Computer game manufactures should get their act together

[PLas]

Shouldn't computer game manufactures get their act abit together?

Computer game manufactures should get their act together.

It seams to me that film companies can orgainise things so that their films make their predicted release date. They pour heaps and heaps of money and effort into sycronising the launch of the film to coincide with their publicity. If film companies can be professional enough to arrange this why can't game companies do the same? Is it fair to compare the two or not?

If you look at car manufactures, they also have a good 5 year product development time and they get their new products out on time as well. It seams that cpu game companies lag far behind world best practice. Theatre companies, web-design companies, event orgainisation companies, etc can all be relied upon to deliver more or less to schedule.

Why is it then that game manufactures never make the proposed release date? It is they themselves that nominate this date in the first place, is it not?

 

[Tropico]

You cant compare pc games to cinema.
There are thousands of pc´s they ghave to play test the game with alot of different possibilities.
In the cinema industry they make the film copy it and distribute it.
The same copy will work around the world.
Cinema doesnt have interactivity a pc game has.
There is only one way you can see a film but a game especially like HL2 is endless.

The problem i see with HL2 is that alve had the chance to give whatever date they wanted we didnt know how far into development they were.
They could of said Q1 of 2004 and no one would be disapointed.
They only gave themselves a small margin of error.

 

[-JeZ-]

Plas, I agree that 5 years is an awful long time, and had it not been for VU's marketing greed and NVIDIA's poxy drivers (And perhaps a little bit of STEAM) the game would have already been released.

 

[Owskie]

go computer game manufactureres (if only i could spell)

 

[PLas]

I'm trying not to single out Valve in particular. To me it seems like this sort of thing happens more frequently in the CPU games field then in other industries.

And as users we all don't get too concerened when it happens. It's almost asif we all expect this to happen. I think everyone here is going to buy HL2 even if it comes out a few months late.

But I think we should expect a little more from the manufacturers. Or better still they should expect a little more from themselves. The quality of their games are in general pretty good. Every few years the quality of games gets better and better. But in other aspects of being a business they fall far behind. They never seem to be in sync with delivery schedules. Also they never fully use the retail sector with publicity campaigns etc. It's lucky that their user base is so well connected and so loyal because otherwise they fall well behind other entertainment industries.

 

[Tyrant]

i agree computer game compaines should get their act together. they know the proccess of making the game and testing the game so give a date that includes time for play testing and whatever else they do.i dont know how it ever became acceptable for games to be delayed in the first place. its very unproffesional to delay a product u have been working on for 5 years when u announced the release date a few months before. its different if they announced last may that it will come sept 30. rather give the public a conservative estimate than a highly optimistic date that u mite not be able to make. id much prefer been told dec-feb 2004 and receiving the game in november than been told up until less than a month before that they are going to make a certain date and have it delayed

 

[alco]

hmmm... what the hell do manufacturers have to do with anything???

They just mass-produce the game.

 

[alco]

Originally posted by Tyrant
i agree computer game compaines should get their act together. they know the proccess of making the game and testing the game so give a date that includes time for play testing and whatever else they do.i dont know how it ever became acceptable for games to be delayed in the first place. its very unproffesional to delay a product u have been working on for 5 years when u announced the release date a few months before. its different if they announced last may that it will come sept 30. rather give the public a conservative estimate than a highly optimistic date that u mite not be able to make. id much prefer been told dec-feb 2004 and receiving the game in november than been told up until less than a month before that they are going to make a certain date and have it delayed

Come back when you've actually worked on a commercial game.

 

[Deljron]

I think computer game makers should stop trying to selling pc hardware ie john carmack and the gf3:upstare: or bungie and the gf2 gts