[lilhasselhoffer]

~Sigh~

Another nostalgic look back at what was once, and never shall be again.

In the days before internet connectivity was assumed, games were less complex and it was easier to not have bugs. There were still games that released with bugs, but they were few and far between. Developers completed a games, pushed it out, and began working on what may be a sequel or a whole new franchise.

Today there are a billion different hardware configurations, multitudes of software, and executives at the top pushing for profit rather than quality (I'm looking at you EA).

The reality is, software can be pushed out the door with glaring bugs. This is justified by the business side, and the gutted development team is told to "fix it with a patch." This pisses off your customer base, but the games are already sold. Having experienced all of the issues possible in Crysis 2, I can honestly say that if I knew what I was getting into I wouldn't have purchased it for several weeks (if at all).

Publishers realized this, and the financial side pushed for pre-order bonuses. When pre-order bonuses lost their appeal the publishers pushed out day-1 DLC to address the "problem" of used game sales.


This is to say nothing of DLC in general. Everyone remembers horse armor... Then you've got Bioware (at the behest of EA) releasing character clothing packs (that do nothing) for Mass Effect 2.

Honestly, publishers are attempting to capitalize on every penny of the market. Origin has made it clear that EA doesn't want to share a penny. EA saying that "consumers wouldn't be able to user our development tools for BF3" to justify not releasing community dev tools smacks everyone in the community. It says "You're stupid, and we can charge whatever we want for the three hours of development time that went into making this new map. Screw it, we don't even need to quality test it."


I will be glad to purchase a new game. If I know it will have DLC then I'm waiting for the game of the year edition. 50 dollars for the game and all the DLC, or 100 dollars for the "privledge" of being a guinea pig to find flaws and pay individually for what can range from useless to shaved off gameplay bits that can be found in DLC.


In short, DLC gets more money for the publisher. It is a short sighted way to nickle and dime consumers. With budgets being tighter, I hope publishers see that shitty DLC will do more to hurt sales than the couple of delays that it may take for a publisher to polish up the games they sell.