There's No Longer a Reason to Buy Sports Games on Day One - RaychelSnr's Blog

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There's No Longer a Reason to Buy Sports Games on Day One Stuck

Posted on July 24, 2011 at 02:03 AM.

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Many of you that have read my blog over the past 3 years know that I'm a man who loves to spot trends and then extrapolate what they mean into the future. I love to see where our endlessly exciting and hugely creative industry is going in the future while also enjoying what we have to offer in the present.

One of the trends I became very worried even before my time here at Operation Sports was the advent and pursuit of patches in console gaming. Everyone who's anyone who remembers the hey-day of PC gaming will remember what happened at the apex of that generation -- the typical mantra was, "only fools buy a game on launch day."

Well congratulations longtime console gamers (and old PC diehards), you've now gotten your wish -- you just didn't know you were wishing for it.

PC Gaming is back, it is just on a console.

"Don't be spun, avoid the dry run, never buy a sports game on day one, else you'll never have any fun."

It has really gotten to this point. Every sports game launches with a variety of bugs which can ruin the experience in 2011. No title is immune, and depending on how careless a developer is -- the bugs can run from annoying to downright "why is this defective piece of crap on store shelves at $60?" infuriating.

Given that every sports game launches before the official sport goes in season -- there is literally no reason for you to buy a game on launch day anymore. Games are often shipped with a variety of bugs, outdated rosters, and oftentimes you pay $60 for a game which might just fall in price by the time the kinks are worked out.

The Good Ol' Broken Gridiron

Let's take NCAA Football 12 for example.

NCAA could be a great game. It could feature potentially great gameplay. It could have an incredibly deep and rich experience in Dynasty and Road to Glory mode.

So long as a patch addresses the coulds mentioned above.

And a patch probably will. And NCAA will probably be a great game worthy of the high praise many have given it.

But right now, at this point, there's no reason to buy NCAA.

There won't be a compelling reason to buy Madden on August 30 either.

For that matter, there won't even be a really good argument for buying NBA 2K12 on October 4 as well.

Not until the patches are out and the game actually works as intended. It is a good thing the automobile industry doesn't work like video games, we'd all be driving potentially great cars right up until the engine quit working or the air conditioning was found to actually never blow cold air (a real travesty given the current heat wave I might add).

And yes, I know there's a lot of irony in that previous statement, especially if you've bought American.

Perhaps we can give games potential ratings?

And let's not even begin to talk about how flummoxed game reviewers are these days (much less their editors).

What is there to do? Wait a month before giving a likely still incomplete game a review? What about reviewing a game on day one and completely missing the fact the game is likely broken and the majority of your readers are going to be ticked off about said game?

Shoot here at Operation Sports, we give games a week before issuing a score and many of the biggest bugs appeared after we released the review of NCAA Football 12. Is there any justice in this world?

And the thinking man would be right, there is nothing you can do about this quandary. It is a darned if you do and darned if you don't kind of situation where the only perfect answer is that there isn't one.

But perhaps a small disclaimer on reviews going forward that bugs can and will appear that will affect the experience, or perhaps the experience is different for different people, or maybe we can just start throwing a dart at a score sheet on the wall and giving a game a new score each day until it is fully patched.

There's no real answer here.

The Blame Game

But really, who is to blame here?

You see, PC Developers back in the day had a very convenient excuse about PC Hardware being so various, with endless combinations to test for. There was literally no way to ship a game without a few bugs.

Consumers, the ones who didn't leave for the console where games were finished and working properly, understood.

Fast forward to the bright and shiny days of console gaming -- where bugs don't occur at launch and where the worst of PC Gaming (unfinished games) was left in the 90s -- or not.

For the amount of bugs to be getting through the cracks for so many different titles at each studio lends me to believe sports games really can't be developed in a year. Yet, they can't be profitable unless they're developed each year on the nose.

It is a weird catch-22 I know.

We will never know if quality assurance (aka the video game testers) budgets have been cut and there simply isn't as much testing going on these days, but we do know whatever is being done is no longer effective.

And to the consumer, that is all that matters.

So What Can You Do?

So the real question is, "What can I do about this travesty?"

Well short of not buying sports games on launch day, nothing.

This is the United States of America and money talks. If Madden were to see a huge dip in launch day sales, the panic button would be pushed and things reexamined. Ditto for NBA 2K, MLB 2K, NCAA Football, NHL, etc. You want to see real change in the products you buy? Then don't buy them.

But let's be realistic, unless you decide to start a few viral campaigns with a compelling message which people will believe in (which is stronger than their desire to play Madden on August 30), this effort is doomed to failure in achieving your goals of wide ranging changes.

The rest of your options begin to get rather limited after that. You can complain on message boards, but most places which like to keep law and order (and civil discussion) will probably send you on your way if you really say what's on your mind. You can write angry letters, but short of getting a refund you probably won't get too far there as just one person in a sea of very willing customers.

You can, however, just choose to be wise and not buy a game at launch. Be patient, be calm, and just wait things out before diving in. Compulsive buying of things we really don't need is an issue larger than what I can write about here on Operation Sports -- but I can say that if you want to see a change, sometimes the best place to start is with yourself.

Maybe more will read this and follow you. Maybe they won't.

But at least for a short time, you'll feel like you beat the man.

And there's no price you can put on that.

Comments

# 46 druez @ Jul 25

Great post. I agree. But, I'm ok with having it on release day with bugs as long as they get fixed.

# 47 C the Lyte @ Jul 25

Bad thing is, this not just limited to sports games and EA and 2K. It is industry wide. It's like getting a bacon cheeseburger and then getting the other half of the bun a month later and the cheese a month after that!!! I'm fat.

# 48 C the Lyte @ Jul 25

However, I will say this. At least they work on patches. I remember when Mortal Kombat came out with the same game only 3 different versions. Those were $70.00 patches each!!!

# 49 Schreck @ Jul 25

I had that bug hit me in last year's game. Only happened one time, I think I was scrambling and accidentally went to slide or something, I think I got hit and he fumbled, and nobody could pick it up. Somehow they could move the ball, but not pick it up. Over 5 minutes ran off the clock, with everybody running around like that mess up top. Occasionally the ball would get pushed to one sideline or the other, I kept trying to knock it out of bounds but couldn't and it would work its way back to the middle. Finally after like 15 minutes, I was able to work the crowd down and get a safety out of it. Wasted a ton of time, but it was in my OD so I didn't want to restart.

# 50 LiveAllDaWay @ Jul 25

well said MMCHRISS I don't really buy sports games until Christmas time ppl might think i'm crazy but i rather have them fix all the issues then waste $60 I think of it as a gift that i would get for my birthday. Plus $60 is too much money. I usually wait until its like $30.

# 51 GaryT531 @ Jul 25

that vid would be pretty cool actually if it were followed by ejections and suspensions

# 52 SGMRock @ Jul 27

Good write up. I normally buy these on release day because I like to give the developers the benefit of the doubt on how well their made the game.... I normally lose there. I have mentioned in other posts on OS Forums though that many times I will get these games on release day, play the heck out of them for 2 weeks until I see all the flaws and then shelf it for 2-3 months :P.

# 53 pietasterp @ Jul 30

Totally, 100% agree. I've been saying this for years - never buy on launch day (or launch week...maybe even launch month). Glad you have the forum, audience, and communication skills to get the message out there. Even if it is all for naught...

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# 55 Uncle Way @ Aug 16

It definitely sucks that the games aren't as polished as they should be on release day, but that's not a legitimate reason to wait a few weeks to buy.. Prices, especially on games like Madden and Fifa don't drop that quickly.. All you'd be doing is depriving yourself.. This little personal protest will have zero effect on the business practices of game developers..

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