Quote:
Originally Posted by Grumpy
In my opinion we (the purchaser) are in fact the Beta testers!
As you rightly say, games are released these days with bugs etc and it is the public who report them, and then we see a patch released.
I believe most game companies do this on purpose to save money on paying testers etc.
Certainly worth considering isnt it?  |
I think it all started with publishers getting fed up with all the piracy and when they saw the DOX scene die out (at least its coming back now). They simply thought like this: Release the game somewhat buggy (MP not working, serious crashing bugs etc), have a patch ready upon release and release it on the same day or very close after the release for all legit customers. So since many patches never get cracked its a strategy that makes people buy games to get the latest bug fixes etc. After that I guess it became a habit and a way to save money on beta testers.
But with the DOX scene coming back I can't see the same reason for it. Add the fact that customers feels screwed over and wait longer and longer before buying any games. They simply wait until 3-4 patches has been released before buying any games (atleast I mostly do).