10 Things Everyone Hates About Modern Video Games

2. Releasing Games Blatantly Unfinished

It's certainly a benefit to everyone that video games are no longer released as a one-and-done deal, whereby whatever ends up on the disc is as good as it will ever get.

Online functionality allows games to receive patches to fix bugs and generally whip them into shape, though this framework is far too often abused as a crutch for publishers to push unfinished games to market.

With publishers never wanting to disappoint shareholders, there's an enormous pressure on developers to deliver a functional game before a deadline, and if it's "good enough," publishers will lob it out the door even if there's still plenty of work to be done.

But good enough in a publisher's eyes isn't necessarily so for the player: take Cyberpunk 2077, which suffered a catastrophic backlash when it released long before it was clearly ready.

That didn't stop it selling 13 million copies in 2020 alone, though, suggesting ultimately minimal tangible consequences for CD Projekt RED, who are still fixing aspects of the game.

Once again, the only language that publishers understand is money, so the best thing you can do for yourself and the industry is to not pre-order games on good faith, and instead wait and see what the day-one reviews say.