So yesterday it was announced that FarCry 3 originally due in September is delayed until 29th November this year for those in the EU and December 4th for the US. As a huge fan of the Far Cry games who was eagerly anticipating the newest instalment I was rather annoyed to hear of this delay to put it politely. This got me thinking though, should developers only announce games when they are near completion and therefore have no need to delay the game, or should there be a governing body in place to make sure release dates are met? As several Google searches have led me to believe that such a thing doesn’t exist.
Let’s take a look at both options.
Option 1
So looking at the first option of company’s only releasing games nearer to completion has an immediate con. It’s the one piece information that gamers want to know the most. Whenever a title people want is announced everybody wants to know when they can get their hands on it. This then doesn’t really solve our problem of having a date to look forward to and it also keeps us further in the dark. This is something that no one wants when it comes to their favourite titles.
One pro this option has is that once an announcement date has been disclosed it would only really be a month or two before the games release and therefore people wouldn’t have the antagonising wait for said release date that can seem to last an eternity.
Ever felt like something bad is going to happen?
Option 2
The second option sees a governing body overlook all advertised release dates and treat them the same as all other false advertisements cases. This once again brings some interesting pros and cons to the table so let’s look at maybe the most obvious ones. A pro may be that these developers would create a more realistic date for a release target through fear of being penalised in some way and thus ‘front load’ the delays meaning that we never even know they are there.
The con to this is obviously this is a much more unfriendly way to go about the business and would mean that a game may be put out simply to avoid the penalty and therefore not be to the standard that not only we the consumer expect, but also the developers expect from their titles.
Would you tell this man his game’s been delayed?
So with both of my ideas having good and bad points it seems that maybe there is an alternative waiting out there. An alternative that would please both the consumer who wants the best experience for their money but not to be strung along through delays as well as allowing the developers flexibility so that they may perfect their titles.
What’s your opinion? Are developers abusing release dates to drum up publicity? Should there be some kind of governance for these dates that are missed time and time again? Let us know in the comments below!
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12 Comments
I wont be buying Far Cry 3 now then. I had planned to have it for my birthday in early October, wont bother now!
Enforcing release dates is a horrible idea; these things happen and they’re unfortunate but if it could result in the devs releasing incomplete product, it’s not worth it.
Games only tend to go gold a few weeks prior to release, which isn’t really enough time to get the hype train/marketing campaign geared towards that release date.
What a completely moronic article.
The companies making the game OWN the game. It is entirely up to them when they release it.
They have no obligation to deliver it just because we want to play it. Investers have a right to complain, consumers who dont pay a dime until they receive the product have no right at all.
How is it a developers fault if everyone gets over excited after watching a 10 minute clip of the game?
Do you get paid to write this stuff?
THANK YOU. Oh my God, I thought the same.
@Author
I know it’s hard and I’m not gonna pick on you personally, but please stick to writing things you know something about. This would go under the category of “moronic forum post”, not as a legitimate article.
As for your “these are just some ideas” approach. F you. Really. Instead of writing down “some ideas” in a few paragraphs, btw without actually giving any of the real cons this would have in a non-fictional market and without saying how politically and socially impossible these ideas are, how about you do some serious research and write a serious text?
Lastly, I’d like to say that of course you shouldn’t let this bring you down. All writers screw up every now and then, just get your act together.
Using launch dates to drum up hype and anticipation is EXACTLY what developers and publishers do. I would rather they push a launch and polish it for a few months than release half-baked content. Sometimes games even get nixed all together (Coded Arms for the PS3 looked great, that never saw the light of day- even though there are full trailers and everything).
Did you mean to say antagonizing or agonizing?
It is an incredibly bad idea to actually promote the release of incomplete products. I would much rather “suffer the misfortune” of a game coming out at a later date than buying a game and having it be crap because it wasn’t finished. What is the point of even paying for something if it isn’t good? Is it really so hard to wait until a game is finished and actually worth purchasing?
ohhh I am sorry it said color not colour.
and read the article before you comment
This article is so incredibly stupid I don’t see how your editor let this slip by. So you are saying that if I company sets a release date that they have to stick to it no matter what altercations occur? That certainly is not false advertising for them to change the date. False advertisement would be giving us a date and not notifying us of a change when the release date passes. They alter release dates because they are creating a completely new game and have a prediction on when it will be done and change the date if they are hit with delays. They put the date out there so we are aware that it is coming out within the year. Another thing, if you are looking forward to buying a game, do you want to sue the company that is pushing the date back so they can put out a complete game? You want the game, but you have no respect for the company which is making it. You are a selfish, incompetent person who only thinks about when he can get his grubby little hands on a game. I would remove this article if I were you to save face.
I think you may be missing the point, I don’t actually state that I want either of these just express them as options. I then state that both my ideas have flaws and there are probably better options to suit everybody.
having the government in the game industry is terrible. It’s bad enough we have the ESRB and them trying to “stop piracy”
Option 1 is moderatly possible but still enforcing it would require governemnt
Delays should be made to ensure the product is top notch.
yeah from September 29th to November 4th is more than a week.