In my final post of 2014, spurred on by the fun of the Halo 5 Beta, I wrote about the need for a new approach to game development and marketing. Specifically, I argued that because most of the triple A games are released broken (I cannot think of a popular MP game this past 18 months that wasn’t either broken, or severely lacking in content to be added later), we may as well abandon the traditional model altogether. Instead, when the game reaches “Beta”, it should become available for purchase at full release price with the promise that those who have paid will continue to get all further updates at no extra charge.
The release of one of my most highly anticipated games of 2015, Evolve, has served only to strengthen my conviction on this point. For the first two weeks, Evolve suffered character progression resets and was unfortunately marketed in the poorest way possible – including enough day one “premium” DLC to make even stalwart supporters of that model blush. There was no excuse for the DLC scandal. All 2K had to do was wait even just one week after launch, and they could have saved themselves a tremendous hit to their review scores, and all the launch day negative press.
On the other hand, the character progression bug it would seem, was unavoidable. Turtle Rock Studios offered both an Alpha and a Beta, and they still didn’t discover the bug because that part of the experience was untested. It would appear that if developers/publishers want a smooth launch for their game, they must work with consumers to test the release game, before it is actually released. In fairness to all developers, beyond the obvious improvements and complexity of the artwork and animations, the networking and web-interfacing engines under the hood are more complex than ever. Perhaps it is unreasonable to expect a game will work before it has been truly stress-tested, after it goes on sale.
In some ways, this conundrum makes the solution very clear – offer the game for purchase when they offer the Beta. The benefits will be gamers grateful to play the game just that much earlier. Those same gamers will be much more forgiving with all problems that would have inevitably reared their ugly head after “launch”. From the publisher’s side, they avoid all the negative, sales-damping press that comes from a botched job dashing always-vocal gamers’ expectations.
With all this on my mind, it was great to read that DayZ creator, Dean “Rocket” Hall, also thinks that the “ways we make and release games are tired, old and tattered.” He is now partnering with Improbable and is on his way to creating something new, something wonderful! And he will do it, at least until he runs out of money, in a non-traditional manner. 
Ty’s take – First off, I’ve got to thank 3Suns for writing this piece. Check out his writings and say hello to all my friends over at The Stranded. If you’re looking for a fine group of folks to play with on Xbox One, look no further. Tell ’em tyrus sent you. On topic, I’d like to add that we’ve been seeing this kind of development among indy titles and Early Access for quite some time. To see it in the triple-A space would certainly be fascinating. Do you think it would be good or bad? A way to improve games or milk your money? Let us know in the comments below!
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