Why do Game Release dates constantly change?

smiaras

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Shinji

Because the developer doesn't finish working on them in time.


(It's not that difficult a question really if you think about it.)

Skatedude

er,because of hangovers?

smiaras

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Creamy Goodness

it's not up to valve that half-life when it will be released they cannot distribute the game that's where the role of VU games come in they have power to delay the game until they see fit. (x-mas time)

also it could be due to hangovers. lol

but i look at it this way that the more it gets delayed the better it can get

smiaras

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RicardoSmith

The're thinking is sales will suffer if its released at the wrong time as it will conflict with other things like other gifts at christmas and maybe school stuff when going back to school. Personally I think its marketing people justfying their salaries. A good game will sell well at any time and continue to sell well for a long time. Only a dire game doesn't sell well. Of course you can't justify a big marketing budget with logic like that.

Creamy Goodness

as ricardo said it doesn't matter when half-life2 gets released it will sell ny the truck full be it 30th september or christmas time

MrPinK

Both Valve and Vivendi know full well that no matter when they release the game, it'll be the best selling game of the year. I doubt the delay is marketing related. If Valve had finished all their work, then the game would have gone gold. Once it's gone gold then the publishers can release it or sit on for as long as they like. I'm guessing that Valve still have a couple of bugs to iron out.

smiaras

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CombatCow

Vivendi still have not got HL2 yet,i dunno why tho.valve might be useing their own testers for it.Strange


CombatCow

Shinji

Yeah I know all that but look at Half Life 2 its developers are saying that its ready but the publishers don't want to release it.

That is simply not true - I don't know where you read that but it's absolute rubbish. Valve simply haven't finished working on the game, end of story. Vivendi would have been perfectly prepared to hit the original release date of September 30 if Valve hadn't missed that target.


The same is also the case for Doom III, which is not out this Christmas because it is MONTHS behind schedule. I can't speak for True Crime, but again, I can't see Activision slipping it deliberately. If they wanted to release it for the Xmas market, that's when they'd originally have scheduled it for.

Falgorn

Eh did someone up there say something about Mafia coming out? IS this an add on or a sequel to the original MAfia, or have i mis-read the whole thing. Loved that game, pity it had no multiplayer!!

(edit) oh ok, console version. But while on the point has there eer been a multiplayer patch for Mafia on pccd. I recall reading on an official fan site that it was in the pipeline?

KdjaCL

Most games come out late due to development time but others like Tomb Raider were pushed out before it was ready to meet fiscal demands.

Certian companies have a release when ready philosphy others have release in X qtr for maximum revenue like Matrix game came out unfinished (imo) simply to coincide with the movie.

Valve know full well that they could release it on Xmas day it still be top selling game at xmas (slight exaggeration but you get the point).


kdjac

koneko

Consumers just get more and more annoyed and end up buying another title

Yes, in the meantime. Doesn't mean they dont buy the game that was delayed anyway.

Can you honestly say you won't be buying HL2 because it was slightly delayed? We don't buy games based on when they're out. We buy them based on how good they are. I wouldn't let something stupid like a release date stop me from buying a good game.

I'd rather release dates are pushed back if it means the game won't be (as) buggy.

[CrimsonGhost]

Games have their release dates because the developers (engine programmers, ai programmers, game scripters, level designers, 3d modellers, 2d graphic artics etc) are not happy with some aspect of the game. They want to release it and there to be no problems.
Ideally they want to test as much as possible and fix all known bugs. They don't want to have to release patches for the game at a later date, they want everything polished. And personally I don't have a problem with that, I accept it. And certainly knowing where they are coming from when you have a piece of software with bugs, you don't want to release it, even when people are screaming for it. You'd much rather have it working properly before they get near it otherwise it will reflect badly on you and there is no way you can say, "I told you so, I didn't want to release it but you insisted", it's just too late for that.

bloggs

I work in the software industry (not games though) and bugs are usually the thing that can f**k up a release. Or mainly if the game is crap, they will go back to the drawing board.

I think in regard to Doom3 they never really gave a solid date, more or less a finished when it's finished.

I like having dates, but a lot of the time they change due to the above reasons.

tHE vAGGABOND

As someone who worked on one of the 'late' games mantioned..

We never told anyone when the game was due out, but since amazon have to put a date to something and shops make guesses people presume that a game has a date and therefore slipped when it does not hit that date..

When there is a chance the developers had never set a date in the first place

Anyway, I would rather Valve et al kept their games till they are ready, and not release a pile of poo knowing people will get it anyway.

stormkeeper

I recall that a little game called Daikatana (Sp?) by Ion Storm suffered from constant delays and such, and when it finally came out, it recived quite a few crap reviews, as it was (I think) superceded by much better games that were released at the same time, but on the flipside, there were a few delayed games such as Tiberian Sun that were also somewhat delayed and came out quite well. They may not recieve the best reviews, but they did get very good reviews all the same, so I guess it's pretty much a waiting game in that regard. Perhaps Doom 3/Half-Life 2 will be the best thing since.... Well the original Doom, perhaps they (either) will be just very good, perhaps average or slightly above, or maybe due to a lot of delays, it falls flat on its face.

One can never really be certain nowadays. Even though a brand name my help secure sales, it's the gameplay and reviews that make a game sell the best, then there's also the word of mouth;

Case 1:
Good WoM Guy buys Game X, found it good and tells 1 other person
Billy tells his friend that Game X kicked ass, who gets it (upon recommendation), then tells another friend, who tells another. And so on and so forth

Or if a game was bad, we go to

Case 2
Bad WoM Guy buys Game X, found it good and tells 5 other people, instead of one
Billy tells his friend Joe that a game sucked, then tells 4 others. Joe proceeds to tell 5 others, who each tell 5 more.[/B]


I know I went a bit Off-Topic, but in a way, that does have some relation to the topic. I hope I didn't babble too much

PS: I'm not in the games industry (yet), but I've observed a lot of things.

smiaras

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bloggs

Originally posted by smiaras



Activision's latest financial earnings call reveals delays for several major games.

In its quarterly earnings call, Activision announced several significant changes to its release calendar for 2003 and 2004. Most notably, Activision said that it will, "for planning purposes," assume that Doom 3 won't be out until early 2004, but reminded that "as you know, id decides when it ships, not Activision." At many occasions since E3 2002, id has said the plan was to release the game by the end of 2003, but id's Tim Willits told us in May that the game won't ship until the studio is happy with it.

True Crime, the free-ranging action game set in a satellite-photo-perfect rendition of Los Angeles, is also being delayed, and it will ship in late 2003 rather than in September. Farther in the future, Trinity, Grey Matter's sci-fi action game, will now ship in Activision's 2005 fiscal year, which starts in April 2004

Damn you ID! I want DOOM3 Now!!!