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Raging Justice
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Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by Raging Justice Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:27 pm

So I've been trying to make sense of this. I have a bunch of PS2, Gamecube, and Xbox games. You put the disc in the system and you play the game...and everything is fine. Today, you put the disc in, there's a day 1 patch...and probably several more over the coming weeks and months. Not to mention unannounced DLC (see Streets of Rage 4)

Why is this normal now and why was is NOT normal back in the PS2 era? I don't get it. What changed? Why was releasing a polished and complete game NOT a Herculean task years ago...and now it is? From AAA developers to indie devs, it's all the same. They all do it now. Companies are even selling collector's editions for the equivalent of incomplete, beta, releases. It's bizarre the times we're living in now. I'm playing Cris Tales, and so far I LOVE this game. However, I chose to play the game as is, deleting the patch that gets downloaded as soon as you boot the disc in your PS4. As a sort of experiment, I wanted to see the game in its RAW form.

The game is riddled with audio issues, typos, characters delivering other people's lines, graphical errors...and other oddities. I'm reading that SEVERAL things were fixed as well as changed with the game's patches...even things like random encounter rate, treasure chest items, even NEW equipment and items that were not already present in the game, longer cut scenes, and NEW cutscenes. It's...embarrassing the state the game is in pre-patched. Don't get me wrong, there's a good game here with great graphics, great music, cool characters, and some really clever gameplay mechanics....but it's like you're playing a version of the game that was not ready for release. It's untested and incomplete. You want another example of a game MAJORLY changed from it's raw, retail version? Bloodstained: Ritual of the Moon

Now, I have the standard physical release of Cris Tales, as I find collector's editions to be a pain in the ass with their oversized boxes that don't fit in your shelves as well as being really easy to damage. Plus CEs usually come with a bunch of crap no one needs. I'm not even sure how much value these things have now and days. I tried selling a collector's edition for a modern Final Fantasy game a few years back to a local game store and he didn't want it. I'm going off on a tangent, back to the topic at hand. How does a game in THIS state get a collector's edition? That's absurd to me. If you have no internet, or somehow the servers get shut down or something one day, this is the version of the game you get...a very sloppy, unpolished, unfinished release. Basically, my physical copy of this game is worthless

Now, I'm not picking on this specific game for any reason. It just happens to be a game I recently bought physically and am playing. And like I said, even in its unfinished state the game is still fun, but I don't understand why this is so normal now. People have been talking about the coming of the all digital era for years now. I have news for you folks. IT'S ALREADY HERE. 90% of games released physically now are incomplete, unpolished, beta releases...not finished products ready for retail. I think the only exceptions are physical releases that come out long after the game has been available digitally (and thus hopefully include all of the patches/updates/DLC on the disc) and the small, niche, number of companies releasing new games on cartridges for no longer supported consoles like the Sega Genesis, SNES, etc.

All digital era is here and has been for a few years now. Games are even getting digital only bonuses now, usually in digital deluxe editions

How did these game companies manage back in the PS2/Gamecube/Xbox/Dreamcast era when they didn't have the crutch of patches and updates? I mean I know some games, like Ninja Gaiden on the Xbox got updates, but that was the exception, not the norm. Games back then had to be released in COMPLETE form. What happened?
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marurun
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by marurun Mon Aug 02, 2021 7:59 am

Those older games still had bugs, and they occasionally had to pull releases. Honestly, modern console games are more like PC games, which have needed updates and fixes for as long as the internet has been available to provide for it. Before the internet was common in consoles console developers would more precisely target show-stopping bugs. Post console internet developers can be a little more ambitious and not sweat the large bugs as much because they can patch them out after golden master. All that’s happened is that the “final” deadline is no longer golden master but is now day one. Also, game code is a lot more complex now with more people involved. That increases the likelihood of bugs.
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opa
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by opa Mon Aug 02, 2021 8:04 am

Two things allow this to happen: Widespread internet adoption and idiotic consumers.

A game company can have an early, functional version of their game out to the factory so they can meet a physical store deadline. Meanwhile, they continue to work on patches up until release.

Additionally, people are dumb enough to reward this practice by buying broken products on day one (and maybe even spend a little extra on dlc).
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MrPopo
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by MrPopo Mon Aug 02, 2021 11:19 am

marurun wrote:Those older games still had bugs, and they occasionally had to pull releases.

There's a lot that show up on various "worst games" lists that were pre-internet that still went retail.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by o.pwuaioc Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:48 pm

MrPopo wrote:
marurun wrote:Those older games still had bugs, and they occasionally had to pull releases.

There's a lot that show up on various "worst games" lists that were pre-internet that still went retail.

But that's comparing the worst of then to the best of now. Many of the biggest sellers these days have some serious bugs in them.
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MrPopo
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by MrPopo Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:49 pm

Said modern games are also orders of magnitude more complex than the games of yore.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by o.pwuaioc Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:49 pm

MrPopo wrote:Said modern games are also orders of magnitude more complex than the games of yore.

Sure, and they have more programmers and bigger budgets.
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MrPopo
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by MrPopo Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:51 pm

That isn't how bug fixing scales. Complexity scales bugs exponentially, but increasing your labor force has diminishing returns when trying to quash them.
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marurun
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by marurun Mon Aug 02, 2021 1:12 pm

It's not just big teams on B - AAA games. Modern indie developers are using tools like Unity and such which incorporate all sorts of functionality. There are a lot of indie games on modern PCs and consoles which take up a lot more memory and CPU time than it feels like they should because of all the overhead of these tools and engines. So even something that's relatively "simple" to develop has an awful lot of complexity and overhead going on behind the scenes, which means many more opportunities for bugs and the unexpected.
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o.pwuaioc
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Re: Remember when games didn't need patches and updates?

by o.pwuaioc Mon Aug 02, 2021 2:20 pm

marurun wrote:It's not just big teams on B - AAA games. Modern indie developers are using tools like Unity and such which incorporate all sorts of functionality. There are a lot of indie games on modern PCs and consoles which take up a lot more memory and CPU time than it feels like they should because of all the overhead of these tools and engines. So even something that's relatively "simple" to develop has an awful lot of complexity and overhead going on behind the scenes, which means many more opportunities for bugs and the unexpected.

All the more reason to eschew modern games and their dev tools.
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