This is a disturbing trend I’ve been noticing, most recently with Call of Duty: World At War. You have to now put up money for a game you may not want, just to help the game developers debug their beta release.
See, it used to be that you requested access to a beta release, you helped play test the game, the devs took in all of the beta tester’s suggestions and bug finds and then released a better, less bugy, more complete game.
Now it seems that not only have we entered the world of the patch, where games are released sort of almost kinda done, with a few little itsy bitsy problems that will be worked out by the second or third 300MB patch. But, you now have to pre-order a game - pay actual money - just for the privilage of being included in a beta.
What if you hit the beta program and find out the game sucks? Or that the devs just can’t be bothered to fix the deal-breaking (for you anyway) bug? Hey, guess what, after the hours you put in helping them test their product, which you’ve determined isn’t for you, you get to buy it anyway!
Maybe the devs and publishers could ask gamers to invest 10% of the total cost of a game at the start of the development cycle! Then, if the game doesn’t sell well or is a complete waste of 1’s and 0’s, they can blame the investment pool of players for not raising enough money.
Maybe I’m just grouchy today, but between this and flash on Linux, I think I’m going to go home, unplug and read a book.
Technorati Tags: beta, cod, world at war, call of duty, pay to play a pre-release, horsefeathers, video games, pc, computers, technology, angry geeks
September 4th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Depending on where you preorder from, shouldn’t you be able to just cancel your preorder? I know at Amazon (where I preordered Warhammer from), they don’t charge you until your order ships. At Gamestop, I thought, you only had to put $5 or so down to preorder.
September 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
At GameStop you have to put $5 down for most games (I had to put $10 for Fable II, but that seems to be the exception). However, you can cancel at anytime for store credit or (I think) cash. If pre-ordering means you have to buy the game, then you are pre-ordering from the wrong places.
September 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
It’s a tough one, pre-ordering means you get the game first, and these days getting in on a beta is seen as a cool thing. Sometimes the game is buggy, but for the most part people are happy because they get to play something.
Your point about games being broken at launch though I completely agree with. It’s just wrong. But hey, they have milestones and release schedules to met, who cares if the game isn’t finished, as long as the board of directors are happy.
September 6th, 2008 at 4:03 am
Then just wait for the game to come out of Beta status. I would never pay a dime for a product that’s still in beta. I don’t mind if I could play it for free in Beta, submit bugs, and then cough up to continue playing the finished release, though.
If I’m spending money on a game, I want the game to work.
September 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I agree, You guys should use gamefly. Gamefly is like netflix, you get whatever game you want in the mail and keep it for how ever long you want. If you like the game then you buy it and if not then you can return it.
I added a link to my name above for you to use the discount that I use for game fly. its a 10day free trail without membership. Its pretty sick and for me its the only way 2 go right now.
Have fun!!!!