4 ms·

The delay doesn't annoy me that much but the Day 0 patch trend does. Seriously why people can't just release 1.0 software that is 1.0 anymore? Although broadb

The delay doesn't annoy me that much but the Day 0 patch trend does. Seriously why people can't just release 1.0 software that is 1.0 anymore? Although broadband now is widespread, in many situations people might not have it. Situations where day-0 patch is bad: 1. Countries or places with poor infrastructure 2. Rural areas 3. People using the software after many years when the server with the patch might be gone. Also there is the fact many companies abuse patches to add features they shouldn't or remove features (rootkits, DRM, or Paradox habit of removing features in a way to "encourage" people to buy DLC, or PS3 suddenly not supporting Linux anymore, and then there is Epic "hotfix") The possibility of having patches is good. The habit of patching is bad. Or course adding features and content over time is fine, but releasing software you know it is buggy intending to patch is later is not.

rpastuszak 6y ago
I'm not sure if that's still the case, but one of the main reasons were the publishing platforms and deadlines (@someone more knowledgeable, please correct me if I'm wrong!) : As a game developer you'd need to set the publishing date weeks if not months in advance. Due to the store policies, missing that slot would result in another, potentially very expensive, delay. Now, marketing is a significant part of the budget and you really want to sync your marketing campaign with the release date. Postponing the release by a few weeks is almost guaranteed to damage the sales drastically, to the point where it could kill your game before people even have a chance to learn about it. You're late. So what do you do? You release all of your fixes in a huge day-0 patch. It's still better than the alternative.
bloody-crow 6y ago
The increasing overall complexity of the product itself and the diversity of platforms the product needs to ship on makes actual 1.0 nearly impossible. Games especially never ship as 1.0, they ship when the deadline comes and it's in somewhat playable state. No matter how much you delay, there will always be more shit to fix and letting it go is always a compromise.

rpastuszak 6y ago

I'm not sure if that's still the case, but one of the main reasons were the publishing platforms and deadlines (@someone more knowledgeable, please correct me if I'm wrong!) : As a game developer you'd need to set the publishing date weeks if not months in advance. Due to the store policies, missing that slot would result in another, potentially very expensive, delay. Now, marketing is a significant part of the budget and you really want to sync your marketing campaign with the release date. Postponing the release by a few weeks is almost guaranteed to damage the sales drastically, to the point where it could kill your game before people even have a chance to learn about it. You're late. So what do you do? You release all of your fixes in a huge day-0 patch. It's still better than the alternative.

bloody-crow 6y ago

The increasing overall complexity of the product itself and the diversity of platforms the product needs to ship on makes actual 1.0 nearly impossible. Games especially never ship as 1.0, they ship when the deadline comes and it's in somewhat playable state. No matter how much you delay, there will always be more shit to fix and letting it go is always a compromise.