Why Do People Buy Broken, Buggy Games?

[Iluvnvidia]

The root of the problem is, like all other industries nowadays, the gaming industry too is being run by accountants and not true gaming enthusiasts. It's like the ford pinto memo. If the bug fixing costs less (because they will be run by a vast number of people across a number of platforms), then release the buggy game, instead of devoting your own resources to fix them before being relesed. This kind of nonsense goes on because the "majority" buys on the hype created by the developers (again spending cash that can be used for bug fixing).
Irony is, the developers used to say that "pirated" games are buggy, so buy the original. Now, it seems, download the "pirated" copy first, test whether it runs properly and then spend your hard earned money on the original (or not ;-)).

 

[photonboy]

UNREAL 4's development environment bodes well for more reliable, cheaper games.

It's going to continue to improve, but already there is a lot in the core design that eliminates bugs of various types.

Ironically I bought Daylight (first PC Unreal 4 game?) just to see Unreal 4 in action but it's broken still for me. Ah well.

I seriously think Bethesda should throw their own tools in the garbage and just use this. Their games would likely run smoother, look better, have less bugs and take a little less time to make. Sounds worth the 5% cost to me (plus monthly fee) for U4.

 

[s997863]

"Compare the game industry with the movie or music industry. Imagine if your favorite artist released an incomplete album, with half-baked ideas."

the entirety of old/new music is easily accessible on the latest media like cds, mp3, whereas old games aren't nearly as simple to run for the masses, so their choice is limited to the new, and they have a void to fill, thus the gaming market's ripe for rehashed soulless products. who wouldn't be impressed & satisfied by Halo who's never even seen quake-2, half-life-1 or unreal-tournament-1? it's just not convenient to get them to run, find multiplayer groups, and get used to the old graphics. same goes for Steam: convenience trumps all.

 

[rantoc]

I think the game press is partially to blame for this, they know the buggs will be squashed and the score the title after what it have the potential to be rather than what they are actually reviewing. That makes the publishers lazy, they are fully aware they get away with a good review even when the product is buggy at launch.

The rewievers should be basing their review on the product they have at hand and down the score when its buggy and thus ruining the experience. How many times have we read "It had the potential to be a good game but due to bugs its darn near unplayable so the finnal score is 10%". Be honest to the readers! I dont trust most game review sites for that reason, they dont help me make any informed buys - If you listen to say ign you would buy any title no matter how bad it is!

The new publisher review embargo practice proves that the publisher is well aware that few honest reviewers will downgrade the score and they hope to either be able to patch the title to be playable in that timeframe or they want to sell as many copies they can before the word is out - Both approaches is despicable and should not be supported - Vote with the wallet, thats the no1 weapon to fight the poor practices.

 

[RazberyBandit]

...you can have next-gen open-world games with dozens of hours of content, or you can have a perfectly polished product right out of the gate, but you cannot have both.

Why can't we have both? Why can't such titles undergo more intense internal and/or public testing? Why can't they simply release at a later date? I blame the big publishers.

Simply being profitable is no longer enough within these publishing companies, and it's even worse within the multi-branch, conglomerate corporations that own a publishing unit. Now, these companies have to show constant growth because they are publicly traded, and thus have to make money for shareholders or stock value goes stagnant or declines. It's this pressure for growth that has created what I feel are simply cash-grabbing policies and procedures, such as pre-order exclusive content, review embargoes, insufficient internal testing, and even paid DLC and the so-called Season Pass.

 

[Axonn]

Yes, the games of today are more advanced. But software development has ALSO advanced. There's a ton of libraries and tools ready to help. Therefore, I find no excuse for shoving half-baked buggy crap down our throats.

 

[Sunociva]

A few years back I bought Gran Turismo 5. I played the crap out of it for the first week or 2, quickly progressing to the epert stages in the race leagues, that is until I stubled on to a series that would completely freeze up the game requireing a reboot. Poly did not patch it for weeks, which caused me to really dislike the game because it prevented me from progressing further in the game, and eventually shelved it for nearly a year. I got bored one day and fired it up to see if they ever patched it, which they did, but the game was never the same. That alone prevented me from getting GT6, and most likely GT7. I don't approve of the way devs are shipping games. It's a slap in the faces of people that shell out 60+ dollars. God help those that buy the collectors editions...

 

[junkeymonkey]

''Steam etc allowed me to buy games I otherwise would not have access to without (being based in a non-English Speaking Asia country''

no sir that's because you live in a 3ed world contry and your government is to blame for that - I don't remember here in the U.S I could not get a game I wanted unless it was due to cash flow from my bill fold --- don't give sucker excuses

let me ask lets say this game you got 2 months ago that you paid 60$ for and say steam just dropped it for what ever reason and now no support from them then your hard drive dies or you need to install it -- how will that work out ??? well you got to do that internet thing to go to them for there content and what ever else you need to load or play or activate , but now there's nothing there to do so ???

or lets say they decide to drop your account and ban you for what ever ?? then what ? as I said you got nothing with out them. a $60 blank dvd

 

[bumnut53]

No demo and no reviews = no sale

 

[RipperjackAU]

With maybe the exception of MMORPG's, so I can reserve the character names I want before some noob gets them, I now wait until the GOTY (Game of the year) version is released.

By that time, usually around a year later, most of the bugs are patched out and as a bonus all the DLC's that were rushed out the door during the year, in a blatant cash grab on content that SHOULD have been included in the game, is bundled in for the one price. A price that is usually a fraction of the $60+ price it was shovelled out the door for on release day.

99% of all console ports to PC... er, I mean... PC release games = Shovelware!

 

[wysiwygbill]

Why not just be honest and call preordering "Beta Test Ordering"?

Actually, what do the profits on some of these titles look like? Are qualified developers in short supply or do the game studios run the ones they have into the ground to avoid hiring more of them?

 

[Malli Karim]

Well you say you can't think of one? Diablo 3:Reaper of Souls had basically the most perfect launch a game could ever have. It was literally flawless.

 

[JeckeL]

Well you say you can't think of one? Diablo 3:Reaper of Souls had basically the most perfect launch a game could ever have. It was literally flawless.

I can't tell if that's sarcasm or not since I haven't played Reaper of Souls, but if you're serious then why would you expect it to be anything less than flawless after the terrible launch of vanilla d3... Blizzard would have certainly learned from the mistakes and ensured the same didn't happen for the reaper of souls release

 

[sincreator]

Hoping that Epic gets it right with Unreal Tournament 4, by working alongside gamers and modders for development. If it works, it would be great to see other companies follow suit. I doubt it though....

 

[junkeymonkey]

they don't have to learn from any mistakes they know your so desperate for a game you keep going back over and over and over in the hopes the next one is better and as I said they got your cash and you got nothing plus you now have little to no recourse with them .. its there way or no play cause YOU HAVE TO RELY ON THAT 3ED PARTY FOR EVERYTHING and all you got is there client on the so called game disk that's useless with out them .. so if they decide not to support it or fix or patch activate what ever your done and one more time on this they got your money and you got the shaft ..

 

[G0ss3yn]

they don't have to learn from any mistakes they know your so desperate for a game you keep going back over and over and over in the hopes the next one is better and as I said they got your cash and you got nothing plus you now have little to no recourse with them .. its there way or no play cause YOU HAVE TO RELY ON THAT 3ED PARTY FOR EVERYTHING and all you got is there client on the so called game disk that's useless with out them .. so if they decide not to support it or fix or patch activate what ever your done and one more time on this they got your money and you got the shaft ..

Can someone just ban this guy already....

 

[junkeymonkey]

truth hurts don't it?? [ LOL ]

 

[razor512]

There is a simple solution to this, do not buy any games until a trusted reviewer, releases their review.

I am perfectly fine with waiting a few weeks after release for a review if needed. (I generally will not buy game anyway until it drops below $40) The main times I end up with day 1 releases, is when I buy a product that comes with a "free" game.

 

[mesab66]

It is obvious that some developers development schedule is a bit sh#t...let's see...

1. Release Alpha version to public as "Full Game"

2. Wait till the public cry foul and start reporting bugs. Don't worry, this is expected.

3. Take in the public (QA department) data from step 2 above and release patch1. This raises the game to Beta status. Now wait.

4. Since we're still in Beta, Joe public will cry foul a second time. Don't worry, this is expected. Release the second wave of bug fixes.

5. That's more like it...we're starting to see some stability in the game. Nice! But you know, since there's still a sh#tload of bugs lets go back to step 4 and repeat a few more cycles.

6. RC1...ya dancer! now go collect new Porsche.

Funny that...I don't remember any of this back in the old CBM64 tape / 180k-disk days...ah well, that's progress.

 

[quadcitynerd]

Buggy games have been the norm for years and I for one could care less. Fact is I opt to wait it out, let the early adopters pay the ludicrous prices to essentially pay to beta test and then in six months after I read current reviews if the game has proven to be properly fixed I buy it. The beauty of that is not only do I end up with a more polished game but said game is usually priced where it should have been when released.

So I say to all the early adopters, a fool is easily parted with their money and I thank you for your willingness to do so and I thankyou for all your hard work making the game I will eventually buy cheaper and bug free, or at least more pleasurable to play....

To the game developers I say, if you put out a game that was worthy to begin with the true hardcore gamers that know your game would gladly pay the higher price at release rather than wait for you to fix what you should have released to begin with. Bottom line is, you are the loser and those of us that are smart enough to know better have more left in our bank account because of your piss poor development practices.