Do gaming companies really ship out games that they know are terrible

[Dreddz]

I did wonder at one point if the people actually play the games before hand, they know its gonna suck, but ship anyway. Lazy assholes........

[Slothy]

Kinda holding a double standard. On one hand you say that crap games do not damage a developer, then you say that you don't remember the names of the developers whom put out crap games. While I agree with you to a point, I think games that are rushed and made poorly will damage the company and even the industry, all for the sake of a quick buck. I am not even gonna try and say that this is a Game Industry only problem; Every industry has its dark side.

I didn't explain myself well enough. I mean that developers that aren't well known will likely never be known for making a bad game. Either they make nothing but bad games and go out of business, or they eventually make a great game and then they're known, and more is expected. I'm not saying a string of bad games isn't a bad thing for a company. Eventually you either make some great titles or you go out of business obviously. I'm just saying from a PR standpoint, a few bad titles from an unknown developer isn't going to destroy their reputation if the public doesn't really expect anything from them to begin with. It may lead to some skepticism from the media if the company is making a game that genuinely looks good, but great games tend to stand on their own merits with the gaming public, not be torn down by the prior failures of a company. Of course a few rushed titles isn't the greatest thing for a companies reputation, I just think in the long run, one or two crappy releases won't do too much to a company as long as they can turn it around with some great titles.

[Destai]

I did wonder at one point if the people actually play the games before hand, they know its gonna suck, but ship anyway. Lazy assholes........

Did you read anything in this thread about how detailed and complicated and expensive any game is to make?

[Tifa's Real Lover(really]

We've all seen them and seen reviews of them. Games that are so terrible that they almost appear to be broken. But do you think in alot of these instances the gaming companies purposely shipped out a game that they new was either terrible or simply not finished. Or do you think in most cases the gaming company did work hard at making it a good quality game but creating games is such a complicated process often times that sometimes they don't put things together just right and the game ends up being really bad because of that.

So do you think gaming companies for the most part always try to put out good quality games but sometimes things just go array. Or do you think at times they do ship out games that they know is a sloppy sloppy mess and they just ship it out to meet deadlines or just to get as much money out of the failed project as they possibly can.

same thing happened with Square Enix with final fantasy 1, they named it final fantasy because if this game didnt do good, it was gonna be their final game

[darkchrono]

For those of you that have never seen any footage or reviews of the game we were initially talking about (Big Riggs). And don't have any idea about how bad it really was. Just watch the video footage in the video review. You don't have to read any of the write-up on it to find out just how awful it was and why we were saying earlier that we wondered if the developers just made it as a joke.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/driving/b...ml?sid=6086528

[omnitarian]

If you want my honest opinion, I genuinely believe that Big Riggs was released under the hope that the game's horribleness would cause word of mouth advertising, and spike sales for this otherwise faceless title.

I mean, c'mon, what would they have to lose? Considering how... unpolished the game is, it must have had a budget of negative 2. It would have been a simple, risk-free scam.

[bipper]

I didn't explain myself well enough. I mean that developers that aren't well known will likely never be known for making a bad game. Either they make nothing but bad games and go out of business, or they eventually make a great game and then they're known, and more is expected. I'm not saying a string of bad games isn't a bad thing for a company. Eventually you either make some great titles or you go out of business obviously. I'm just saying from a PR standpoint, a few bad titles from an unknown developer isn't going to destroy their reputation if the public doesn't really expect anything from them to begin with. It may lead to some skepticism from the media if the company is making a game that genuinely looks good, but great games tend to stand on their own merits with the gaming public, not be torn down by the prior failures of a company. Of course a few rushed titles isn't the greatest thing for a companies reputation, I just think in the long run, one or two crappy releases won't do too much to a company as long as they can turn it around with some great titles.

Fair enough. I would agree that a third rate company can definatley get away with a few crappy releases. ITs like the old saying, the bigger they are, the harder they fall.

Also, budget is not everything for a game. I am working on my own project and I have hardly spent a dime. I have gotten a web server, webpage, forums system, C++ Compiler, 3d modleing/animation suite, graphics suite, music maker, and graphics API all for free. Can't beat that OF course, I don't have to pay myself I am such a chincy bastard

Bip

[BatChao]

Also, budget is not everything for a game. I am working on my own project and I have hardly spent a dime. I have gotten a web server, webpage, forums system, C++ Compiler, 3d modleing/animation suite, graphics suite, music maker, and graphics API all for free. Can't beat that OF course, I don't have to pay myself I am such a chincy bastard

Woooaaaa there, buddy. You just listed off a bunch of things that would probably cost a few thousand dollars together. Do you mean that you got it for free like from school or something or that someone else (like parents or something) bought them for you. Either way... SOMEONE coughed up the money... that stuff doesn't come cheap, ya know. Heh. So I guess technically YOU didn't spend a dime... but SOMEONE did. Man... I wish I had all that good stuff at my disposal. I'll have to say that while budget isn't EVERYTHING, it is a HUGE chunk of the pie that makes up game development.

I just watched that Big Rigs video... and I'm speechless. I have no idea how a game like that could have made it onto store shelves. It looks like it's in pre-alpha state... it's horrible! Something must have happened during development to make this game get pushed out before it was ready... maybe the devs or publisher went bankrupt or something...I dunno. Just so you guys know... there is no way in hell a game like this would ever get to be released for a mainstream console. Because publishers do their own certification for PC games, they can pretty much release a game in any state they want. Nintendo, MS, and Sony all do the certification for every game released on their consoles. And while they will let some bugs go... there is no way a game as shoddy as Big Rigs would pass.

[bipper]

For starters I am a Cvangelist programmer. Anything I don't have, I can attempt to make or mod somthing else. I work with all things C. I use the ever portable MingW compiler and Dev C_++ ide. I prefer Open Gl, but can use DirectX or lingo for some projects. For music I work with Audacity, can't beat it really. Images are mainly done with tjeGIMP. And 3danimations and models are childs play with OPENFX - though i tend to take the poly-programmer route. Web server uses Linux, with Apache/php/MySQL setup and phpBB boards. It's all free.

Atari had this same issue where crap games would make it onto thier system. The genius Nintendo boys release a serialization chip in thier NES that made it so games 'had' to submit and go through their verification, and get aproved. It was either tiger, or a daughter company of thiers that learned how to bypass this code legally, and became the first company to really do so.

Fun fun industry.

Bipper

[darkchrono]

Don't you think there would be a point to where companies could get in trouble for releasing a product so bad that it would practically be like stealing money from the people actually bought the game (and I am sure there are some people out there who actually bought Big Rigs). I would think there would come a point to where some legal action could be warranted if a company releases a game so bad. The courts could force the company to refund everyone who bought the game their money back.

Maybe big rigs isn't quite bad enough to do that. But I think it would be pretty darn close.

[Lionx]

Well it depends, gaming enjoyment is VERY subjective, i mean i cant possibly sue sport games for being bad because i am not a fan of them becuase there is obviously a fan base for them. There might JUST be one too for that horrible game. Its not like a fan is so bad it screws over that you can take lawsuit over, games are too subjective in terms of entertainment.

[bipper]

Don't you think there would be a point to where companies could get in trouble for releasing a product so bad that it would practically be like stealing money from the people actually bought the game (and I am sure there are some people out there who actually bought Big Rigs). I would think there would come a point to where some legal action could be warranted if a company releases a game so bad. The courts could force the company to refund everyone who bought the game their money back.

Maybe big rigs isn't quite bad enough to do that. But I think it would be pretty darn close.

No. If there was such a law, I would move. People get ripped off, that is the way it works. I would hope that people whom fall for the scheme or know of it, would be smart enough to hadnle the situation on thier own.

Bip