[MCV] QA testers warn: Broken games fiasco of last year may repeat this Christmas

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That's one hell of an assumption... besides, even during that short debacle, can't say I remember unofficial patches being put on sale.

I don't think we'll see the idea of mods for sale again anytime soon... while I'm not completely opposed to it, coming up with proper implementation is a stuff of nightmares due to the unofficial "do it at your risk" nature of mods.

Well you're more optimistic than I am then. I'm not opposed to the general idea either, though I'd be sad not being able to afford modding, but I'd really be annoyed if Bethesda got to see any money from stuff like SkyUI, which was put on sale for a very low price.
 
So was mine ;)

His requests stemms from a place of wanting better customer experience for everyone though. He wants better products. Obviously not everyone care, but I'm sure you have the capacity to see why so many people "request" people to stop pre-ordering. They just want this industry to be better for us, the consumers.
 
I'm scared for Fallout 4. Especially on consoles. That's why I hope Persona 5 comes out this year, so I can give Fallout 4 two months to fix the worst bugs and glitches.
Don't be scared, you already know it's going to be a shitshow of bugs. There's like 0 precedent in Beth's history of open world games (for good and bad reasons).
 
skimming over thread titles, my brain took in "MVC" and "broken games fiasco may repeat this christmas" and i got all excited

come back to me mahvel :(
 
So they don't have any intimate knowledge about whether or not these games are actually behind schedule and are just going "well it happened last year"
 
QA firms trying to whip up the fan base to create a pressure for companies to use their services?

If that was their intention, it's a bit too late given how close we are to the Christmas release window, no?

Also MCV will have driven this article, unless they just happened to have three games testing firms email them at the same time.
 
A Bethesda game will launch, so there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that this would happen.

The Nostradamus in me expects it'll release in different states of brokenness across platforms. People will argue over which version is the least broken, with a portion of the posts pointing out that they've not experienced a single bug after 200 hours of play. It'll end up with the conclusion that the game released in a sorrowful and frankly unacceptable state. Bethesda will collect their embarrassment tears in their Game Of The Year goblets, dry themselves off with Benjamins, and proceed to paste "Creation Engine" stickers over any mention of Gamebryo.

*Edit*
Oh dang, Battlefront is releasing this year too. Maybe they'll have a worthy adversary this year.
 
A Bethesda game will launch, so there was not a shred of doubt in my mind that this would happen.

The Nostradamus in me expects it'll release in different states of brokenness across platforms. People will argue over which version is the least broken, with a portion of the posts pointing out that they've not experienced a single bug after 200 hours of play. It'll end up with the conclusion that the game released in a sorrowful and frankly unacceptable state. Bethesda will collect their embarrassment tears in their Game Of The Year goblets, dry themselves off with Benjamins, and proceed to paste "Creation Engine" stickers over any mention of Gamebryo.
You don't have to be Nostradamus to foresee this because that is what happened for every major Bethesda RPG release since Morrowind. Playing a Bethesda RPG without bugs.... Can anyone even imagine that?
 
Well you're more optimistic than I am then. I'm not opposed to the general idea either, though I'd be sad not being able to afford modding, but I'd really be annoyed if Bethesda got to see any money from stuff like SkyUI, which was put on sale for a very low price.
Hm... the thing is, Bethesda has a strongly developed relationship with modders and the PC audience, so I doubt they'll be willing to risk it all, especially if it could damage the momentum of a release as big as Fallout 4. Last time which wasn't so long ago, people responded to the idea of mods for sale with a huge outrage where Valve, a huge name in the PC gaming space was forced into backpedaling in a matter of days, and I believe this quarter will be the one where big players will try to keep things smooth without repeating the disaster of last year.

And yeah, I'd too be sad if modding turned into some unregulated market space with no established standards or quality assurance, but at this time, I'm fairly sure it won't come to that.

Oh, and I forgot about the recently introduced Steam refund system, which could take the outrage to the next level, making it far more threatening than just a display of vitriol on the Internet.
 
Please stop pre-ordering folks.

I wonder what games will be disasters this year.

While I appreciate the sentiment and understand what you're getting at, I think the right answer is to be more selective with your pre-orders. Off the top of my head over the last 20 or so I've done over a few years, I've not once been burned in terms both launch bugs and overall game quality.
 
Not a big surprise at all. But what this does is further motivate me to not pre-order anything, ever...unless it's a Nintendo game. Then I'd say you're pretty safe.
 
I just have this weird feeling that Fallout 4 isn't going to be as disastrous as people think it will be, based on their previous releases...

OR, it will be so bad that it will kill consoles and PSN/XBL accounts in the process. I don't see much middle ground here, because of not only their bug history, but the bug history with games this generation in general.

It'd be really funny if Fallout 4 didn't fall into this category, though.
 
I am willing to bet that Battlefront, AC: Syndicate and Need for Speed will be at least partially broken out of the box.
 
It isn't the lack of QA testing that is causing buggy games to be released. Devs and publishers KNOW that the game is broken and exactly what the major bugs are, they simply refuse to delay the release of the game in order to fix them.

Yeah I hear this pretty often as well. No personal experience testing, but I don't find it hard to believe that a company would rather ship a broken game they can fix later rather then delay and ship a working one. Mostly because it happens constantly.
 
I just have this weird feeling that Fallout 4 isn't going to be as disastrous as people think it will be, based on their previous releases...

OR, it will be so bad that it will kill consoles and PSN/XBL accounts in the process. I don't see much middle ground here, because of not only their bug history, but the bug history with games this generation in general.

It'd be really funny if Fallout 4 didn't fall into this category, though.

There's a better chance that HL3 would be released and completed compared to your scenario.
 
Is anyone surpised by this?

Not me.

I just have this weird feeling that Fallout 4 isn't going to be as disastrous as people think it will be, based on their previous releases...

OR, it will be so bad that it will kill consoles and PSN/XBL accounts in the process. I don't see much middle ground here, because of not only their bug history, but the bug history with games this generation in general.

It'd be really funny if Fallout 4 didn't fall into this category, though.

Depends on how you define disastrous. I absolutely expect it to be unfinished and full of game breaking bugs. But since I'm not so stupid optimistic to buy any games before at least the second or third patch is out I really don't care.
 
Not saying that it's okay that busted games shipped, but is it any surprise that a QA firm is warning that not enough QA is being done? It seems even less surprising if the market is insensitive to the errors that they hold themselves out as being able to find.

I bet publishers looked at the statement that this year's games will have the same sort of issues as last year and simply asked whether the game sold last year.
 
It would be an anomaly if a AC game isn't a mess.

First one had pretty rough framerate and glitchy NPCs. It was fine on PC though.
Second one overall was decent but glitchy NPCs remained and soso fps.
Brotherhood was a mess of pop in and low fps. It was again fine on PC.
Revelations shockingly was fine overall everywhere I believe.
ACIII, LOL.
ACIV, it was ok.
ACU, LOL
ACR, about as good as it can be I guess on last gen.
ACL Vita, pretty bad.
 
To those saying "please stop preordering", how exactly do you think that would help?

Its not as if a developer is going to think "oh, preorders are low, we best make sure there's no bugs in it". They're more likely to release it as a buggy mess and then allocate less resources to fixing it as sales are low.

If I like the look of a game, and I want to play it day 1 (or even possibly before depending on where you order), i'll preorder. Its not as if a game is really ever unplayable.
 
To those saying "please stop preordering", how exactly do you think that would help?

Its not as if a developer is going to think "oh, preorders are low, we best make sure there's no bugs in it". They're more likely to release it as a buggy mess and then allocate less resources to fixing it as sales are low.

If I like the look of a game, and I want to play it day 1 (or even possibly before depending on where you order), i'll preorder. Its not as if a game is really ever unplayable.

Even though i agree that pre-orders are fine. I think the argument is that if you pre-order, it makes the publishers decision to go ahead with an earlier date more likely. Although that means the publisher is to blame, and saying 'stop pre-ordering' isn't going to solve anything.
 
It’s impossible to release a flawless game. GTFO! It is only impossible because we (gamers) accept it.

These comments make me so angry because, as a programmer there's a lot of instances where you CANT expect everything to be 100% fixed .
 
Seems likely. We should run an official pool on which games are likely to launch in the most broken state.

I'd bet on Battlefront and Halo 5 but the devs of both games are coming off of major embarassments on the broken game front this gen already, so they have to be making an effort to ensure no repeats occur this year for them again... right?

I think single player only games will be less disaster prone (TR and AC specifically) with the exception of Fallout 4, because I'm not sure the Bethesda of recent years could launch a fully functional product if they tried tbh.
 
I'm fine. With the few hours I can play these days, I will likely be in The Witcher 3 until February 2016...

But Fallout and Sar Wars fans should be worried lol.
 
That's why I won't buy Battlefront day 1, BF4 was enough for me. Don't want to spoil yet another game and pay full price on top of that.
 
These comments make me so angry because, as a programmer there's a lot of instances where you CANT expect everything to be 100% fixed .

there are glitches and glitches.

if it's a minor graphical thing or a random, non-gamebreaking occurence, no worries pal, I am happy with your game.

if you are going to release a game with a bug that prevents me from playing the game as intended, one for which I paid $59.99 by the way, then no, do not sell your game or maybe try another job, maybe programming is not the job for you.
 
It's alway the same people. EA (especially DICE) and Ubisoft.

I will eat my own head if Battlefront and AC Syndicate launch without problems.

Please post pictures....

I agree, I only pre-order a very few select titles that I know will run well. This year was Destiny and will be Uncharted...Will wait to see how much micro transactions are in COD as did not like the direction of COD AW. I waited on MGS5 until the cash for FOB / bases thing was understood, then bought.

Creed and Dice...lol, 1 week minimum wait is mandatory to me.

These comments make me so angry because, as a programmer there's a lot of instances where you CANT expect everything to be 100% fixed .

Some bugs are fine, stuff like BF4 release and the Creed fiasco is just not on. We are not saying dont buy the game, just no need to pre order it. The pre order culture and exclusive rewards has gone silly as has hidden micro transactions.

We as consumers are more wary after allot of shit that has been put on us, it was not our doing. I used to preorder all the time, in 2015 no way, 2016 scares me.
 
These comments make me so angry because, as a programmer there's a lot of instances where you CANT expect everything to be 100% fixed .

I willing to bet you're either trolling or have never programmed anything before.

Dont be angry? If his quote is about making a game perfect then he is right. Nothing is perfect and I understand you guys. I understand there will be some errors!

But problems with Unity, Driveclub and Halo MCC go beyond lil errors
 
These comments make me so angry because, as a programmer there's a lot of instances where you CANT expect everything to be 100% fixed .

Well it's not exactly an either/or situation like many here are claiming.

There's a huge difference between a game with glitches/bugs, and a fundamentally broken release. Most people can deal with a game that releases with a small amount of bugs/glitches, especially huge open-world RPGs like Witcher 3 or Fallout 4.

But on the other hand a game like AC Unity, which had gamebreaking bugs on release, or Arkham Knight which straight up doesn't even work on PC and got released anyway - that stuff is inexcusable and the fact that they "got away" with it is bizarre.
 
I'm scared for Fallout 4. Especially on consoles. That's why I hope Persona 5 comes out this year, so I can give Fallout 4 two months to fix the worst bugs and glitches.

Fallout 4 was supposedly complete for some time now so hopefully that means something. Then again, it's bethesda.
 
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