Examples: EA and Gameloft with their highly priced games. They just release their game and let people play them. Then people complain about bugs/glitches and what not but these companies do not release patches. Instead they just release new, expensive games for people to buy and start the cycle again.
Because they are doing the exact same thing which some people accuse indie devs of, they are just in for the quick buck. They do not get paid for patches, they do get paid for new games, so it´s pretty clear why they do not release them. After one game is released, they already start the marketing campaign for the next big "hit".
Mainstream publishers, like any business, are motivated by profits. It costs money to fix bugs. If the game has been selling well despite the bugs, why should a publisher feel motivated to divert resources that could be working on new games? Most games have a shelf life of concentrated interest/hype/visibility. If a game's already been out for a while, it's rare for an update to have a significant positive effect on overall sales, particularly now that Apple doesn't give updates any special visibility boost. Updates can even backfire - many users take into account the "number of user reviews" as part of their buying decision. This is effectively reset to zero with an update.
MONEY. In and out is all they care about. Indie devs have to update because they have no power atall and are forced to if they are to get good ratings and sales. I think we should boycotte all big companies by not buying their next big title until they update older games.
They do not "suck" at updates. Updates are just not a part of their business model. Small developers have to make a name for themselves and earn a good reputation. If they don't put in the extra effort they won't survive. EA make millions from selling the same damn game over again every year. Why SHOULD they try any harder?
I have to disagree with you about EA. They actually update their games pretty well. All of their sports titles have been updated at least once. Madden and Tiger Woods have been updated multiple times. The Sims has been updated, Rock Band, Spore Origins, Command & Conquer, etc...they've all been updated. Gameloft has to get much better, but EA does pretty well.
And actually the Sims series on PC and maybe mac all had patches made after release so can be all to do with them losing money on it.
money, money, money...must be funny...in the richman's world ... or so gameloft suxx extreme with updates. if they release a game for 99c and say we just fix big bugs and concentrate on new games, it's o.k. for me. But if pay 4-8 Euro for a game and it doesn't gets updates, with at least some minor features which were requested by customers, it's a big NO-GO. I own more Gameloft Titles than EA-Titles, so i can only talk about them. EA is longer in business and i guess they realised that if you piss of your customer, your customer just don't purchase your games anymore (or download them pirated). I didn't purchase NOVA nor Modern Combat, nor Avatar and i like these games, but every game has it's problems and they don't update as far i've seen. so no $$$ here from me. I guess the day will come when also Gameloft realizes that we aren't cows which you can milk and then just leave it as it is.
i remember gameloft fixing some glitches on hero of sparta and other games...yea they take a while but they do fix problems. they dont give content upgrade though.
Big companies do stuff to make money so unless the game is crashing horribly from the start, it isn't worth their time to spend much effort to fix minor issues. They're also just a lot slower to react to a big public cry for this or that as it has to go through all departments to sign off on and authorize this or that. Just a lot of bureaucratic nonsense. Joe Indie working on his big release from home IS the whole company and can just decide, "Okay, cool, I'll address that crash bug and add a new car type." without a meeting or filling out any paperwork. It is also just a basic fact that as cool as new free content is for us consumers, whether the game has 4 or 5 different maps won't make a huge difference in ongoing sales (even though when the game you already own gets that new 5th map it's a big deal). The only thing that really makes a difference in sales, IMHO, is the "concept" of continuing updates. If I'm looking at the iTunes description of a game for the first time I might see this latest update added some cool new features and a bug fix but how would I know if this is the third update with new content or the first? I mean just seeing this is v1.3 could be seen as either proof they're on top of the product (assuming it started as v1.0), issuing multiple updates...but on the flip side it could also be seen as a game that has taken some 3 versions to get all of its problems worked out so maybe these devs are clueless buffoons?
As people have already said - updates cost money that it is difficult to see as to how it increases sales. If a game has a major bug it will definitely get updated as that would impact sales,but small bugs probably won't. Updating games with new content is almost always going to be less worthwhile than just releasing version 2 of that product instead... why give a load of content away for free when you can just make a new version and charge full price. It would be different if iphone users weren't so spoilt and the price points so low... It so funny reading review for games - pretty much every one is something like 'This game is great but I am only giving it 1 * unless you give me <some massive content upgrade for nothing> then I will rate it 5*'. Where it gets a bit more muddy is when the post says 'This game is crap it won't install/play sound/keeps crashing so I am only giving it 1 * unless you fix it'. If there are 20,000 people saying the game is fine and a small number are saying its bust, chances are the issue isn't going to be worth fixing - there could be loads of reasons why that person thinks THEY are the most important person and should be listend to.. it is probably going to be related to not having enough free space, never restarting their device unless it crashes, it is actually a jailbroken device/cracked copy etc etc.. if the bug didn't come up in QA then it is going to be hard to reproduce and therefore cost more to fix. Obviously there are going to be exceptions to this rule - such as pocket god, where the business model requires frequent updates to maintain interest or Eliminate which requires a constant stream of mugs to put their money into credits which is only possible by constatnly refreshing the content and dlc. Players like gameloft are just going to try and release a game that can tide everyone over until the next version (Modern Combat -> N.O.V.A).
Big companies are used to making mobile games for systems like the ds/psp where you CAN'T update.. they release a game and if it has any big problems that causes them to lose money, they care, other wise they screw you over while indie devs spend there time making new updates for free to add content and if there are any, fix the bugs! Indie devs are superior in support. Big devs do tend to release better games though.. Gameloft doesnt have the exception of being on other platforms before though.. they just drive me crazy. I played nova once through only because I payed 7 bucks for it or whatever. I have since deleted it, gangstar(which I didn't even beat because it was so repetitive) and several others I have tried to forget because the hole they created in my wallet was not filled with any enjoyment... Stay away from gameloft if you can, EA has a few good releases, though Red Alert was more of a bum for me ....
Well, you don't understand, they're big companies with big-budget games for a reason, to make money. They can't update all of their games like crazy and keep adding huge things. Expecting them to do that to their already high-quality games just makes you sound spoiled! It's like demanding Modern Combat 2 to get more features...
Yeah... but MC:S was promised multiplayer when I bought it (this is the reason I bought it), and multiplayer works for virtually no one. This cannot be acceptable. Also, Nova's music player is flawed. It is buggy on every person's device. This has yet to be fixed. This cannot be acceptable. EDIT: I just want to be clear that I didn't give these games one star reviews because of these respective issues
Looks like the best post are the one's posted by like-minded people with the same sig as mine Gameloft should go back to making java games and out of the iplatform.
Team17's updates on worms is very noteworthy. big company who listens to their fan base and make updates. And on Gameloft again, they don't care bout us, so why should we care about them?
