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?