The importance of getting it right the first time (Gaming)

by dogcow , Hiding from Bob, in the vent core., Tuesday, August 09, 2016, 14:03 (3032 days ago) @ cheapLEY
edited by dogcow, Tuesday, August 09, 2016, 14:06

Day 1 patches aren't a problem for downloaded content. People who buy the digital version aren't (likely) going to be complaining about the state of the game w/o the day 1 patch as they usually just download & update it.

Physical media is (mostly) a legacy technology that's been included in the current gen because enough of the world isn't ready for the content delivery method to be via the net. I doubt this will be the situation in the next-gen; I imagine it will likely be download only, which stinks for people in your situation :(.

If we were in that next-gen world where every game had to be downloaded, then publishers could, in theory, offer physical discs with a pre-download-cache of the game's content in order to reduce the download size for people who don't have good internet speeds. In that situation I don't think there'd be complaining about the disc not being the final product. It would instead be a nice thing the publishers offered.

For all intents and purposes that's where we are now. Practically every game is offered as a digital download. Also, nearly every game has a day 1 patch that puts that pre-download-cache into the final release form. The only difference is that you CAN play the unfinished pre-download-cache.

I guess if game publishers want to address Cody's complaint they'll remove that ability to play the physical cache of content and require it to be enabled by a day 1 patch. I don't think that's a happy solution for many at this point in time.

Anyway, digital delivery is the future, and once we're all able to acquire our games this way I don't see the problem being a problem anymore.

Edit: upon re-reading this it sounds like I'm trying to argue against. I'm really just trying to offer up a alternative way of looking at it and agreeing that it stinks for some.