8 Reasons Why Rockstar Games Is The Best Developer Around

4. Not Afraid of Delays

Rockstar has a reputation to get some gamers blood boiling. Grand Theft Auto IV: Delayed! Red Dead Redemption: Delayed! Max Payne 3: Delayed! And most infuriatingly, Grand Theft Auto V: Delayed! It may be frustrating, but it is for our own good. Too many developers nowadays release broken games that often require day-one patches. Rockstar wants to make sure we are given the best version of their game possible, and though when released they still might not be perfect, they are playable. (Which is more than some recently released games can say.) Rockstar doesn't delay their games for the sake of delaying and antagonizing their sensitive fans. They clearly want to work out issues so we have as seamless of an experience as possible. I recognize a 6 month delay is frustrating, but fans must keep in mind Rockstar is attempting to do something they have never done before, three protagonists with intertwining stories, and intertwining gameplay. The ability to switch characters at nearly any point during gameplay could prove challenging. It has to be seamless, and making that seamless could very well take 6 months. The world will also be the biggest they have ever made, bigger than the map of GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA: San Andreas combined. When you have giant game worlds, glitches become a massive problem, see Skyrim, Red Dead Redemption, and Assassins Creed 3 for example. Would you rather have a game so bug ridden and glitchy that it will continuously freeze and crash your system resulting in a launch week patch? Or would you rather them polish the game for months and have a near flawless experience the first time you get to explore HD Grove Street? Looking at Rockstar's past record with delays, Red Dead Redemption was delayed from April to May of 2010. Not a long delay, but considering the game was pretty glitchy on release day meant it could have been much worse on its intended release. I have yet to encounter a game breaking glitch in RDR, sure there are the rare flying people, a donkey woman, and a cougar man, but why would they try to patch this comedic gold. Delaying the game a month hardly slowed it down, it was named Game of the Year over and over again, and was even considered for game of the decade. The same applies for GTA IV, and Rockstar's most recent release, Max Payne 3. This goes to show that whether the delay be one month or six, the fans will still be patiently waiting by, because its almost guaranteed that the wait will be worth it. Several companies could take a hint from Rockstar's willingness to delay what they feel isn't ready.