
3. I like Steam. For a long time I preferred to buy games in a traditional way, but things like Family sharing, the ease with which you can have all your library immediately wherever you have an Internet connection, swayed me into liking Steam.
In my opinion Steam is a cool service to buy games.
Another thing is that bugs and broken games always existed, even before digital distribution, what digitalization changed is how developers can react to their own mistakes. When the entry point is so low that literally anyone who wants to make a game can do it - you have to expect broken games.
Again, not everything game developers do is obvious and simple, I don't think that people make broken games because that's what they wanted to do. Sometimes something goes wrong.
Undertale? You mean Undertale right? No?
Well the games seem pretty obscure, as for the music... well I listened to all of the songs you linked and liked only the jazz version. I wanted to answer your question but then I realized I have no idea how to classify the type of music I listen to so I asked Wikipedia. It says I listen to Indietronica, Folktronica, Alternative rock and Baroque pop... so who am I to judge?
No. not at all. There is no point of buying games before getting reviews from the biggest magazines or even friends.
2.
The biggest problem with buying unfinished games is that people buy unfinished games. If we wouldn’t buy pre-order games the companies will stop selling us exaggerated trailers with better graphics. They would stop spending money on getting people hyped and they’d start spending on the development of the game.
3.
Steam it’s life. In modern digital world, there is no more need for physical discs or physical releases.