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Why video games are delayed so often [Kotaku Article]
Babuinix
Member EpicPosts: 4,442
in Star Citizen
http://kotaku.com/why-video-games-are-delayed-so-often-1795473828
Since Star Citizen regularly gets attacked by the bitter armchair dev's thinking that estimates are promises and that delays are a signal of incompetency here's a little dose of reality check:
"With very few exceptions—namely, annualized series like Madden and Call of Duty—it’s hard to find a video game that hasn’t been delayed. Even games that appear to come out on time have usually seen at least one internal delay before their release dates were publicly announced."
I don't expect the haters to suddenly become enlightened about game dev and change their tone, they will keep hating no matter what because "reasons" but to the bystanders and casual checkers I hope this serves as an eye opener of some sort.
Have Phun!
Since Star Citizen regularly gets attacked by the bitter armchair dev's thinking that estimates are promises and that delays are a signal of incompetency here's a little dose of reality check:
“We always like to have a plan,” said Wyatt Cheng, a veteran Blizzard designer who worked on Diablo III. “But we’re flexible on that plan if we have to be. So we have a target, and we try to hit our dates when we can, but we’re also willing to change in light of new evidence, or new discoveries.”
“The quality of the game should be dictating what you’re doing, not a date you agreed to 15 months before,” said Blizzard producer Rob Foote, who also worked on Diablo III.
“Things just always take longer than you think they’re going to,” said Sean Velasco, the director of Shovel Knight.
"With very few exceptions—namely, annualized series like Madden and Call of Duty—it’s hard to find a video game that hasn’t been delayed. Even games that appear to come out on time have usually seen at least one internal delay before their release dates were publicly announced."
I don't expect the haters to suddenly become enlightened about game dev and change their tone, they will keep hating no matter what because "reasons" but to the bystanders and casual checkers I hope this serves as an eye opener of some sort.
Have Phun!
Comments
It's not common for a studio to fail their plan to launch a game in 2014, 2015, 2016, and then stop even giving estimation which year they might release.
People have to look at the big picture, the number and length of delays.
Whoa now! lets cut back on the crazy talk there. We can't have you questioning Chris Roberts, the supreme leader who is destined to save the space sim genre on PC, and undermining his authority.
I want you to say 10 morrow tours and 1 10ftc and reflect on your heinous words!
If the community had said no when asked if the project should go on and the project goal weren't increased, i'm sure the game might have been out, but it was decided to change the direction and increase the project and for that to work they would have to increases their companies size.
So they're having to make new plans for the influx of money, change in direction and building a new company in different regions all at the same time.
Can they do no wrong? Fuck no and I doubt anyone thinks they're saints and can do what they want, think CR is an idiot and bit too ambitious for announcing those dates, but at the same time I think to ignore these points and act as if those delays were done for the sake of a delay or as a few think, to scam people, is slightly deluded. Imho they have legit reasons, not saying that makes everything perfect, it is a problem, but it's not as bad as some feel it is here.
Remember that article that interviewed many devs to see what they do if they could that kind of money and drastic changes? Most said they would probably breakdown and couldn't cope.
Games have delays, but they all a have different reasons due to different circumstances and SC is no different, but It's up to you whether or not the reason given is acceptable.
..Cake..
It's the same in Canada. Actually, if Georgia is anything like Ontario then it explains a lot. See, in Ontario, you apparently cannot have a contract revoked once work has stared, so work is started VERY quickly and then a single crew is rotated between any number of projects because it cannot be taken away. It's fucking stupid rules like this that make things slow. Japan is a different story. Shit gets done quickly!
The biggest difference is in complexity. We're fairly certain we know how to repair roads, so the only real restriction is resources (people). With software, as the complexity increases, as the unknowns increase, as will the schedule and risk. Lest we forget that Star Citizen was touted as being impossible. Now what? It's inevitable, it's just a matter of when. Now we might be at the point of road workers, especially when I hear things like they're refactoring fog. Like, let's leave refactoring until afterwards, lol. Either way, it's not a bad analogy, but it doesn't solve the problem in situations where you're working with lots of unknowns.
Crazkanuk
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Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
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Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
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Not true at all!! Kickstarter doesn't make risks go away. It's why there is a whole section dedicated to risks. Delays still occur on every software project. Kickstarter simply emphasizes these delays because we have insight into the project at an early stage, it's not something that's announced at E3 which is a year out from being released.
Another example would be NMS. It's quite obvious that they were pressured to release something instead of delaying again, considering that gameplay that was shown during interviews didn't make it into the "final" game.
The difference here is that something like SC is able to continue to monetize their game while they meet their vision for the final product. Had NMS been given carte blanche, you can be certain it probably wouldn't even be released today, but they weren't, they had obligations to a corporation. Granted, SC has obligations to backers, those backers seem more interested in them realizing their vision, what the backers were sold on, than pressuring them to release something.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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No, but many crowdfunded games see significantly more income through release than they earned in crowdfunding. Pillars of Eternity has sold nearly a million copies, Divinity has sold over a million, same goes for the Shadowrun games. I think that's a great inventive for crowdfunded games to release. When you're talking about 10x funding one released, that should be incentive enough. SC is anomalous, though, and make more in a month than most of these games made during their entire campaign. Furthermore, SC earns enough to sustain an office(s) of 300+ people so, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they're focused on doing the game they want it done. However, you'd be naive to believe that SC has peaked. There is PLENTY of monetization that can happen with that game at launch, so I'm sure they want it out. They just don't NEED to push it out.
Crazkanuk
----------------
Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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Definition of kick–start
transitive verb
1 : to start (something, such as a motorcycle) by means of a kick-starter
2 : jump-start 2
kick start
nounI mean it's right there very explicit. A successful kickstart campaign doesn't guarantee the backers anything besides that the motorcycle as gotten the needed push to start moving. In no way's there's a guarantee that it will finish the race or even maintain the same course for that matter.
Thanks to the ongoing CIG efforts and focus on delivering a groundbreaking experience it has already catered to a lot of patient and knowledgeable folks that keep supporting it's development.
I guess there's a lot of gamers wanting something different than what the saturated market keeps pushing year after year and that are not afraid to back with their money to make the dream game come through.
PS- ATV tonight! Frankfurt Office! Prepare your hypetrainnnnnn!
Especially when they get to fund themselves, they don't ever need to publicly expose their estimates for delivery, so they only do it once they are comfortable to do so.
So even if they go through as much or more delays than KS projects go through, you'll never get to hear it. The way KS expose delivery estimates is because the nature of crowdfunding, so all the fingers will be pointed at them instead.
I have been saying since forever that i rather wait for a game to be good than see it rushed by fanbois.
The problem with THIS particular game is the budget and it is WAY over budget.
There is nothing "estimated" about Chris claiming he could have made the original game on around 6 million,so even if we doubled that to 12,does anyone here or anywhere think THAT originally pitched game would have been anything more than complete trash?
I should also remind people that when Chris was scrutinized about WHERE the money was going,allegations of spent on his wife's endeavors,that Chris made the mistake of claiming he had his own money from past ventures.
So IF he had his OWN money like he claims,why the hell did he scam gamer's for money to build this game?EASY answer,he saw everyone else doing it and figured "hey easy money,if some naive people want to give me free money,i'll gladly take it".
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
This is just MUCH easier for him to not release a game,it keeps more money rolling before the game gets heavily scrutinized for looking like an Indie game on a 150 million budget.A NON partnered/investor budget which equates more to 400+ million.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
- 5 Studios Across the World
- 400+ Developers
- Single-Player Campaign
- MMORPG Universe
- Highly detailed GFX and Assets
So not only are people oblivion about game development they are oblivion about how much it costs to make a game of this scale....
Hummm funny no wonder the pointless arguments go round and round.
Its not the people on the outside looking in that's oblivious, it's the people on the inside that have no clue what they are doing and that should scare you
1. those that do it on purpose for one clever reason or another
2. those that just very simply lack the skill of estimating.
The vast majority of cases its number 2
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I see the same thing in construction. Project Manager runs his numbers and says the building should be finished on X date. Three months in the superintendent and foremen are asking for a revised target date. Weather, substandard materials, contractors don't show up, etc. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan.