I wasn't going to jump in and say this, being a newbie and all...

[Chiller1064]

.....but there is a serious amount of ignorance about PC game publishing and development with some of the folks here. And, to be frank, it is REALLY discouraging to the development team to read some of this stuff.

I've been on the publishing and development side of this (8+ years in the industry, primarily at Atari and currentlly teaching Game Design at the college level) and know what it is like to spend 14+ hour days working on something for 10+ months only to see people who have never, ever worked in the industry or have ever designed, developed and published a single interactive title flame the hard work other and myself put in to the project.

PC game development is VERY complex. It's not like developing titles for consoles (which is a whole different can of worms) for the simple reason that it is impossible to squash every bug you find and to test the software on every concieveable combination of CPU, Motherboard, Sound Card, Video Card, etc. that are currently floating around in people's homes (not to mention hardware driver versions).

Companies like Atari, UbiSoft, THQ, EA and Microsoft have large in-house QA departments with a wide assortment of test machines- and they also send out builds to private QA firms for testing. On top of that they will also do open and/or closed betas. A lot of time and effort goes into testing, logging bugs, fixing bugs, testing, logging bugs, fixing bugs.... all the way up to and beyond Gold Master. Bug databases are created with all known bugs logged and prioritized for programmers, artist and modellers to reference. It is a long, hard frustrating process that many times requires people to work 18-20 hour shifts over the last 3-4 weeks of a project to get as many issues fixed before sending out the master CD/DVD to replication.

So it is impossible to find every bug and fix it before GM- no matter how hard we try or how much we want it to be perfect.

Gamers want their games and they want it now! They post on publisher, developer and fan site message boards constantly pressing for a game to get done NOW! Gamers call retailers and pester them on when the game is going to be at the store (almost to the minute). If a developer or publisher pushes a release date, then woe to that developer or publisher! Let the flaming begin!!! Developers and publishers are very aware of consumer demands on product and work hard to meet those demands as best they can- that's why they have PR, Media, Marketing, On-Line Community managers. We understand that gamers have high (if not completely unrealistic) expectations and we do work hard to meet those expectations as best we can.

The biggest factor today is simply time and money. There is no "blank check" budget or "open-ended" development schedule- especially in PC game development. No developer has the total freedom to work on something until they believe it is "perfect" nor do publishers have the ability to continue to pour money into projects indefinately. Consumers and retailers demand street dates- and retailers wield a VERY, VERY large hammer (especially with PC titles).

Publishers have to get software placed in retail in order to make back their investment. However, retailers (like the big software retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart) have seasonal "reset" dates when they bring in new product- generally Spring (now), Fall/Back To School (August-October), Holiday (November-December) and Post-Holiday (January-Feburary). The summer is the worst time to release software historically. Retailers want product on those reset dates- if you can't make the date, then you don't get in. It's that simple. And if Wal-Mart doesn't take your game, selling to the remainder of the retailers won't make up the difference. So publishers and developers are under extreme pressure to get projects done within a very restrictive timeframe or lose shelf space (which is lost $$$$).

Retailers demand accurate release dates so they can market product on-line with pre-order pages or in those multi-page adverts sandwiched into your Sunday paper called "circulars". If a publisher commits to a street date and then fails to meet that date for any reason- VERY bad things happen. Examples are not having future product carried by the retailer and more frequently paying the retailer a $100K penalty (and then not getting your product placed as well).

Several large software retailers do hand out $100K+ penalties to publishers and for good reason. If a retailer spends money advertising that a game will be out on a specific date, consumers expect it to be in stores because the advertisment says so. If a retailer fails to have that game on shelves, consumers get angry- and angry consumers don't spend money! Retailers make the price of missing a street date so expensive that publishers will make sure the software is available on the promised/contractual date. And frankly, retailers don't care about whether or not a game is buggy- since the retailers work on essentially a consignment policy with publishers it's not costing them anything and they can simply ship units back to the publisher for them to figure out how to deal with the mess. This horrible way of doing business is why you see more and more companies going for the on-line method of distribution- less risk and hassles.

Another factor is production- printing boxes and manuals, replicating DVDs, etc.. Printers and replicators who handle this type of work are busy people who require you to schedule your production assets 6-8 months before the printing and replicating begins. If you miss your date, then you go to the back of the line and hope someone drops out and opens a slot for you. Missing your date here can cost you weeks or months in missing a street date- and they retailers don't care about it.

So, before you bash UbiSoft Romania for purposely releasing a buggy game and flaming them-keep in mind what they are dealing with. Do you honestly believe they wanted to release a buggy SH4 after putting in months of time and effort? Do you honestly believe they wanted to release a buggy SH4 so they could be flamed on multiple message boards across the Internet by people calling to question thier dedication, ethics and professionalism?

Like I said, I've been there and it is very difficult to have to draw a line on the calendar and say "The game has to go NOW- even though it's got known issues". People who work on these types of games are very dedicated people who are passionate about what they do (in UbiSoft Romania's case, WWII submarine games). They work in a very restrictive, highly scheduled, high risk industry where a few mistakes can cost companies millions of dollars in sales and development teams thier jobs.

So please temper your post and be constructive. If you have an issue, post the problem in a calm, constructive manner with as much information as possible as to assist the developer to quickly find and fix the issue. Developers don't mind people posting bugs and issues as long as it's done constructively.

People who work at development studios are gamers too and they do understand your frustration- all we ask is you basically understand where developers are coming from too. The fact that UnbiSoft Romania had a patch ready to go 24 hrs. after release should tell you they care and are working hard to give you all the best sub sim they can.