The gaming industry has seen in recent years the arrival of a series of titles with errors – the so-called bugs – that seem to be more of a game not yet completed than some kind of technical failure not observed in the process. This column already addressed the subject at the end of 2021, but the scenario has remained until the present day.
Now, it’s time to make a history of when this “phase” began and examples from the past. Detective TC also separated facts to understand if this practice is a gamer market strategy or if it should be seen as a concern for the future.
The most recent example of issues found in an expected game is redfall. The game developed by Arkane Austin and published by Bethesda Softworks has accumulated a series of negative reviews.
Among the comments left by players, several reviews mention that redfall shouldn’t have been released at this point, but would need to go through major fixes first. Others mention graphical issues – such as the Xbox Series X version’s lack of 60fps – and other bugs, as well as NPC glitches.
Phil Spencer himself, head of Xbox, confessed to being “disappointed” with the performance of the title and even apologized for the state of the game at this time of its release.
Situations like this have been seen frequently since the launch of cyberpunk 2077, at the end of 2020. Although the problems were “overcome”, the game was marked by the flaws presented. Since then, going through Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Battlefield 2042, eFootball 2022 It is GTA: The Trilogy.
At the end of 2022, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was an example of that. The new version of the game had bugs that were not present in the original 2015 edition, in addition to causing crashes frequently, due to the excessive application of more modern graphic resources.
And it looks like it won’t stop there. Still in testing, the already announced counter strike 2 had its “serious” bugs found by players. At least, here there is still time for repairs before the final version.
Even so, what seemed to be an exception for some more critical period of the coronavirus pandemic turned out to be a constant practice.
Despite cyberpunk 2077 having “inaugurated” this era of games released with various ending problems, there have been isolated cases in the past of other titles in similar situations.
We can quote superman 64, one of the most emblematic failures in the gaming world. Released in 1999 for Nintendo 64, the title based on Superman: The Animated Series was marred by bugs and glitches that made it virtually impossible for anyone to complete.
Myth II, from 1998, is another example of a problem game. Even before its launch, a Bungie employee even discovered a flaw that could erase important data from the players’ HD if it was installed in the Windows home folder.
Despite imagining releasing a correction patch for players, the solution chosen here was to collect the units sent to stores and pay a loss of US$ 800,000 between reprints and fines, to apply the correction before the problems reached the consumers.
It is public and notorious that we live in a very different scenario. Currently, games can easily receive patch updates and do not compromise the player’s hardware with their flaws. But does that justify releasing “unfinished” games? There are those who think so.
One of the views that defend this practice sees games as a “service” and no longer a “product”. That is, it is something that allows modifications and improvements to be made with future updates, to “overcome” any problem. Now, it is very difficult for any player to want to pay dearly for having problems and waiting for solutions.
There is also a view that it might be “too lazy” on the part of developers to finish work before release. However, because their name is literally at stake, it does not seem to be a justification for flaws that can negatively mark a work for the whole of history.
And what about deadlines? Here certainly lies one of the main problems for this. The need to meet time limits, with resources that may be scarce, has its impacts and prevents a well-done production.
And what is the way out for the future?
Phil Spencer’s own recent interview gives the way for cases like this not to be repeated – although it is too late to apply in redfall. One of them is not being afraid to postpone a project that is not yet finished. After all, it’s better to keep expectations in the public and deliver something ready than to launch on the scheduled date and cause disappointment.
The other is greater attention paid by studios and publishers to his works. Many of the problems found by players could easily be found by companies in simple reviews. This would make it possible to contain the damage before it reaches the final consumer – as in the case of Bungie with Myth IIbut without the difficulties of containing the damage as it used to be.
So, how do you see game releases in recent years? Do you believe that “unfinished” games are a corporate strategy, or is there some other reason? Comment with us!
