Quote:
Originally Posted by Sweed
Pretty much mirrors FM, the gold standard of sports sims, in how their game is released and worked on after. It is the nature of the beast even for FM, with Sega, huge sales and a large development team. People may not like it, but it is what it is. I can't think of a sports game that doesn't go through this in some fashion or other? NBA2k, Madden (obviously), The Show, FM, etc. Hell, most of those don't know when to stop patching. IE they get the game playable but continue to tweak and break it again. 
It's the same every year for OOTP, FM, and all(?) other sports titles too. There is one user here, EC, that buys on release but never plays until the last patch. There are users that wait until later in the patch cycle to buy, and get the game on sale. Both ways are valid and may be something you want to do in future? It would at least let you avoid feeling like part of the QA team. |
I don’t really agree with this at all. FM certainly isn’t perfect upon release, and they do have multiple updates throughout the year, but it’s usually in very reasonable working order and without game-breaking issues.
I’d say the SI development cycle is different from OOTPD in that after they release the final update, they move onto the next version. They have also been working on the next version while nailing down bugs simultaneously.
I think they just released the final patch for version 23 a few weeks ago. So they will keep patching for about 4 to 5 months after release. OOTP is still patching a good 7-8 months after release. Last year it went even later.