Agreed, and some more thoughts on the subject (Gaming)

by CruelLEGACEY , Toronto, Monday, August 08, 2016, 20:23 (2821 days ago) @ Claude Errera

Again, you're glossing over the fact that neither the developers nor the publisher initiated these pre-release reviews. Dealers *illegally* sold early copies, and some people chose to do review/preview coverage based on an un-finished version of the game. The developers were actively telling everyone "what you're seeing is not final, the game won't be final until launch day".

I'm not glossing over it at all. I'm not even trying to defend the retailers. I am saying that you can completely eliminate the chance of players not playing the version of the game you want them to by not even giving them that option. If you put your complete trust in the people selling your games, then you are foolish. All it takes is one copy in this day and age with the internet.

Which is exactly why your attitude is absurd.

It takes time to get real copies to retailers. It takes time to print those copies, put them in packaging, ship them. It takes time for retailers to put them on shelves.

Publishers don't have 100% control over all aspects of that chain - and couldn't, unless they also become retailers, and run their own factories, etc etc etc. (If you're saying that they need to do all of these things in order to make a reasonable game that they can be proud of, you're not even arguing in the same LANGUAGE as I am, so there's no point in continuing this conversation.)

At SOME point, a point that comes AFTER they supply a product to the next link in the chain and BEFORE the consumer is supposed to be able to get his hands on the product, someone along the way can steal a copy, and sell it. (Or just play it. Whatever.) Unless the game is an always-on game that REQUIRES a connection to the internet to play (I don't know enough about NMS to know if it falls into this category, but it's sort of irrelevant, since your argument isn't about NMS, it's about games in general), there is NO WAY for the developer to stop people from playing/discussing that leaked game.

What you're suggesting, however, is that developers go back 20 years, when technology didn't allow them to fix small things after the manufacturing process started - to say "we're going to call this game completely done, no matter what, and this is the release version, no matter what" when they send the game off to the manufacturer, to start the disc creation/packaging process. And that's just dumb.

The only time I see a problem with Day-1 patches is when their existence is used or acknowledged in misleading ways during the review/preview process. EA will throw these huge Battlefield review events where they invite a bunch of press to come play an unfinished version of the game while also making them very aware that a day-1 patch is coming. This sort of thing inevitably leads to the reviewer questioning any problems or issues they have with the game, technical or otherwise, because they don't know for sure if those problems will exist on launch day. I find it leads many reviews to focus more heavily on the positive aspects of a game, for fear of heavily critiquing a shortcoming only to discover that it has changed by the time the game launches. The fact that most sites go ahead and publish reviews written under these conditions is a whole other can of worms. In cases like that, I could almost agree with Cody. But then I realize that the real problem is lack of proper communication, or worse, intentionally misleading the audience. Either way, the day-1 patch itself is not the problem.

But in the case of No Man's Sky, Sony and the developers are going out of their way to let everyone, including reviewers, know that they should wait until launch to play the game because then and only then will it be finished. It's a game that mostly comes on a disc with a little bit of final code delivered via download. As I said before, Cody is essentially complaining about the delivery method which I don't personally understand. Leaks happen. Basing opinions on leaks of an unfinished game is foolish in any case. Doesn't matter if the game is a month away from completion or a day away. Either way, it is unfinished.