Starfield

[Shagger]

Cyberpunk 2077 became a cautionary tale to game publishers/developers about not announcing release dates for games to early, or at least it should have. Companies do this simply for sheer greed. So they can rake in those pre-orders as soon as possible, but it's stupid because it means announcing a release to early to predict whether or not that date is even a realistic goal. Cyberpunk 2077 announced thier release date at E3 for maximum exposure 10 months before it was scheduled to come out only to then delay the game on three separate occasions eventually releasing a year and a half after it was announced. And in the end, as we all know, it was still too soon as the game was in a terrible state at launch.

 

I bring this up because Starfield is following what almost looks like a carbon copy of this stupid strategy, except it may be even worse. Bethesda announced Starfiled's release date at E3 or maximum exposure on June 13 2021 to be November 11nth 2022. A year and a half earlier. Then, of course, the inevitable happened, and the game was delayed to the "first half" of 2023 (Kind of vague considering they announced an actual date, another sure sign that they were not confident about making that either.). Starfield is not open to pre-order yet, but people will, and likely already have, bought gamepass subscriptions to play it, so the rule still applies. It's still marketing and it's still an attempt to rake in money before the games launch.

 

 

And now now, to the surprise of nobody, barley over two months into the "first half" of 2023, they have delayed it... again. This time to September 6th 2023 They didn't even announce it as a delay, just offered up new release date outside of the "first half" of 2023 like we wouldn't notice.

 

 

This really aggravates me because, whilst no company should do a "Cyperpunk" with thier release strategy by announcing the game's release date super early, if there is one company that REALLY shouldn't do this, it's Bethesda. Thier unfortunate, but earned reputation for broken game launches is well documented, so this studio more than anyone needed to announce the game was in development at most, to then just work on the game quietly and only announce a release date when they were on the final spit and polish. What's extra frustrating about this is that this is that this is exactly what they did with Fallout 4 and that ended up being one of thier better launches, so they know this. Yes, Fallout 4 wasn't perfect at launch, no big open world RPG is, but it was a hell of a lot better than some of thier other launches.

 

A delay is always better than a gaming being released undercooked, any fan with common sense will rather a game be delayed than come out broken. However, that doesn't mean we should put up with it when companies employ this stupid strategy of announcing release dates ridiculously early only to inevitably delay games again and again. We need to call-out companies when they actually make the mistake of announcing games release dates too far in advance and, most importantly, not pre-order when they do.

Edited March 9, 2023 by Shagger

[Kane99]

And it's Bethesda we're talking about, they're known for releasing stuff half baked or in a broken state. I don't think they want another Fallout 76, or to deal with what Cyberpunk 2077 dealt with. 

They should just delay it, and say we'll announce a release date when we're ready. They need to stop giving another date when we know they clearly aren't going to fulfil that date, or if they do, they end up releasing a half baked product because they were pushed to release unfinished or in a broken state. These studios heads need to stop setting release dates, let the development happen. Once you have a working game, then announce it. These studios make the mistake of announcing a new game years before development sometimes, and it's as if they don't get why fans are annoyed about it. 

It's annoying seeing the endless delays, new release dates, and then rinse and repeat. 

[killamch89]

On 3/10/2023 at 4:54 PM, Kane99 said:

And it's Bethesda we're talking about, they're known for releasing stuff half baked or in a broken state. I don't think they want another Fallout 76, or to deal with what Cyberpunk 2077 dealt with. 

They should just delay it, and say we'll announce a release date when we're ready. They need to stop giving another date when we know they clearly aren't going to fulfil that date, or if they do, they end up releasing a half baked product because they were pushed to release unfinished or in a broken state. These studios heads need to stop setting release dates, let the development happen. Once you have a working game, then announce it. These studios make the mistake of announcing a new game years before development sometimes, and it's as if they don't get why fans are annoyed about it. 

It's annoying seeing the endless delays, new release dates, and then rinse and repeat. 

I totally agree - just give us a date when it's ready. I'd like to see Bethesda release a game that their modding community doesn't have to fix after release. Without the modders, most of Bethesda's games are bang average at best.