NCAA Football 12 Title Update #2 Details

[War24]

This whole patch thing is really got me thinking twice about Madden12. I have not seen most of the issues which most of the OS users are seeing and I actually enjoy NCAA 12 (preowned purchase of course), but I know the routine from previous years and it is getting old. You get so excited for these release dates then you have to wait months before the game plays right or at least reasonable. Sad thing is NCAA is already placing a dark cloud over Madden which seems to have some serious potential this year. I don't want to wait till Christmas to start a decent dynasty in Madden like in the past. Whatever happened to the good old days when people would just boycott when they were unhappy? All these incomplete game releases and lockout stuff in professional sports would end if people just stop putting up with it. We don't buy, they don't make money. Result changes are made.


P.S. EA, please give me a reason to put my NFL 2k5 to rest forever. Please. I really want to. Really.

[BoSoxPujols]

IMO typical nonsense from Ben and this entire dev team.
Get really active on boards etc up until the game comes out. Put out a marginal product with broken new features. Say a patch will be out in August..then back it back until September. Release no tuning packs. Drop off the face of the Earth news wise on the same boards they were all over in June/July...move on to NCAA 13. Lather rinse repeat. If the patch is going to take more time they better be adding things to it like the busted scheduling/Custom Conference issue etc.

If not EA will throw the customers a bone and put out a patch that doesn't fully fix the game

Hopefully this board and customers in general learn a lesson next year and don't rush out to buy the game right away..put EA on notice we aren't going to tolerate this anymore. 2+ months for ONE patch and one that may not even take care of all/most the game's issues?

Just awful.

Poor form EA.

[SGMRock]

Quote: Originally Posted by BoSoxPujols

If not EA will throw the customers a bone and put out a patch that doesn't fully fix the game

They only time EA throws us out bones on a consistant basis is when they are trying to real us into buying their games. Notice all the stuff still coming out about Madden the past 2 months were as the only thing we hear about NCAA is that they had great sales numbers and we might see a patch the end of August, then dead silence.

[tonybologna]

Quote: Originally Posted by SGMRock

So whats the over and under on if this patch will be out on the 23rd or 30th I believe they normally only release patches on Tuesdays right? Could have that wrong, I always forget this every year until EA Sports games remind me

The patch isn't coming until sometime in September. That would be an OVER!

[K0ZZ]

It's negative PR in two ways, first off in general some of the issues (not all) are not evident to a certain group of people. In the sense that if your not 'looking' for the glitch you may not realize it. I've seen a lot of people say that they can't look at the forums because it makes them hate the game / notice it's flaws more pointedly. In a business world, they are risking losing a sale if they have a big list of 'Worked on glitch A, Bug C, Crash D etc.' Rule of thumb is to never sell your product short aka constantly bringing up updates on a patch. Not to mention there is still a slim chance that it's sitting with Sony and MS right now. In the interview, Ben couldn't say it's with them because then it puts the fire under MS/Sony's *** and that runs a chance of hurting a business partnership.

I would love some transparency but any sign of weakness especially if another legitimate contender in the sports gaming world surfaces they cannot do such a thing. They want the consumer to perceive that the game is perfect even though we know it's far from the truth.

[aarontab]

Quote: Originally Posted by chicagopax

It's negative PR in two ways, first off in general some of the issues (not all) are not evident to a certain group of people. In the sense that if your not 'looking' for the glitch you may not realize it. I've seen a lot of people say that they can't look at the forums because it makes them hate the game / notice it's flaws more pointedly. In a business world, they are risking losing a sale if they have a big list of 'Worked on glitch A, Bug C, Crash D etc.' Rule of thumb is to never sell your product short aka constantly bringing up updates on a patch. Not to mention there is still a slim chance that it's sitting with Sony and MS right now. In the interview, Ben couldn't say it's with them because then it puts the fire under MS/Sony's *** and that runs a chance of hurting a business partnership. I would love some transparency but any sign of weakness especially if another legitimate contender in the sports gaming world surfaces they cannot do such a thing. They want the consumer to perceive that the game is perfect even though we know it's far from the truth.

A lot of their angle i believe is the old adage "underpromise, overdeliver", which is somewhat funny considering they do the opposite BEFORE the game is released....

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by TheShizNo1

My point was that those are bugs that should have been caught. I named all those bugs on purpose. I'm not ok like others of accepting a game is unplayable until a month after it drops. I've learned my lesson and will go ahead and wait until the first patch to buy '13. Sorry, it is my fault for paying full price and not expecting a half assed game.

First time for everything . . . I agree 100%. It's become very clear from the EA football games I've played extensively (M10, M11, and NCAA12) that getting the game on release day means you're spending your money on an incomplete/faulty product and that you're setting yourself up for frustration in trying to play through the bugs. These games only become what they should be about 2 months after they're released.

My future EA purchases will be around October for NCAA and Christmas for Madden. By October the patches and tuners are out and good rosters are up--playing NCAA without those things set is just not as fun. By Christmas Madden has 2 patches and enough roster updates to start franchises with the new rising stars having good ratings boosts.

Given all this it really baffles me that OS continues to court developer relationships with EA and offer them protected status. It's quite clear that we don't get anything productive from that relationship. There's little transparency and even less accountability. As the interview shows, all we really get is a more intimate PR experience, which is still PR spin. At least we get our logo in some games .

That said, I do happen to enjoy the game despite its warts. I only play offline and I've been lucky not to have too many issues with freezing. I've just had to take a zen approach, fold my legs and meditate before my games, and rub a jade buddha between quarters. It's working so far so I'm gonna ride it out.

[TheShizNo1]

Quote: Originally Posted by Trojan Man

. Given all this it really baffles me that OS continues to court developer relationships with EA and offer them protected status. It's quite clear that we don't get anything productive from that relationship. There's little transparency and even less accountability. As the interview shows, all we really get is a more intimate PR experience, which is still PR spin. At least we get our logo in some games . .

Hm, this is a helluva point I never thought of. I assume it's for things such as getting exclusive rating unveilings and exclusive photo shots. And you can say "Hey, come to this site and you can interact w/ the game developers."