Sunday Thoughts: Delayed

I’m sorry, I realise my first Sunday Thoughts is a bit late (I’ve been here for months!) but that’s because I’ve taken my time with it to think about it so that it’s as good as possible. In the same way, some games developers have to take their time with games to make them as good as possible. It’s evident that many don’t at all but some get it just right and the end product is nothing short of unmissable. That’s what I want: unmissable games, lots of them. I don’t care how long it takes, but if there’s enough time and effort put into a project, we should expect something near to perfection.

A lot of games have been delayed recently and I’ve seen a lot of people complain, I haven’t seen a single person pointing out that they’ll be able to make the game even better than any beta version or preview that we’ve already played. It means that we have to wait for a while longer before we get our hands on the game but it also means that on release the game isn’t going to be broken, incomplete or missing those extra features that we love so much.

That’s why I don’t complain too much, maybe I used to but I’ve come to the realisation that the game development process is a long, hard battle. However, if the game does end up being a broken mess, then that’s my trust for those developers gone; a delay, to me, is a promise that the game will be finished upon release. It’s the developers saying “Guys, we want to make this as good as possible – just hang in there for a few months and your mind will be blown”.

Some developers can do it: they’re able to get it out on time and make it awesome. Other developers can’t: they may delay it but nothing can change that it’s simply not a good game. Who knows what Polyphony Digital have been doing with Gran Turismo 5; in my opinion it’s been delayed for far too long. Maybe it’ll be the perfect racing game, but it seems that it’s been finished for a while and I’m not looking forward to it as much anymore. From my personal experience delays (providing they aren’t too long) always affect the game in a good way; movie games that are rushed out to meet the release date of the movie are never good.

I’ve seen a few games that could have done with a delay, there are some problems that just can’t be patched out. Take Star Wars: The Force Unleashed for example, remember that awesome Star Destroyer scene that we were all excited to play as soon as we gazed upon the back of the box? I have two words: Tie Fighters. They broke apart what could have been an epic moment, and the sequence was completely ruined as another wave of Tie Fighters flew towards you and tore you apart just as you began to feel powerful.

From what I can tell, if the game hadn’t been pushed out and the developers had spent more time on what could have been the best use of the Force in any form of Star Wars media. In fact, in an interview with MTV Multiplayer, the Producer of The Force Unleash admitted that if they had “spent another year on it, we would have done something even better, obviously”. Obviously; delays give the developers enough time to realise their flaws and make “something even better”.

Could you imagine a game like God of War, which in my opinion has some of the greatest boss battle sequences around, ruined by a wave of enemies every time you tried to do a quick time event? I waited for God of War 3, and I was extremely impressed. I’m even more excited for LittleBigPlanet 2 now that I know Media Molecule are going to put more time into it. Not everything can be patched, and delays give them more time to focus on these things.

Games should never be rushed, whether it’s to meet the consumer’s needs of a yearly instalment, to get it out in the same timeframe of the movie linked to it, or simply because the developers think they can. I’m probably going too far into this subject, when I don’t know everything about it. However, I do believe that more developers shouldn’t be scared of delaying a game if they need to. I know it’s not the same, but I’ll take a few looks over this article to make sure it’s perfect for going out this Sunday. If it isn’t, I might have to work on it for another week.

20 Comments

  1. It’s not rocket science really. I work in the it industry where there are deadlines for software. If it’s not of a suitable quality it does not go out. It happens all the time and tbh I’m impressed by the amount of games the do hit the deadlines considering how complex games are these days. There’s no point in paying £50 for a game that is terrible if waiting patiently makes a great game.

    • +1 working in IT as a dev and as a tester before, hitting release with a defective product can make all the hard work pointless.

      • yea i agree, i work in web development, and we give a target date to client. a date that we have factored in lots of extra time so we dont release late projects…so developers announcing a game a year in advance, then give us a date for release, then delay it is a farce?!?! they should start the game, get to 80% complete then announce it, then give a release date once its at 90%. Then we would hear about and receive the title all with in the same year!

  2. I agree with this. I’ve been disappointed by the delay with LBP2 but i know it’s important to get things right. Missing a deadline can be a costly exercise – Nintendos shares fell almost 10% when the 3DS delay was announced – so i have to applaud any developers who would instead choose to make sure everything is running properly first. I’m certain LBP2 will be all the better for the delay.

  3. Delays can sure be annoying, but absolutely every single person would rather play a quality game a couple of months later, than a rubbish game earlier, it’s a no brainer, which is why i get annoyed when games are released that are clearly broken. They must’ve known they’re broken before releasing it, so don’t release it til it’s fixed. Tiger woods is a great example, why did they bother releasing that move patch when it’s so clearly broken? There are also bugs galore in the game. Don’t get me wrong, i love it, but it’s broken, and that annoys me. It shows a lack of respect for the consumer.

  4. This piece is going to get a lot of comments I can feel it.

    I agree with everything you say, for instance:

    “That’s what I want: unmissable games, lots of them. I don’t care how long it takes, but if there’s enough time and effort put into a project, we should expect something near to perfection.”

    and

    “A lot of games have been delayed recently and I’ve seen a lot of people complain, I haven’t seen a single person pointing out that they’ll be able to make the game even better than any beta version or preview that we’ve already played.”

    and

    ““Guys, we want to make this as good as possible – just hang in there for a few months and your mind will be blown””

    and

    “Could you imagine a game like God of War, which in my opinion has some of the greatest boss battle sequences around, ruined by a wave of enemies every time you tried to do a quick time event? I waited for God of War 3, and I was extremely impressed.”

    So….. it completely BAFFLES me why you would use GT5 as an example of a game that “been delayed for far too long”. Are you buying into teh interwebz bs now? GT5 will release 5 years from GT4, which isn’t exactly breaking records for dev time. Duke Nukem HAS to be the king (in more than one way), although even Alan Wake took 5 years and that received excellent reviews despite being decidedly meh in my books (yes, I DO own it).

    If you’ve been following GT5 news over the past 6 months, and you have any interest in racing games at all, you simply COULD NOT honestly think the wait hasn’t been worth it. GT5 personifies everything you are trying to explain in this article. It strives for perfection, it WILL be unmissable and I’m quite confident it will redefine driving games as we know them… you should be using it as your poster child, not berating it!

    And a purely nit picking point; GT5 has only ever had _one_ official release date, which was for Japan, and that was March 2010. No other release date has EVER been announced, so at best you could claim GT5 was delayed 8 months.

    If you want to berate a title, use Gears Of War 3. That has just coped a massive delay, and the devs freely admit it’s a business decision, and nothing to do with quality improvement. ( http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-10-01-gears-of-war-3-delayed-report )

    • BTW, if that sounded a little harsh I apologise. I’m just really looking forward to GT5 :).

      And I’ve had several Hefeweizen tonight :P

    • I’m at the EGExpo at the moment so I’m not going to blab on lots. Yes GT5 has had only one ‘official’ release, but we’ve known about the game forever and have had several hints by people from Sony and PD as to when it might release, all of which are nowhere near the actually release. Even then, it’s still been delayed a massive 8 months!

    • That’s why I said “Maybe it’ll be the perfect racing game”, but from what I’ve heard it’s still missing some things such as cockpit views in some cars etc.
      …so we can’t be sure.

      • I guess that bit didn’t actually come together as I thought it would, my notes show that I wanted to say that some of us would think it’s a delay too far, but it could definitely mean perfection.

  5. Ironic isn’t it that so many people do complain about delays, then next thing you know, they’re grumbling that there are too many good games to play and they can’t keep up?
    There are more than enough decent titles to keep everyone happy for ages before the next blockbuster lands on the shelves, and after all, patience is a virtue… Stay virtuous!

  6. Delays are good if they are used wisely and are not too long. There are still a lot of people who do not have internet on their consoles and can’t update so the disc they buy is the game they have to play.

    It wasn’t the fact that waves of tie fighters interrupted you force pulling on the destroyer because after a few failed attempts I got the knack and blew them up pretty quickly, it was the fact they flew through the destroyer you were pulling. the devs knew that is where the destroyer would be for most of that sequence so why make the enemies fly through it.

    • That too – the whole scene was just a mess.

  7. Surely we’re all used to this by now? Don’t forget the PS3 itself was delayed in the UK.

  8. I don’t at all mind delays, at worst I’ll cringe and say awwwowwwhhhh (that was supposed to be a drawn out aww and oh at the same time) but it’s for the good of the game and usually pulls it out of a mire of great games.

    I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting great games in my hand on day one but I understand it takes time and I’m old enough to know that anything rushed usually turns out to have horrendous downfalls somewhere.

    In summary then, for the good of the game? and the betterment of the chosen gamer? Yes, delays are a good thing.

    • In my head, “awwwowwwhhhh” sounded like Jonathon Ross saying “arrow”.

  9. i prefer it when a game gets delayed as you know the game will be better. AVP for example needed a bit more time maybe 2 months or something to add more tweaks and fix the multipleyer. and im glad LBP2 is getting delayed as you know its gonna be awesome in jan.

  10. if fallout 3 was delayed it wouldn’t have all bugs and that on the ps3 version it sometimes corrupt the autosave data.

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