Hi everyone,
My first topic here and its one that I have been discussing through the past weeks with many people. I produce video content for youtube and within primarily the Battlefield Community. I am sure everyone is aware of the ongoing discussions surrounding the problematic release of BF4. Many people have been asking questions now about if a game cannot be guaranteed to stand by the quality it is stated to be in its marketing then customers need to be able to easily return those products.
There is also much talk around ways in which the release could have been smoother and more stable. Now I have no doubt that DICE themselves have been working very hard to resolve all of the problems and I have been impressed with what has been accomplished in a relatively short period. But the fact remains that this raises the larger question of the growing trend in which games are pushed out to meet deadlines regardless of the state they are in. Should we demand longer more in depth beta periods for testing? We know that there are many factors that simply cannot be tested unless they are put out into the market. Companies need to seriously take note of what has happened in the past weeks, there is no doubt that a release like this can alienate and sour consumers against a brand for years to come. Dedicated players to a series will often ride out the storm and wait for things to be plain sailing but for those who are new to a series or more casual players why would you battle that storm when there are smoother waters available with so many quality titles being released more consistently than ever now.
We also saw that with EA announcing BF4 DLCs would be on hold until the core game was fixed however this seems clearly now to be more of a PR release to calm players down than a legit action to push resources into resolving the problems.
So the question today really is twofold what could developers do to ensure smooth releases that accurately mirror what is advertised to players and do we actually think that things can change going into the future. Can and will Producers and Devs alike ensure their products at release are at least close to what they were sold as?
I dont want to advertise my channel as I am sure this is not that kind of forum but if anyone does want to check me out just search my name in youtube.
Cheers guys.