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Does it make sense these days to mostly buy games at the end of their develoment cycle?

271 views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  Anateus 
#1 ·
I've been noticing a trend that over the past 10 years that I don't like - an increasing number of games seem to be buggy on release day and need multiple patches. Often these are never fixed and the modding community is left to address them as best they can. Some games simply cannot be fixed.

Does it make sense these days to mostly buy games near the end of their development cycle (especially when it comes to 4X games, some RTS games, strategy games, and the "open world" type RPG)?
  • Launch day is seldom a smooth experience
  • An issues will be flagged and (Hopefully but not always) addressed
  • You get to see how well the dev will support their title
  • There will be a modding community (or if the dev chooses not to support it, that's a black mark against them)
  • If you are running multiple GPUs, you are 100% reliant on drivers for scaling

I have found myself buying fewer strategy games on launch day (I've been burned before).
 
#2 ·
Man, this is sort of a theory that I've been working on for a couple years now. Glad to see I'm not the only one thinking about it. I'm inclined to say yes, it does make a lot more sense to just buy games when the dev is done releasing patches.

I'm getting pretty fed up with the bugfests they're releasing these days. And I've noticed that when I come across a game that has slipped through the cracks, one that I didn't really know existed but I would have really wanted to play, that game plays sooooo much better than a new release. Because I can get that game, with the very last patch the dev ever made. There may be some stuff that they didn't resolve, but its going to be minimal compared to what the game had on release day.

Problem is, its hard not to take the gamble. Every once in awhile, you get lucky, and the devs actually finish a game. And only somewhat minimal patching is needed, which may or may not even be necessary for everyone to have a good experience with the game. But those are becoming few and far between.

Then again, a lot can be said about the dev you're looking at, for a particular game. Did anyone really expect anything different with the Witcher?
 
#5 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlucio View Post

It makes sense, but keep in mind that if it is a multiplayer game, the player base might have already dropped significantly when the development cycle is over.
That is a very good point to be noted. A lot of multiplayer games will totally die off within 1-2 years, or whenever the next sequel is released, so you kind of have to buy close to release to get anything from those type of games.

Once you get in the trend of buying games "late" you will be getting them cheaper, likely with all DLC, and patched up. You're buying power can go up so much if you are picking up these games at $5-10 each rather than $60 at release. So then you basically become one of these game hoarders who have this massive game library with not enough time to play them all, which are pretty much all good things
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#6 ·
Yeah this is pretty much what I do. For the past few years I've been behind the wave so to speak...sure, I'm not always playing the latest and greatest titles, but I play single player anyway so it's not a huge deal. That and I don't always get a lot of time for gaming (work, kids, etc...) so I want my time spent enjoying the game as much as possible and not fixing/patching.

I like to wait a bit for a few patches to get released and have GPU drivers get an update. Plus, in that time a Steam sale usually comes along and I can sometimes save a bit of cash.
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#7 ·
I haven't bought a game on release day in years mostly because I haven't been hyped about anything released lately and I've learned to let other people test b4 I buy in and by then they are way cheaper. I was going to break this cycle and jump on Battlefront until I found out it has no single player campaign. Now I don't want anything to do with it.

I think the last title I bought on release was Witcher 2 and I feel I got burned on that 1. Tried several times to get into it but it is such a big departure from the original that I just can't stand it.
 
#8 ·
Been moving back to this model of purchasing. It does make a lot more sense, and as others have noted, you get more content for cheaper, what with GoTY editions being sold on Steam, etc. Combined with focusing on playing and completing already bought games, I think it's better that way and you avoid a lot of the early issues (look at what happened with Unity, for example). Of course, for MP-heavy games, it doesn't make as much sense, but I tend to prefer SP play, and for that it works very well.
 
#9 ·
Another thing to consider is that it really helps with graphics experience too. For example Witcher 3 is destroying cards now, but will probably be child's play in 2-3 years. Also, I can't stand how ripped off I feel from buying DLC. I won't buy another gearbox or bethesda game on release ever again.I recently (finally) started playing dragon's age one and I love that:

I got it for under $15
There's plenty of mods to fix most of the bugs and change quirks I don't like. This game especially has a huge UI bug where action bar doesn't render at all on 2560 x 1440p. Without mod a huge part of UX would be missing.
gtx980 absolutely destroys it

The only cons would be:
Multiplayer games die fast
Community and hype die fast - depending on who your friends are or what communities you are a part of, it can be cool sharing experiences while you play the game together. To be fair if your friends are patient gamers too, this may not apply, but much more likely people are playing at release.

As an aside, I've also noticed in my experience I have much more "smoother" experience with console games at release. And with game sales being so much less there, I don't feel nearly as ripped off. I suppose that's just the nature of a standard set of hardware to optimize for.
 
#10 ·
How exactly do you get more content for free? I notice that Mass Effect 3, you still have to pay $17 for the DLC quests.
 
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