As production costs of producing games and the risk of investing increases, companies are inevitably going to find ways to maximize profit, most times at the expense of the customer. Triple A titles that should be absolute successes are being released into a market that views them as mediocre for their obvious flaws, omissions, and errors. The problem is that fewer people buy the game, the company rushes another product to make up losses, and the cycle perpetuates itself. Not exactly pretty, but the full problem deserves to be analyzed case by case.
Battlefield 2142 was released last month, and was an extremely competent title on its own merits. Though it was certainly similar to its predecessors, the game had a futuristic flare and exciting titan mode that more than warranted a purchase for Battlefield fans. However, the game is absolutely riddled with bugs that should have been squashed before the beta was even released. When I played, I noted some rather amusing problems, such as the titans randomly blowing up and spawning again, making the game unplayable, vehicles spawning upside down, crippling lag, and more. Without taking the time to insure the player wouldn’t be affected by these problems, the game was released without the benefit of another month of hunting down problems. The reviews all read similarly, stating that, “The game is good, the bugs are not”. It’s not just EA titles either.
Phantasy Star Universe, the successor to Phantasy Star Online, has been anticipated since it was announced, and upon its release was gobbled up by fans everywhere. The game is stable, runs well, and has the gameplay we’ve come to expect, with just a slight problem; two thirds of the online portion of the game are missing. There are no special classes, no robot partner function, missing weapons, missing story missions, it’s even missing an entire planet. This isn’t an oversight by any means, Sega did the same thing with the Japanese release earlier this year. Their solution was to release the game and slowly add the content as they went to push the product as soon as possible. The game has received lukewarm reviews thus far, and many disappointed fans have dropped accounts.
Though there are numerous examples of the inequity of greedy companies, the real problem is the impact on gamers. Many people are simply content with the titles they have, or are waiting for the game’s bugs to be squashed before they make a purchase. These people are still in the minority, however, as preorders for games and consoles soar into the holiday seasons, but the repercussions of these actions are growing, and before long companies are going to have to make a choice about whether or not the value of a game is decided by the company or the customer.