Our Man in Japan -- Console Patches

[Kitsune]

Our Man in Japan -- Console Patches

A Patch Upon Console Gamers

Console gamers don't need to deal with patches, huh?

"It was so obvious that when reviews of the sequel came out, many reviewers praised one particular positive: there's so much less bugs! It is a testament to how used to this Japanese gamers have become that there wasn't more complaining, how if it isn't entirely broken, we're inclined to overlook it for high quality games. Sound familiar?"

A patch! A patch! I say! :P

Can't be a Kitsune post without a...

-Fox

[Luke M]

I see horrible things in store for American console releases in the future. Hell, we've had this bugginess problem off and on for the past 5 or 10 years with our PC releases. What's to stop consoles from eventually catching up?

[Luke M]

I see this new bugginess trend for American console releases potentially manifesting itself in the upcoming GTA: San Andreas. Vice City was buggy enough to corrupt my campaign data and prevent completion of the game, so imagine what a GTA game that is 5 times as big and 3 times as long can do.

[Kalle]

So all this time you Japanese gamers were in fact unpaid beta testers for the NA/European releases?

[Kitsune]

Originally Posted by Kalle

So all this time you Japanese gamers were in fact unpaid beta testers for the NA/European releases?

Pretty much. I've noticed that the exact problems that Japanese gamers catch in the first release, including finding mystery data which wasn't included in our release seems to determine what they add to international releases. Which might be one of the reasons why you're seeing more bugs this time around too, as more games are releasing first in NA/Europe this generation than before. Here's a list of games just off the top of my head:

FFVII - bugs squashed, difficulty tuned better, story sequences put in where they didn't have time to clarify things, menus reorganized, the control improved

Tenchu - 2 new stages and lots of graphical glitches improved or removed.

Fire Emblem - Items modified (I think some bonus items were added as well) and enemy stats changed to make for smoother learning curve and more balanced battlefields.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - Besides a few small things, the Triforce quest at the end was modified to make it less onerous, it was far worse in the Japanese version.

Otogi - Framerates improved and balance readjusted to be a tighter game.

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution: included expanded bonuses concerning the VF1 anniversary mode, which weren't in the Japanese version.

Soul Calibur II - Vastly improved computer AI than the Japanese version and a few graphical glitches removed.

Sonic Adventure - Camera problems corrected somewhat and framerate drops, as well as clipping and freezing issues worked on quite a bit.

And on and on and on. You see, people always complain about bad manuals and translations, but at least you don't have to deal with this.

:(

-Kitsune

[Dirt]

Yeah, but you guys got the add-on for Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIII in Japan.

[Brad Grenz]

I love how they then rerelease a version based on the North American release in Japan and people buy the game again. That's pretty funny.

[curst]

Originally Posted by dandylife

I see this new bugginess trend for American console releases potentially manifesting itself in the upcoming GTA: San Andreas. Vice City was buggy enough to corrupt my campaign data and prevent completion of the game, so imagine what a GTA game that is 5 times as big and 3 times as long can do.

Same here. Did you save your game at the ice cream factory? I lost I-don't-know-HOW-many-hours because of that bug. GTA isn't the kind of game where you think you're going to need multiple save files because there's no permanent penalties for dying, but OUCH, that changed my mind in a hurry.

I really wish all the next-gen consoles had a large hard-drive as standard equipment. I don't see how patching is possible without them. When's the last time a recent PC game had a patch that was under 8MB in size? And while I may be the beneficiary of living in the USA and having the entire gaming populace of Japan as some kind of beta-test group that helps the devs squash the bugs in time for the NA release of whatever game, I too can see a day where console games here get as buggy as PC titles in a general sense. It only makes logical sense, as games get more and more inherently complex.

Not to mention that I've already seen obvious issues come up in a few games (not bugs, but things like stupid design decisions and balance issues) that could easily be resolved with a patch, yet I'm doomed to never see them resolved.

[Luke M]

Originally Posted by curst

Same here. Did you save your game at the ice cream factory? I lost I-don't-know-HOW-many-hours because of that bug. GTA isn't the kind of game where you think you're going to need multiple save files because there's no permanent penalties for dying, but OUCH, that changed my mind in a hurry.

I lost 40 hours to that ice cream factory. I was so close to finishing the game. Very pissed. I had used up every save slot during my game. Saving at the ice cream factory seemed to corrupt all of them.

[Warlord of Mars]

Originally Posted by Brad Grenz

I love how they then rerelease a version based on the North American release in Japan and people buy the game again. That's pretty funny.

I've heard of them buying special editions of the same game, too.

[Jason McCullough]

Oooh, I can take the edgy contrarian opinion.

On the PC platform, developers spend their time getting rid of major bugs. They can just patch away post-ship or close to ship bugs, so there's a lower bar to clear. PC gamers are surprisingly blase about this.

Console developers have a much higher bug bar - they're totally screwed if a severe issue crops up late. They spend a lot more time testing and polishing than PC gamers do. Console gamers don't seem to notice, really.

See where I'm going with this?

Contrary to conventional wisdom, I suspect that the unpatchability of consoles isn't benefitting anyone. Gamers basically don't care, and it costs developers extra money.

[Chris Nahr]

I dunno, isn't the bugginess of PC games regularly trotted out as an argument why PC games are losing popularity compared to console games? You might say the remaining PC gamers don't care but many may have quit already because they did care.

[Creole Ned]

Part of it might depend on how a console game is patched. If it's a "stealth" patch done silently in the background thanks to a broadband connection, the average Joe may not even know it's happening, apart from wondering why the game is taking longer to load than usual.

Doesn't MS already use some euphemism for Xbox Live fixes, calling them "updates" or such? When they patched Ghost Recon, what message came up when you tried playing the game?

[unbongwah]

Originally Posted by Creole Ned

Doesn't MS already use some euphemism for Xbox Live fixes, calling them "updates" or such? When they patched Ghost Recon, what message came up when you tried playing the game?

Actually, I believe MS doesn't let publishers use Xbox Live just for bug fixes - only new content downloads. Precisely because they wanted to discourage developers from using Xbox Live as a crutch and prevent the "release now patch later" mentality which plagues PC games from afflicting the Xbox. [Who knew MS could do something that sensible?]

Of course, if a developer mixes some bug fixes or gameplay tweaks in with their extra content (as is the case with e.g. Ninja Gaiden IIRC)...well, that's OK then. ;)

[dogbert]

Actually, I believe MS doesn't let publishers use Xbox Live just for bug fixes

Nope, there have been a number of games patched purely to fix bugs without the premise of added content.