When did we start to accept broken singleplayer games on release?

[K1LaW8tt5]

This is a bit of a strange one and with the release of Cyberpunk 2077 as the latest game in a long list with a multitude of problems on release I thought the question might be interesting. I'm unsure whether to post this in the console or PC section as the experience can be quite different for some titles.

Historically speaking many singleplayer only(based on my experience anyway) games never really required much attention after the initial release.

Multiplayer/CO-OP games were a bit different in that they generally required continuous attention throughout the games life and many more modes/variables/content were added to the base game.

Today everyone(almost) has access to the internet and the ability to push updates to games is much easier.

However, I think somewhere along the line we (the consumer/gamers) allowed the publishers/developers to get lazy and release unfinished broken games.

I have some really old disc games on PC that probably only had 1 or 2 small updates for example through its life and probably were not essential. Original Mafia on pc was a great game and I can't remember needing a major update to play it (could be wrong).

From the console side of things I played every single PS2 game I owned (GTA 3,Vice city,san andreas MGS2 + 3 etc) without an internet connection so I had no access to updates. Now I expect these games did has some issues but not to the extreme we get now.

So the question really is when did we start to accept broken/incomplete singleplayer games or what was your first really unplayable title on release(and the platform)?

And the next question is how do we fix(patch) it?

Reviewers were not allowed access to the console version of cyberpunk before release and were not allowed to show in game footage on PC. Their review scores glossed over any issue as irrelevant.

The days of actually reading gaming magazines and getting demo disks are long gone. The replacement should be far superior but it is actually more controlled and influenced by the developers.

Note: this thread isn't to hate on cyberpunk

 

[Fubsy]

Simple. Why pay a salary to a team of testers when you can just throw the game out the door in a half baked state and get the testing done by the paying customer? Like you said, it's easy to just fix it and ask for forgiveness in the age of always on internet connected devices.

Cyberpunk being crap on consoles is another subject altogether. In my view it should have been scrapped on those devices years ago, it's been done for one reason only and it's not because they love the hardware, the money men loved the punters that own that hardware and their cash.

 

[hood1971]

I have always loved open world rpgs and there are buggy messes going back ages. Both Gothic (one of the best ever) and Morrowind were terrible, and relied on community to fix them. As the scope of these games have grown so have the bugs.

 

[Dinosaur]

However, I think somewhere along the line we (the consumer/gamers) allowed the publishers/developers to get lazy and release unfinished broken games.

I think one problem nowadays, is that the visual experience and actual player experience, in terms of how deep some of these games have to go is really quite extensive. The result is that it takes a lot of time and money to produce something that's going to meet that expected quality bar. A quality bar which shifts - as the hype train leaves the station.

I think online hype, and the gaming media combined with pressure from investors and the hardware owners (in the case of consoles) puts a hell of a lot of a burden on developers, to release games which are partially finished or just rushed, everybody wants to make money and fast.

I know from experience (working in one of the largest US based game studios) that developers and designers care a hell of a lot, their lives often revolve around the content they make. If they release something broken/half finished, it's probably a sore point for them, and likely something which is forced from above, rather than devs being sloppy... But of course there will be exceptions.

 

[PC777]

Time can show that even lauded games were actually 'broken' on release but no one actually realised.

If a 2020 Zelda OOT speedrunner went back to 1998 on the game's release date and completed a 40 hour game in under 10 mins, people would be getting fired left and right at Nintendo.

Speedrunners show many great games can be completely broken if people are determined or crazy enough to keep trying.

 

[cheesyboy]

The days of actually reading gaming magazines and getting demo disks are long gone. The replacement should be far superior but it is actually more controlled and influenced by the developers.

Gameboy Lemmings (PAL version) was bugged such that Mayhem 4 was impossible to complete (see image below - lemmings fall through the platform). I read more than one magazine review, giving the game a good score, and not one of them mentioned this bug. 11 year old cheesyboy spent hours trying to figure that mother ****** out. Magazines were terrible - in league with the publishers just as much as now.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Some of my favourite single player games have been a car crash on release yet I've still loved every minute of them. I'm thinking KOTOR1 and 2, Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas and even RDR1.

It's not just games though, as computers and computer software has gotten more complex so have the bugs. How often do MS or Nvidia release broken updates/patches?

I'd also add, social media makes things far worse. One bug for someone in some random game becomes one bug for multiple people the second it reaches a larger audience. One single complaint turns in to hundreds, if not thousands.

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

Gameboy Lemmings (PAL version) was bugged such that Mayhem 4 was impossible to complete (see image below - lemmings fall through the platform). I read more than one magazine review, giving the game a good score, and not one of them mentioned this bug. 11 year old cheesyboy spent hours trying to figure that mother ****** out. Magazines were terrible - in league with the publishers just as much as now.

lol you went back to far .

 

[Judgeneo]

Today games, especially open world games, are just far more complicated and bug prone than games of the past.

Time can show that even lauded games were actually 'broken' on release but no one actually realised.

If a 2020 Zelda OOT speedrunner went back to 1998 on the game's release date and completed a 40 hour game in under 10 mins, people would be getting fired left and right at Nintendo.

Speedrunners show many great games can be completely broken if people are determined or crazy enough to keep trying.

Also this.

Today we have literally millions of people playing the game and telling their worst stories. I'm playing on PC (Stadia), and have only had a couple of very minor UI issues, and one bug where I couldn't finish a race and had to reload a save to do it again. That isn't so bad imo.



That said it seems that console, and PS4 in particular is a different story. CDPR clearly hyped some of the games features too much, and PM'd the project badly. Better project management would have given them more realistic release dates from day 1, and could have meant ignoring last-gen consoles all together, which would have made for a far better experience for all players.

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

Obviously bugs can happen and I agree open world games are more complex but they get pushed out too soon for various reasons.

Early access reviewers should be directing us to hold off on purchase/playing the game for such issues instead of offering glowing reviews.

It seems we have to wait for the general public reaction on social media to the game and filter out the raging lunatics in order to find out what state a game is in on release.

The publishers don't suffer from pushing out unfinished games. And if the game does poorly it might never be fixed. It's kind of a broken cycle

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

That said it seems that console, and PS4 in particular is a different story. CDPR clearly hyped some of the games features too much, and PM'd the project badly. Better project management would have given them more realistic release dates from day 1, and could have meant ignoring last-gen consoles all together, which would have made for a far better experience for all players.

Given the scope of the project yes a more suitable time would have been this time next year. 1 year into the life of the next gen consoles but there was so much false hype and hysteria behind the game it had to be released now.

 

[PC777]

I think also to be fair to CD Projeckt, they have screwed up badly, but they aren't the first. Even Valve, you'd think would have something like Portal, a fairly simple game compared to an open World game, completely locked down and air tight, but this speedrun totally breaks the game. Totally confuses Glados, it's actually kind of cool but obviously ruins the game as intended.

Mario Kart 64 another cherished game completely broken by speedrunning, even in 2020 been major records set. It's virtually a guarantee that a fully patched up Cyberpunk 2077 will still be utterly broken, they could patch it for the next 2 years and consider it bug free, someone will break it, but it might take till 2030 or later to find out just how broken it still is.

 

[arknor]

I have always loved open world rpgs and there are buggy messes going back ages. Both Gothic (one of the best ever) and Morrowind were terrible, and relied on community to fix them. As the scope of these games have grown so have the bugs.

yea every massive open world game I can think of was buggy as hell skyrim included didn't stop it getting good reviews.

mostly it's AI doing weird stuff but cyberpunk doesnt really seem to have any actual AI that passively does things

 

[Psymonkee]

At least as far back as 1998 from what I remember from when I bought SiN. It came with patch 1.01 on an extra CD in the box

 

[K1LaW8tt5]

At least as far back as 1998 from what I remember from when I bought SiN. It came with patch 1.01 on an extra CD in the box

just googled that game. Great reviews and full of bugs and glitches(and also a virus in the demo?). Guess we have never learned.

 

[Kronos]

As soon as the big money men got involved, the greed merchants games started to be released before they were ready, how many these days have a day one patch. Whilst I appreciate that triple A games are expensive to make why is it that the almighty Dollar always takes precedence over us players?

 

[clv101]

It's cheaper/quicker for the developer, which indirectly benefits the consumer, to launch imperfect products, test in the community and fix in the months following launch. It's a good model. Maybe 'launch' should be described as beta, with a lower RRP?

Those who don't want the hassle, just wait a few months. I have no intention of trying Cyberpunk just yet.

 

[sandys]

You just didn't hear about it in the past unless you were effected because there wasn't internet and media platforms to spread minor news like wildfire like there is today, I had to be sent new discs for Metropolis Street Racer because the game was broken and I am sure before then you just lived with the glitches.

Games were never perfect they were just unfixable and you lived with it, they were also a lot smaller in scope, so less issues to discover.

 

[Nothin]

The games industry seems to still be seen as a young emerging industry and given a lot of leeway by government regulators (excluding inappropriate content).
You wouldn't be allowed to sell a car that every time you turned into the carpark at your work it teleported you straight back to your house....or under your house.

 

[MrPleasant_exe]

I ask this everyday.... sick of broken games on release.