Retailing Unfinished Games

[Stammer]

Since the advent of online being a complete staple in our gaming world, I've noticed a major problem in games. Namely that a game gets released with so many problems, bugs, and glitches that it's almost unplayable, but under the justification that "it'll get patched as time goes on".

A good majority of online-heavy PS3 and 360 games as well as virtually all PC games have this problem.

The most universally-recognized example I can think of is Fallout: New Vegas. But it hits closer to home in Maxis' Darkspore. Even 2 months after release it still has bugs and balancing issues that cause players to lose hours of effort on a regular basis.

Should something be done about this? I mean, one could argue that it's the fault of the consumer for buying an unfinished product. But most of the time people want to try the game out anyway. But don't you think that publishers should at least print "This game may not be totally ready at time of purchase" on the box?

 

[Helios_(DEL)]

Hellgate london,boarderlands and deadspace 2
Hellgate lagged and framerate was really bad it didnt seemed finnished, it wasnt my comp.
Boarderlands just downright pissed me off had trouble joining online games, had major mic issues that would take lamost 30 mins to get working and just glitches every now and again.
Deadspace 2 annoyed me to i got up to the 13th chapter and apparentally theres a random glitch that you ether get or you dont when you start a new game that doesnt spawn a switch(or generator) that opens a story based only door that you have to get through i still dont think its been fixed i could be wrong, so after all that gun upgrading and almost finnishing the game theres that annoying game glitch.

And yes somthing should be done about it if you cant play or complete a game properly the game shouldnt be on retail shelves at all, its a major joke especially if a patch isnt released.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

Someone in the industry said about a year ago "Game should be released at about 90% complete, the designer/modder communities will want to finish the game to perfection."

While this is a grand idea, I don't think he meant to leave terrible glitches in the game, more things like new maps, mods. The best example is probably the Half Life series, which many people just play Counterstrike on and don't ever play Half Life. Releasing games with a basic engine and leaving perfection to communities is good for multiplayer games, but games with a Narrative based gameplay require polish, when one of these glitches occur it breaks immersion, which is bad (especially for Horror games).

The game that will be possibly the best game in the world when it receives a modding kit will be Minecraft. Releasing it as constant beta updates is fine, people pay a small amount at one time, knowing that them playing will help a finished game one day soon. Once vs. modes, awesome survival modes and better capture the flag modes are introduced, the game will be close to perfect.

 

[veloper]

There's very few non-Japanese studios left, who will release their games in an acceptable state and they are Valve (on PC) and Blizzard (and they release more patches than anyone else to boot).

So save yourself the headage and buy games after the price has dropped and before you do that, check the patch state first at the respective online communites.

Better yet, wait even longer for the complete or ultimate edition, with all the expansions and DLC included, so you get the whole game. And wait for those parts to be patched aswell.
Getting expansions seperately can become a big hassle later, especially through retail.

In some cases even the DRM is dropped in the later editions aswell (examples NWN, TW1).

It almost feels like game companies are deliberately screwing over the early customers, their fans, who they need the most. No regrets patiently waiting for that 70% discount on Steam.