Delayed games are seemingly becoming more common in the new generation of gaming. Publishers and Developers alike are showing games at places like Games-com, E3, and the PAX Events. The gameplay trailers and demos shown at these events are to entice you to purchase the games, even pre-order in some instances with bonus content. While games are fun for the consumer, they have been increasing in budget exponentially since HD gaming became mainstream. The games have gone from 128bit, to 1080p compatible on the same systems in nearly two decades. Why are games delayed? Is it because the Developers have too strict release dates, or maybe the Publishers put too much pressure on the development team that they rush a game out before it’s finished. With the new technology of The Cloud on the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, are developers shipping unfinished games too soon and applying massive day one updates? Also, what can Development and Publishing teams do to make sure games aren’t delayed as much as they are now?
‘Destiny’ Cost Activision $500 Million To Develop and Market
In 2014, Activision released it’s news that they intended to spend $500 million on marketing and development of ‘Destiny.’ Seems crazy to us games right? Could you imagine what we could do with $500 million? You could buy your own airplane, buy 50 immaculate houses, or even retire at 25. But to Activision, it’s just another day at the office. Consider for second, that just five years earlier, GTA IV was the most expensive game ever made at $100 million. Games have been having experiencing a rise in development costs in the last decade due to the progression of technology in the gaming field.
Even pieces of technology other than consoles like the iPhone for example.
The first iPhone was released in 2007 and had a 4/8/16GB memory and a 3.5in display. The camera was only 2 megapixels, and the GPU was on 412 MHz. While the specs seem laughable in todays world, it was the best and brightest at its time. The iPhone revolutionized the phone world and brought the app store to our finger tips. I remember when the first iPhone came out, I had the Motorola Chocolate, and I thought it was the greatest thing to happen since the phone was invented. But then just three years later, the iPhone 3g released. It nearly doubled in RAM at 128mb, but all the other specs were the same. Apps opened faster, maps were easier to navigate, and apps were able to perform better with the extra RAM. Just two years after the 3g was released, the iPhone 4G was released to the public. The RAM was increased to 512MB, the GPU had increased by 225% at 1GB, came with wifi capabilities, and the camera had over twice the pixels at 5MP and finally had flash. The way technology had advanced, even in the span of 3 years was exponential. Fast forward to September if last year, The iPhone 6s was available for purchase. The phone had 2GB of RAM, a 12 MP camera, 3d touch display, and the CPU was a 1.84 GHz Twister. Just 5 years after, what was thought the most technological phone ever made was laughable. Even if you had an iPhone 4g, the phone was so slow that you could barely use it.
The Xbox 360 was almost shipped with 256MB of processing power
The Xbox 360 and the PS3 were the most powerful consoles the market when they released in 2005. The 512MB of processing power almost didn’t happen. The change was going to cost in the hundreds of millions over the lifespan of the console. But what it did was allow for developers to use more power in the HD gaming world. Many fans watched Gears of War for the first time and truly saw what the next generation of console gaming was. The console showed its true power when Halo 3 was released in 2007. The extra 256MB of power led to higher textures, better lighting, clearer and concise picture on the developing 1080p technology, but as the iPhone and televisions were progressing, the Xbox 360 stayed stagnant for nearly 10 years. When I mean stagnant I mean that the hardware wasn’t upgraded, the GPU and CPU wasn’t made better during it’s decade long cycle. Yes, new versions of the Xbox 360 were released, such as the Slim and the special editions over the life of the console, but nothing was done to upgrade the hardware of the console to make the games run better. With the limits the consoles had, developers still made fantastic games that looked great. (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, GTA V)
Fast forward to 2013
The Xbox One released on 11/22/13, exactly 12 years from the launch date of the OG Xbox. The first Xbox had 64MB of RAM, and a 10GB internal hard drive with only a 233MHz graphics processor. The Xbox One has 8GB of RAM, 500GB internal hard drive, and 1.31 teraflops of processing power. The increases in power also lead to the games looking better as well. But with games looking better, budgets get higher and more out of control. While no sources were able to confirm the development cost of Halo: Combat Evolved, speculations put it’s development cost at around $20 million and that was for the OG Xbox with the small hard drive and processing power it had. Compare that to the nearly $250 million budget that Halo 5: Guardians had. Granted the way the games look are vastly different, but it’s the cost that’s in other worlds. Halo: CE is regarded as one of the best FPS games on the console, but even with 12x the budget that Halo:CE had, Halo 5 wasn’t regarded as well as the first one. The fans said that story wasn’t intriguing, but the Multiplayer was one of the best in the console space. But with the larger development cost, shouldn’t it be a “better” game?
Not Necessarily.
Development costs doesn’t make a game great, but it also doesn’t make it good. Take Watch Dogs. The game started development in 2009 but wasn’t announced until 2012. The game went though a somewhat “development hell.” The game was delayed by the developers because quite plainly, it wasn’t ready. Announcing a 2013 release date was a little to ambitious for the Publisher and Developer, but surely the game would make it out by it’s 2014 release right? No. The game was delayed again for “polish.” In the span of two years, the game was delayed two times leading fans to question if the game would ever come out. While thinking about this, the hype for the game seemed to dwindle into the back of people’s minds instead of being happy for the upcoming release. Eventually, you just have to say “just give me the game already.” I can’t speak for all fans of the game, but I couldn’t get hyped for it in fear of it being delayed again. Even when I got my hands on Watch Dogs, it felt repetitive, a little dull, and the main protagonist didn’t seem all that interesting. My first thought was “I waited 2 years for this?” While the game was largely regarded as a success, it was by no means perfect. So to answer the question “does delaying game always make it better?” No it doesn’t.
But in some cases, games need to be delayed instead of pushed out too early.
Microsoft became ambitious when they wanted to bring all 4 Halo games to the Xbox One. They announced ‘Halo: The Master Chief Collection’ and it was marketed more as a fan service. Many gamers who had purchased an Xbox 360 didn’t own an OG Xbox and never experienced Halo: Combat Evolved. With Phil Spencer at the helm of the Xbox brand, he promised to make games the focus of the console, rather than controlling the living room. Phil announced that all 4 Halo games inducing all multiplayer maps, and special editions will be bundled into one game. On 10/17/2014, news hit Xbox.com. MCC will be over 45GB, and it will have about a 20GB launch day update. I’ve heard of games having a 7-10GB update, but never a 20GB update. I thought to myself “either the game was shipped unfinished, or they’re adding a lot of content post launch.” The game released, and a match was nearly impossible. Even playing the campaign was hard, as you needed a steady connection to the cloud for certain experiences. MP matches were crashing, games were lagging, and trying to sign in to the main screen was nearly impossible. Even after you signed in, you had to wait 5-10 minutes just to find players to fill the room.
The Game Needed to be Delayed.
Pushing a game out that is not finished is a disservice to the fans and those who adopt the game early. Many fans who bought the game gave up on trying because of the servers being messed up. I adopted the game nearly a year after it came out, and it still had issues. Microsoft issued statements and provided apologies left and right, but it didn’t change the fact that the game didn’t work. Some players were lucky and didn’t have too many issues with the multiplayer, but had trouble joining another game. Eventually, when I bought the game, I was able to get into matches with ease, but the player base had gone. Thankfully, I bought the game solely for the single player and not really for the multiplayer. MCC went down as a game that was almost too ambitious, but flopped when it launched. Microsoft did a great job at making up for the launch failures, but it will always be in the back of the minds’ of those who adopted it early. In an situation like MCC had, it would’ve been a better business decision to delay the game, and make the launch successful instead of forcing it out and using ‘The Cloud’ as the crutch to finish the game. ‘The Cloud’ shouldn’t be used as something to finish games that ship unfinished, but simply to make the games better and provide extra power for the developers to use.
Microsoft Wasn’t the First to Ship an Unfinished Game, and Surely Won’t be the Last.
Another famous incident was the Assassin’s Creed: Unity missing faces that occurred after it’s launch in 2014. Unity was marketed as the first AC game that you could play Co-Op with friends. Doing missions and having two Assassins seemed like a great idea. But this is another example of the developers using the power of the cloud instead of shipping a finished game. The day one patch was only 900mb and detailed just a few different updates to make the game run smoother. But the 4th patch was 6.7GB. Ubisoft had taken a lot of flack for the game being, for a lack of a better term, broken. ‘Unity’ continued to have issues with frame rate, saves being deleted, and parts of the game missing. While the game would later prove to be a very good game, it’s launch was horrendous. Ubisoft released a game that was unfinished, knowingly it seemed after all the troubles they had after launch. Even if the game was the greatest game to ever be played, it still wouldn’t take away from the launch it had.
Some Games are Finished, but are Shipped with Unfinished Features.
While in development, Rockstar had promised it’s fans online heists mode that could be played with friends. The game looked to bring a multiplayer aspect to one of the best franchises on consoles. Grand Theft Auto V was released on 9/17/2013 with online heists promised around the spring time in 2014. On 6/17/2016 Rockstar released a statement about the online gameplay.
“For those of you asking about other upcoming GTA Online updates, (Rockstar) have lots more in store coming your way soon. (Rockstar) know many fans have been eagerly awaiting the release of the Online Heists that we had planned to release for you this spring, and they are taking more time to create than originally anticipated. (Rockstar) are very sorry for the delay, and are working hard to bring them to you as soon as we can. Please know that (Rockstar) are focused as always on making the best possible content for you to play and (Rockstar) are thankful to all of you for your patience, understanding and support. Stay tuned for more information on that as well as lots of other ongoing content updates, enhancements and additions to the world of GTA Online that are on the way.”
GTA V had a development budget of around 170 million Euros ($266 million). In essence, the game had a budget of $266 million and they couldn’t find some of that budget to put towards the online portion of the game. Online Heists eventually released on March 10th of 2015, nearly 18 months after it was promised. Thankfully, there were very few issues and the launch was a huge success. Had the launch been different, would the fans have been so forgiving?
There is not Definitive Answer to the Question of Which is the Lesser Evil, but what can Developers and Publishers do to Combat the Influx of Delayed Games?
Bethesda’s release of Fallout 4 is a good example of how games should be released. For a long time, Fallout 4 was rumored in development and the Publisher, Bethesda, had kept quiet on announcing the game. When E3 2015 came around, they announced the game and stated it would be released in November of that year. The game wasn’t delayed, it also wasn’t perfect. Many players were having game breaking bugs that didn’t allow them to continue on the storylines they wanted to. But Bethesda made strides to make the game the way fans deserved it to be. Fans had been looking forward to this game for nearly 5 years, and Bethesda delivered. The graphics were incredible, the story was very intriguing, and for the most part, didn’t have a lot of issues. But it is rare that a game does come out and doesn’t have any issues.
Video Games are First and Foremost A Business.
In 2015 the digital gaming market hit $61 billion, a new record. Many Publishers are taking a look at that number and putting their stake in part of that money. Just six months after launch, Rockstar earned $2 billion on sales of GTA V. Even after online heists launched, micro-transactions earned another $500 million for the Publisher. The gaming industry has gone from only something the “nerd” culture partakes in, to today where a gaming console is used as a cable box, as well as playing games as a pastime. Rockstar isn’t the only Publisher to have their stake in history. In an investor report, Activision announced that the Call of Duty Franchise has now made $10 billion in revenue and has become the most profitable franchise in the history of gaming. In the report, which was released on 11/20/2014, Activision noted that sales of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare were not part of those numbers. ‘Advanced Warfare’ would eventually go on to make $840 million in profits, making COD nearly an $11 billion franchise it is today.
A Delayed Game Makes No Money.
If you were a business owner, and you knew that delaying a product would cost you money, would you delay it? This is the difficult question to answer because a game can only be released once, almost like a first impression. Forcing a developer to get the game out there puts pressure on them, and the content ends up suffering because they don’t have time to make the game how they want it I.E. story, effects, and frame-rate. With that being said, a game that is delayed costs the publisher more money and they need to get a ROI (Return on Investment). They’ve already forked out 10’s of millions of dollars for a game that has’t made them any money yet, and they still want more time and more money to make it perfect? How can a publisher make this happen, but still give developers the time to make sure the game is how they want it to be? Therein lies the question I ask myself plenty of times.
A Broken Game Makes No Effort Into Keeping Its Player Base.
Simply putting a broken game onto the shelves is inherently wrong, but so it knowingly selling us a broken product. As a gamer, we are consumers for products, just in the same way you go to your favorite ice cream place, or your favorite restaurant. That place of business did something to make you want to come back and give your business to them. Eventually, games will be broken one too many times and the stocks of the publishers will start to go down. Gamers will eventually have enough and say “we’re not supporting this publisher/developer anymore.” Games that are delayed are a good thing, mostly. Some games are delayed without knowing when they will come out again (Batman: Return to Arkham), others are delayed so long that the hype seems to fade away for them (Watch Dogs) but others are delayed and turn out to incredible (The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt).
It Almost Seems These Days, that Buying a Video Game is like Playing Roulette.
If I wanted to gamble, I’d go to Las Vegas and gamble my mortgage payment to gain the millions we’ve always heard about coming from Sin City, but when I buy a game at my local Best Buy, I am hoping that I can go home and relax while I play it. Get out of my world that I live in, and enter into something that I can escape to. Playing Video Games is an expensive and time consuming hobby, so developers and publishers shouldn’t insult our purchase to support them, and understand that we are what keeps them in business.
I Believe More Games Should be Delayed, to an Extent.
Nobody likes games that are delayed, but the mindset of “it doesn’t matter, they’ll buy it anyways right?” needs to get out of the modern gaming culture. While yes, many people say they don’t like the COD that year and it still makes in upwards of $800 million every year. Publishers continue to fork large amounts of money into the software that they make, and we continue to buy them. ‘Early Adopters’ shouldn’t be punished for supporting their favorite gaming franchises with screen tears, faces missing, and not being able to find a MP match in a game largely known for MP matches. The other side of the argument is you shouldn’t delay a game too long. Delaying a game for more than a year at a time leads to the game not being as hyped for. Seeing ‘Watch Dogs’ at three E3’s wasn’t pleasant, and neither was seeing ScaleBound for the third straight year. Eventually, I just say to myself “stop marketing the game, and just give it to me.” Gamers judge things when they get hands on time with the product, but very few games have the Titanfall effect where they sell you at first sight of the gameplay videos.
There’s Backlash if They do, and Backlash if They Don’t.
A game is delayed, quite simply, because it’s not ready. Us as consumers have to realize how tedious of a task it is to make a game perfect, and give forgiveness if the game isn’t ready, but at the same time, Publishers need to give us realistic timeframes for their game releases and not “yank us along,” so to speak. Games have a way of bringing the worst out in people, don’t believe me? Hop onto the latest COD game and listen to the profanity that comes with it. The world could be a better place for gamers if we let the creative minds have all the time they needed with their game, after all, it only gets a day one release once. I have no problem forgiving creators if the game isn’t ready to be shipped, but what I do not like is developers using the cloud as some form of developmental tool. Make the game perfect, then ship it, don’t insult our wallet or intelligence in letting a broken game go to the shelves. Some players follow games for years before they come out, and have to deal with this disappointment that comes with the broken games. I urge you, as a gamer, to give patience and forgiveness to games that are delayed and understand that the creative teams just want to make the games perfect for our consumption.
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