Fact or Fiction: Are Huge Bugs at Launches Hurting Games the Rest of the Year?

[Steve_OS]

For what is the 1053th time (unofficial count), a game has launched with major bugs. And...

Written By: Operation Sports

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[Eyeman79]

Makes you wonder how we survived before the 2G day zero patch. Imagine if a patch fixed the money plays in Tecmo* Bowl or Baseball Stars or early Madden games. Most releases are betas and the devs just want to see what gamers are complaining about the loudest and then fix those first I think this speaks to the yearly cylce of most sports games and the pressure to meet deadlines. Makes the argument for bi-yearly releases ( but of course that will never happen)

[Retropyro]

Not saying this would fix all problems. But I've wondered why these major sports titles only have one development team. Games like NBA 2K, Madden, FIFA are big enough that I'm shocked the publishers don't use alternating studios so they can release an annual title to full-fill their contracts, but essentially give each studio a 2 year development time.

[drugsbunny]

I wonder if they do it on purpose to hinder have cracks. I am one who now waits a few weeks before purchasing. I wish gaming sites would give fans reviews after patches to update us on if the patch made the game better or worse. I am still playing 19. I may not get 20 until next month.

[badmrfrosty7]

Kicking meter glitcb

[Drty_Windshield]

I'm a PC gamer first and foremost, although I love MLB The Show, but having said that I've all but given up on PC games because everything released is released half arsed nowadays. If games do come to full fruition it seems like it takes forever for that to happen and by the time it does I've already moved on to the next thing.

[kjjnesb]

I've been on the boards saying this till I'm blue in the face....

But with 2k... the fact that team options STILL don't work as of this post nor are we even see able in the team/player option menu and the whole free agency period is bugged (things that worked fine last year) or the fact that team expansion with more than 2 custom teams ruins your save file (glitch is 3 years running btw) give me pause on when or if I actually move on from the previous years edition of 2k going forward. 2K20 myleague is basically the same mode as last year with more bugs but no one speaks up about it so the mode just sits there buggy as hell. This is not even accounting for the stuff that's been fixed so far.....

I understand there must but an insane amount of stress and crunch when it comes to making sports games and software can be fickle but sometimes but it feels like they polish these games up just enough for reviewers that they know will only review the surface level. Like every year we see these reviews and it's like they play maybe an hour of each mode and they go* "yeah checks out* *new feature is cool here's a 7/10 or whatever" all while not seeing game ruining bugs. Maybe it's the suits at the top putting the devs in rough spots like this demanding shiny marketable features trailers and good reviews at specific time of year but something needs to change next gen.

[eye guy]

I havent played a second of 2K20 but in general, the answer is yes.

We can go on and on about gaming being a money making business with with micro-transactions and what not, but we're in an age where* this has become widely acceptable by the casual, pre-teen gamer who knows a band-aid that works half the time, is to follow, and we the end user can be half to blame for games being released with glaring issues because of patches.

Tell me, 15-20 years ago, how many AAA titles across all genres needed patches on release? During the duration of a games release?

Many have asked for 2K NBA to be an annual release, this should be taken on board imo.