Escapist Podcast: 197: Are Release Delays Good For Gaming?

The Escapist Staff

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Jul 10, 2006
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197: Are Release Delays Good For Gaming?

This week, Jon, Justin, and Ron discuss the good and ill of pushing back a game's release date.

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FoolKiller

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Feb 8, 2008
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I don't think anything bad can really happen pushing a game's release back for quality purposes. Every game in the past few years that showed up on the date advertised and sucked and needed massive patching was an issue of releasing a game for a specific date rather than when it was ready.

I look at things like Halo: Master Chief Collection, Destiny, Assassin's Creed: Unity and so on and they all needed more time and attention. It was as simple as that. The games were broken and unfinished. Same with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. A broken disaster that should never have been allowed out in the world of gaming in that condition.

On the flip side you had games like Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and ironically, Batman: Arkham Knight on console that kept getting pushed back in order to increase the game's quality. I was supposed to get Batman last November and it ended up coming out this summer. Splinter Cell: Conviction was completely scrapped and re-made because it wasn't good enough. The final product was arguably not Splinter Cell-ish but it was a good game without a lot of flaws.

I think the problem is that it's too easy to launch a game and then patch it relentlessly. Before digital updates were a thing in the era of PS3 and Xbox 360, games had to be released in a good state or they would suffer critically and then financially. The age of paying for games months in advance in addition to the ability to create patches has caused publishers to just take the easy way and pump out crap.
 

praetor_alpha

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Mar 4, 2010
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Re: Borderlands art change:

I remember looking at the presentation slides on this very topic. I think it's one of the coolest things ever.

http://gdcvault.com/play/1012480/Borderlands-and-the-11th-Hour