Releasing Unfinished Games: Are you tired of being a Beta Tester?

[Jtbrig7390]

Let me start off and say this is not a Console Vs PC or Brand Vs Brand Debate.

Like the title says are you tired of being a Beta Tester. It seems to me that more and more games are getting released that is highly unfinished with amazing low performance.
A pefect example of this is the recently released Assassin's Creed Unity that is running nearly 20fps on consoles and even dips under 20fps and is having a HUGE amount of problems running on PC.
The Evil within having huge fps problems on Console to the point where it dips under 20fps I personally don't know if it had PC problems.. Lords of the Fallen having fps problems on both PC and Console.

Battlefield 4 releasing with broken servers that still have problems even today.

Another Example is Watch_Dogs and Black Flag both having bad PC ports more so Watch_Dugs.

It seems to me over the past couple years more and more games are releasing in such a mess that some are unplayable. I play on console mostly and I can game at 30fps just fine "Perfer 60fps" but I would take 720p/60fps over 30fps/1080p anyday. But thats a console problem.

I am personally just tired of being a non-paided Beta Tester for companys. So I personally have decided I won't be buying a Ubisoft title unless its used or at a huge discount and ill be doing the same to any other company who release's halfbaked games. I am all for giving them profit as long as the product works the way it should.

Games like ACU/WD/BF4 and so on should be a example of what not too do. Personally I feel companys like EA/Unbisoft should get into trouble in some way for releasing broken games.

I really do feel the only company who dosen't release broken games is Nintendo but thats just my opinion.

[Vizardlorde]

No!!!! The only closed beta i've made it into is DA keep which is not even a game. All other games that I apply for beta deny me access.\
Sorry I admit I didn't read your whole post cause it was too long...

[Jtbrig7390]

No!!!! The only closed beta i've made it into is DA keep which is not even a game. All other games that I apply for beta deny me access.

Ok ether u didn't read what I posted or this is a joke...ether way it made me laugh thx lol.

[Deleted]

Bought my first console in 12 years...both games I bought don't work. Both Destiny and Halo MCC do not work at all in multiplayer...and Destiny even throws me out of the game during Singleplayer. Now the only game left me to try tomorrow is Unity, looking forward to it going from the OP.

[Vizardlorde]

Having read now I can safely say that this doesn't happen to me often cause I don't buy games as soon as they come out on hype alone. I also don't look for crappy reviews that are probably bought by the game publisher, instead I wait until some sucker buys the game and uploads some of the gameplay on youtube and complain how buggy it is or praise how great it is, then I buy it.

[Remilia]

I like turtles.

But yeah, nowadays I don't really buy a lot of games on release. Then again the games I've been playing now are what would be considered strange on this forum.

Last game I bought on release is 超女神*仰ノワル (Chou Megami Shinkou Noire) but that's more or less cause I'm a massive fan.

[Jtbrig7390]

Bought my first console in 12 years...both games I bought don't work. Both Destiny and Halo MCC do not work at all in multiplayer...and Destiny even throws me out of the game during Singleplayer. Now the only game left me to try tomorrow is Unity, looking forward to it going from the OP.

Destiny is a Online Only game just incase u didn't know.

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Companies will cut as many corners as they can in the name of saving a dollar, and they are always pushing the envelope to see what they can get away with and still make sales. When one company pushes the envelope a little further, and no bad reactions happen from the public, then that new 'strat' they got away with will become the new norm for all companies, because nobody can be left behind and have their profits suffer when their competitors are doing it. Then somebody else pushes the envelope a little FURTHER from the new point, and so on and so forth.

I agree with your points and I believe it's only going to get worse in the coming years

Ya I am fucken sick of it as a gamer. I personally feel it has nothing to do with its a console or pc game release. Its just a lazy game company not wanting to do the work needed.

This really dose feel like the year I am going to stop buying 'New' games from X company. ill still own the game because I am a gamer and I must play it but it will be a used copy or at a HUGE discount.

Give me a halfassed game and ill give u halfassed profit :P

[Deleted]

The recession has caused gaming companies to squeeze budgets and spend minimum as possible before selling the product. Once they get the revenue they can keep the programmers etc to patch up. Its wrong but seems to be reoccurring , We consumers need to stop buying into hype and pre ordering

[Jtbrig7390]

The recession has caused gaming companies to squeeze budgets and spend minimum as possible before selling the product. Once they get the revenue they can keep the programmers etc to patch up. Its wrong but seems to be reoccurring , We consumers need to stop buying into hype and pre ordering

I personally don't think the recession has anything to do with it. Each year that go's by game companys have always tryed to max profit at as little work as they could.

[Eyechewer]

It may be a bit off topic, but...

I'm not tired of beta testing because i hate it or anything, but because it angers me to have tested their game for them, free of charge, only to have 2 days of unplayable garbage and no end in sight.

At this point it feels like I beta tested a steering wheel for a car without an engine. It seems pointless.

[stellvia]

The recession has caused gaming companies to squeeze budgets and spend minimum as possible before selling the product. Once they get the revenue they can keep the programmers etc to patch up. Its wrong but seems to be reoccurring , We consumers need to stop buying into hype and pre ordering

This tactic of releasing an unfinished game is way older than the recession. It's become endemic because of cheap bandwidth, not because of any recession. Basically it's a Value consideration on the part of management: The cost of polishing the games (added Value) is considered higher than the sales that would be gained from said polish over releasing it as-is. (Or potential lost sales)

Welcome to Managerial Accounting.

[Unionoob]

The recession has caused gaming companies to squeeze budgets and spend minimum as possible before selling the product. Once they get the revenue they can keep the programmers etc to patch up. Its wrong but seems to be reoccurring , We consumers need to stop buying into hype and pre ordering

if that would have been so bad then why game developers are getting new sale records each year?

[Deleted]

This tactic of releasing an unfinished game is way older than the recession. It's become endemic because of cheap bandwidth, not because of any recession. Basically it's a Value consideration on the part of management: The cost of polishing the games (added Value) is considered higher than the sales that would be gained from said polish over releasing it as-is. (Or potential lost sales)

Welcome to Managerial Accounting.

Yeah i agree but i think its gotten worse. that's my opinion though

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if that would have been so bad then why game developers are getting new sale records each year?

Hype , we are consumers. we are drowned in advertisement . Also new markets opening up

[tangers58]

Very much so. I've had numerous bugs I reported in Cata, MoP, and WoD end up going live. Many of which were up for months after I, and other people, reported them. Tis getting very annoying.

[Unionoob]

Yeah i agree but i think its gotten worse. that's my opinion though

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Hype , we are consumers. we are drowned in advertisement . Also new markets opening up

Then about what kind of recession we can talk? That's just being used as excuse to make more profits and spend less.

[Sj]

But yeah, nowadays I don't really buy a lot of games on release.

Same. I usually only buy Nintendo games on release, because they're the only company that seems to consistently put out "finished" games. Whether or not those games are actually good is another story, but they are well-made more often than not.

[Deleted]

Then about what kind of recession we can talk? That's just being used as excuse to make more profits and spend less.

By recession i mean management using it as a reason to reduce time/funding/labour to make a profit. Hence we get shitty games like the recent AC .

Again this is my opinion I'm not stating it as fact.

[Deleted]

Destiny is a Online Only game just incase u didn't know.

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Ya I am fucken sick of it as a gamer. I personally feel it has nothing to do with its a console or pc game release. Its just a lazy game company not wanting to do the work needed.

This really dose feel like the year I am going to stop buying 'New' games from X company. ill still own the game because I am a gamer and I must play it but it will be a used copy or at a HUGE discount.

Give me a halfassed game and ill give u halfassed profit :P

I did know, I didn't expect to be disconnected every 5-10mins...assuming I can land on any planet/mission first. An on the note of Halo...it's Xbox main selling point, how a developer can fail to create a server browser or working matchmaker in 2014-2015 is beyond me.

They should fire the people responsible for coding the online parts of games if they don't work.

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Same. I usually only buy Nintendo games on release, because they're the only company that seems to consistently put out "finished" games. Whether or not those games are actually good is another story, but they are well-made more often than not.

I didn't make a difference 10 years ago when all consoles were actual consoles, with consoles being made into mediaplayers/pc I see Nintendo shining as well with putting out working games.

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Yeah i agree but i think its gotten worse. that's my opinion though

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Hype , we are consumers. we are drowned in advertisement . Also new markets opening up

Which is fine, somehow it has become acceptable to release broken products. You picture yourself selling dishwashers...the shit you make doesn't work and you make every consumer wait for 1-2 weeks for someone to come fix it (patch).

[Azrile]

The recession has caused gaming companies to squeeze budgets and spend minimum as possible before selling the product. Once they get the revenue they can keep the programmers etc to patch up. Its wrong but seems to be reoccurring , We consumers need to stop buying into hype and pre ordering

This is BS. The problem is simply they put too much of their budget into marketing a game a year in advance, and not enough money into making it. There was an investor comment about Destiny that almost 50% of the entire budget was for marketing and non-development costs.

Blizzard is a bit of an exception. but they should be the example. Games like Diablo 2 and Starcraft 1 were selling a on of copies years after it was released becuuse they made a great game. Game that come out now have all their sales the first week then the reviews come out and nobody ever buys them again.

[Deleted]

This is BS. The problem is simply they put too much of their budget into marketing a game a year in advance, and not enough money into making it. There was an investor comment about Destiny that almost 50% of the entire budget was for marketing and non-development costs.

Blizzard is a bit of an exception. but they should be the example. Games like Diablo 2 and Starcraft 1 were selling a on of copies years after it was released becuuse they made a great game. Game that come out now have all their sales the first week then the reviews come out and nobody ever buys them again.

i can agree with that also. didn't destiny put more money into advertising than creating the game?