Why do you release a game when it has bugs?

[Crazywabbit]

Why make players suffer through bugs also when they are reported depending on the person or persons fixing them, why do they take their time or not at all?

I am starting to think maybe best not to buy games when they are released, but even older games still have bugs that developers stop fixing.

[RPG Gamer Man]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Archerodees:

Publishers pushing it out before it's ready. Just the way it is now. I know, it's stupid. I don't blame the devs though.

I stopped buying games day one a long time ago.

True. It is the publishers, not the developers. Basically, it is how the work society is with games, same when people make anime's too. The developers need to take their time to make a quality product, but then the publishers come in and force a "finish by this date" goal and force all the employees to either work double shifts or make a bad product. So it is actually the publishers that are to blame mostly.

[KarmaKrazi]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Crazywabbit:

I understand then why console games like the ones Nintendo releases have no bugs or less of it?

This made me laugh. Nintendo games are nefarious for doing exactly what you say. Releasing with bugs, and not fixing them at all, or for quite some time.

[WhiteKnight]

Stockholders must be appeased. Plus they always will be bugs. When one get squashed another two pops out. It's mostly game-breaking bugs that need to be patched out fast.

[Chika Ogiue]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Crazywabbit:

I understand then why console games like the ones Nintendo releases have no bugs or less of it?

They don't. You'd think that consoles being the same for everyone would mean no bugs in a game released on them, right? Wrong. I encountered games that wouldn't even launch on my GameCube, but would on another one. Games on Switch (not just third party ones) can crash on Switch. The thing is, even a console can have variations in the hardware used that can lead to unforeseen issues during development.

Plus, developers can often choose to NOT fix a bug, even when it's made aware to them. Last year I worked with a team focusing on quality assuring a game for release on consoles and Steam. In total over a thousand issues were reported, a third of which were allowed to remain unfixed. Some were deemed too much of an edge case, others because the process to trigger them was convoluted, some because they existed in the game's original release on older hardware, and so forth.

If they had opted to fix every single bug, the game still wouldn't be released, as fixing one bug can also introduce several more -- which is something that happened several times for that title.

[matt]

You might as well ask why someone would do anything that isn't absolutely perfect. And, yes, it is often best to wait for the first patch. Or the first few patches, even. In general, I'd say preordering is for suckers, and their sacrifice finances the bugfixes that I'll use later.

Oprindeligt skrevet af Brian9824:

I mean that isn't specific to consoles, PC, Indie, or AAA. I've yet to personally however ever see a game where its bugs make it unplayable. I mean in the old days before updates whatever bugs a game had at launch were unfixable.

New drinking game: take a drink every time Brian9824 starts a sentence with "I mean". At least he won't be able to hide who he is if he uses alt accounts.

[Paratech2008]

Computers have diverse hardware and Software, try finding out how software will run on varying CPUs, RAM, Hard Drives, Video Cards, Video Resolutions, and don't forget about Video, Sound and other software drivers changing between the time the version is being made to release date.

[ReBoot]

Oprindeligt skrevet af Crazywabbit:

I am starting to think maybe best not to buy games when they are released, but even older games still have bugs that developers stop fixing.

This. Very much this. Vote with your wallet.

[Tolkien Book Fan]

I love indie gaming, but my experiences over the last two years have led me to no longer buy games on release. Partly it is because they are too buggy for me, partly because the hexagon puzzle games that I want to buy have developers that make big changes based on player feedback after release. This is a reason I like Early Access, these post-release issues start being dealt with before getting to version 1.0.

[Ben Lubar]

There are two things going on. First, nobody is going to make a piece of software that does anything complicated and works as intended on all hardware at all times. There's always going to be unexpected situations that result in problems. Even with your code 100% perfect, there's going to be external stuff that breaks your game on someone's computer.

The second thing is that when a game developer releases a game, maybe a few hundred people have tested it. Let's say a hundred people for ten years. And suddenly there are ten million people playing it. The amount of time they spent testing during development is going to be completely eclipsed by the people outside the company within an hour.

[MrQun]

Video companies that do this are lazy, incompetent and unbelievably scummy. But they are not the main issue. The real issue are the stupid gamers that enable this kind of f@ckery.

Gamers get the video game industry that they deserve.

The video game industry is garbage because most gamer's standards are garbage. Gamers need to hold these video game companies and importantly themselves to a much higher standard. Until the vast majority of gamers start demanding actual competence and professionalism from these game companies, the video game industry will only get worse.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Just don't buy games on da1 or pre-order wait at least till a review from someone you trust is in or wait till the game is patched up. No need to play the newest game also if you buy it down the line you might save a couple of bucks

[Crazy Tiger]

Depending on how things are coded, squashing bugs can turn into an endless whack-a-mole.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Also it very much depends how large a game is and keep in mind often there are deadlines to consider

[shado]

Oprindeligt skrevet af ReBoot:

Oprindeligt skrevet af Crazywabbit:

I am starting to think maybe best not to buy games when they are released, but even older games still have bugs that developers stop fixing.

This. Very much this. Vote with your wallet.

This is why you buy the remake or remastered version where the bugs are fixed.

[SpeedFreak1972]

Oprindeligt skrevet af shado:

Oprindeligt skrevet af ReBoot:

This. Very much this. Vote with your wallet.

This is why you buy the remake or remastered version where the bugs are fixed.

well that depends .... I mean I've seen remakes/remasters that are buggier than the original