Are developers' standards slipping?

[MiracleOfSound]

A month and a half later, New Vegas still hasn't been patched of it's file corrupting bugs, hundreds of glitches and quest breaking scripting errors.

Black Ops, the most expensive, prestigious game of the year and biggest launch title EVER, has a campaign full of game breaking bugs, broken checkpoints and signposting pointing in the wrong direction. Not to mention the horrendously broken party and lobby system and laggy servers.

Red Dead Redemption had more bugs than I could count. Horses falling through the ground, getting stuck in scenery, NPCs ceasing to have any AI...

Was it always like this? Were games always released in such unfinished and broken states? I don't remember ever having to download a patch for my NES, SNES, PS1 or PS2 era games... oh, that's right... we couldn't

I used to have beef with Ubisoft over thier DRM, but having played AC Brotherhood for 15 hours with not a single bug in sight, they're fast becoming one of my most respected developers. If only every company tested its games that well.

I know games are much bigger now, but is that really an excuse? Cars are more advanced than they used to be but you sure wouldn't want to drive around in an unfinished one with no brakes, or spend 100 quid on a hi-fi system that won't play your discs.

Is it getting worse? Has a more readily available Internet caused developers to change their attitudes to play-testing things properly, and do you think we will be seeing more and more shoddy, unfinished products hitting the shelves in future?

 

[TheComedown]

They have been going down hill for years, probably around the time when they realized that with the online capabilities consoles were getting they could release shit and say they will patch it later. "Here buy our game. We'll make it later" It's getting old fast and really needs to stop, they should be held accountable for this crap, if a food joint serves a dodgy burger or meal or something, they get the pants sued off them and often get shut down. This should happen to studios. No more excuses.

 

[Archangel768]

Square Enix's standards seem to be slipping greatly.

 

[SonicKoala]

I think the biggest problem is the ridiculously large amount of money that's actually required to develop an A-List title these days... as more and more money becomes involved, it becomes increasingly important to ensure the company in question, and that company's investors, see a return on their investments as soon as possible. Thus, these titles, which, as you pointed out, are bug-ridden on account of their large size, are rushed out the door without proper testing being conducted (because, after all, that would cost even MORE money). And, to answer the last part of your question, as long as people continue to buy these bug-ridden products, then no, this problem isn't going to go away. Oh, how bleak the future seems....

 

[Steppin Razor]

Yep, it's getting worse and worse. New Vegas being plagued with the same issues as Fallout 3 is a sort of obvious indicator of that. As for why, I have my suspicions that most developers are still devoting the same amount of time to play-testing as they were 10 years ago. Back then they could get away with a small play-test period as the games weren't anywhere near as complex, but in today's market where a single hugely popular game can have a budget rivaling the GDP of small nations, a much longer time is required to find and fix all the major issues that crop up.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Black Ops release date was set in stone. Both previous CoDs were released on that day. Do you really think they had the time they wanted to work on it?

Two years with over 200 people (what Treyarch apparently dedicated to it)should be plenty of time to make an 8 hour, completely linear campaign that does not contain upwards of 6 or 7 game breaking bugs.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

e car industry seems to have news of different cars having to be recalled once a week. The hi-fi comparison is even weirder, since none of the games you mentioned have glitches that make them totally unplayable and all.

Yes they do. New Vegas has 3, in fact.

 

[Folio]

Gaming companies need to sshhhhlllloooooooowwww doooooowwwwwnnnn.

They are releasing more and more to please a crowd, yet the Metroid fans get Other M. :'(
They need to quiet down, get some incense, meditate or something, and then see if they can make a reasonable game again.

Valve takes a long time to create a game. But those hardly have bugs, and they take to it that they'll be without bugs, one way or another.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Gaming companies need to sshhhhlllloooooooowwww doooooowwwwwnnnn.

But then they'll kick up in the face with their energy legs! I dun wanna be kicked in the face! D=

I partially agree. I mean, yeah, developers shouldn't release buggy or broken games, but with the size of games increasing (in terms of the amount of code needed to actually run everything), there's bound to be a few bugs that the developers can't catch. Of course, hearing the horror stories about New Vegas, there comes a point where releasing a game that broken speaks of laziness (then again, it is Obsisdian...). And, of course, it's not like every developer releases buggy or broken games--Super Mario Galaxy 2 wasn't covered in bugs, for instance (then again, acting as your own publisher means you can extend the release date, so I guess that that's not the best example).

 

[Outright Villainy]

A month and a half later, New Vegas still hasn't been patched of it's file corrupting bugs, hundreds of glitches and quest breaking scripting errors.

That's why you buy the PC version and use unofficial patches or just be one of the lucky ones who hasn't had a problem that wasn't related to a mod not working properly. (If you bought the PC version, I'm sorry for the preceding text. Maybe download the patch from Steam?)

How is that in any way an acceptable solution? The devs drop the ball spectacularly, but it's fine since many people have made patches for it, and they don't even work in the company?
That just makes me respect the company less, since they're obviously lazy gits.

I also don't have a pc good enough to play it. I have a ps3. Guess I'm shit out of luck, huh?
So no, obsidian don't get a free pass because someone else can pick up the slack for them.
That's ridiculous.

 

[Rusty Bucket]

played AC Brotherhood for 15 hours with not a single bug in sight

Save and quit while outside the Animus. Try it, it's fun.

 

[Korten12]

I don't know about you guys but I seriously rarely ever encounter bugs in any games. Even in the games people say are really buggy, Alpha Protocol, Fallout: New Vegas, RDR...

 

[Flamezdudes]

Red Dead Redemption was buggy?

...What. I've never encountered any bug whatsoever and I never really heard of any bugs from other people.

 

[Ickorus]

Developer standards slipped a long time ago, now they're at the bottom of a deep pit rotting and giving off a nasty smell.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Maybe you should consider reading the rest of my post before letting your nerd rage get the better of you. Here, I'll copy/paste it so you can continue being a lazy, entitled arse.

Simpler code = less chance of a bug.
...you can really blame this on the publishers. A deadline (and, conversely [hope I used that right...], the lack thereof) is the bane of a well-made game.

Would you like me to make you a TL;DR version? Or is your attention span actually capable of processing more than 140 characters in a single statement?

This wasn't about making it easier, the question was whether devs' standards were slipping, and yes, in the case of obsidian they have no excuse. I was pointing out that there being fan made patches doesn't mean people can get by on them, because not everyone owns the pc version, and they shouldn't have to anyway.

And oh, and an Ad Hominem. Nice. Very classy.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Red Dead Redemption was buggy?

...What. I've never encountered any bug whatsoever and I never really heard of any bugs from other people.

I had a bug where the next mission wouldn't start, which literally rendered the last portion of the game unplayable. I still have no idea how it ends.

I had no problems with Black-Ops or New Vegas though...swings in roundabouts, I suppose.

 

[irishstormtrooper]

Yes, I suppose the internet and the ease of patching maybe has reduced the developers' standards, but it's not a bad thing. Would I rather play Pac-Man than Black Ops? Of course not. As games get prettier, bigger, and with more content, bugs are just part of the territory. Also, I've never come across any bugs on Black Ops.

 

[EinTheCorgi]

Ahh yes *nods head* well you see guys its not so much the developers its the company's that own them COD is slipping for two main reasons 1 they only have about a year and a half to make the game and game making takes a long time and 2 developers get board working on the same title over and over kinda like being paid to smash eggs upside your head it doesn't matter what color the eggs are its still the same old crap. like Assasins creed BH has been in development for...I think it's been 3 or 4 years so they got much longer to make there game but with other games like Fallout NV they worked on it for about 4 years where as Fallout 3 got about 8-10 years. Ok i'm sorry I tend to ramble but my point is that the developers get board of doing the same thing over and over there not being given enough time and there bosses tell them to add dumb ideas to there games even if they don't want to.

 

[EllEzDee]

What's worse than releasing games broken is releasing games half finished. Purposely.

Hey, what's that, we accidentally left out 2 chapters of the story line to Assassin's Creed 2? Well that's a coincidence, because we just released buyable content with those EXACT 2 chapters!

Stop removing content from your games and you'll notice piracy of those video games will drop.

 

[RatRace123]

It's been said, it's not really the developers it's the publishers. In an era where we can "fix it post launch" publishers want the games out the door faster and faster.

Still some developers (coughObsidioncoughcough) still don't really seem to give a shit about playtesting or bug fixing.