postponed releases

[GMT 389]

So, we all know about all the games with postponed releases dates.

And with highly anticipated games, one might feel that the seemingly endless flush of new release dates - most prominent title lately might be Gran Turismo 5 that comes actually years later than initially announced - is no longer a matter of reason but rather a standard to follow. It feels like the more anticipation for a certain title, the higher (and longer) the rates of rescheduled releases and it has become something absolutely normal to us gamers to get glued to a certain title by more or less awesome news about it that make us feel like there's a release soon, then we get the anticipated release date and not rarely days before the announed release, we get a kick back of weeks, months or even longer.

So, I'm wondering, why do publishers / producers announce a certain release date or timespan (as in quarters of a year) when they plan to release a game and then go on and postpone the release for whatever stated or confidential reason like it is the most normal thing on earth?

Is it a necessity to raise the quality, result of a wrong time-management or just a matter of public relations work?

What do you think about this?

[Larks2242 251]

Yea i get really mad about that.

For example I am Alive was annonced at E3 08 i believe and had a 09 release date pushed to 2010 at the last minute and is now slated for early 2011.

Mafia 2 was planned to come out years ago even the tralier was made in like 07 but ended up finaly coming out in August.

I think its more a way of getting mass exposure and a marketing tactic but its not fair to tease the public.

[Tysons4 68]

some games require more time. gran turismo titles always took a bit longer, but the games are very through.

perfectionist maybe. i still play gt4

[Mootilda 76]

I don't believe that publishers deliberately post unrealistic release dates. Software development is very difficult to predict accurately, especially when the predictions are often made by managers, who don't understand the technical issues, rather than by developers.

This prediction problem is exacerbated by poor processes... let me give you an example:

Many companies set a schedule for development, consisting of a number of "milestones" which must be completed. Each milestone is given a date within the schedule, so that the entire development is split into smaller, more manageable chunks. The idea is that when a milestone is missed, the team will know that there is a problem with the schedule, and can adjust accordingly. For example, if you miss a milestone, you may decide to start cutting features, or extend your release date, or hire more workers, etc. The purpose is to have a good idea of where you are in the process, so that you can respond quickly when things start to go wrong.

In real life, though, many people do not understand the rationale for milestones and so they respond inappropriately. I've seen any number of projects which miss milestones, but the team just redefines the milestone and says that the milestone was met. At each stage, then, people are still working on meeting the previous milestone and the entire project slips further and further behind. Externally, though, it looks like everything is going well; every one of the milestones has been met, so the project must be on schedule.

Of course, at some point things break down when someone realizes that they are supposed to be shipping soon, but the game isn't nearly ready.

Basically, software development is hard and because of that, it's difficult to predict. Processes exist which help make sure that the project is on schedule, but far too few people understand the process well enough to use it correctly.

[bourneid 13]

Gran Turismo is a bad example, they had a working "Gold" game more then a year and a half ago...  but at that time the exclusive deals with the F1 series and NASCAR were not final..  those were added... and it takes time to get the tracks and cars implimented into the game...tested and such...

but the problem with many others often comes from the release dates being set between the distributer and point of sale reps... and often dont have anything to do with the developers.

other time it involves what happened this year...  many of the games that were planned for this years release were pushed back to 2011 to impliment hardware changes such as move and kinect.

[Larks2242 251]

Originally posted by: bourneid

other time it involves what happened this year...  many of the games that were planned for this years release were pushed back to 2011 to impliment hardware changes such as move and kinect.

quote>

I wonder if thats the reason they pushed back the release date of the new Ghost Recon.

[Evillions 552]

Also, we can't forget that GT5 is 3D compatiable if you have a SONY 3D TV. So, I guess it would take a bit longer to re-render everything and to implement damage to certain cars.

[sneakeypete 16]

Luckily for developers thesedays is that console hardware does not change, meaning a game shipped a year late isn't going to look dated, unlike the late 90's where pc hardware was changing all the time.

[x493x 446]

Yeah, Gran Turismo is notorious for the posponement, but atleast we got the prologue in '08.

I too can't stand posponed releases, your expecting it, waiting, and then.................."due to difficulties............"

The best thing would be say it's coming out in 2011 lets say then suprise us and say "oh boy we were quick it's coming out in 2 weeks" sooner would be better than delays.

[bewilder2 2]

Then you have the issue of management at the big gaming companies (i.e. EA) which try to push the developers to get the game done by their scheduled release date, however unrealistic the dates may be. They have after all promised release dates to Wall Street.

But in the end, they concede that the only thing worse than missing a launch date is releasing a horribly unfinished product. Delayed sales, or minuscule sales, hmmm... I think we all know what management prefers.

(Look at Starcraft 2. Hopelessly delayed, but it was done right. And it ain't sellin too badly now.)

[LivingInThePast 364]

What about Duke Nukem Forever? Will the released copy be worth the 13 years?

(answer: very most likely not)

[DefStar 1]

GMT;

I don't think your theory holds if you view things economically. Software developers will develop new software in order to reach fill a whole in the market or create an entirely new one. This judgement is made after an assessment of the current software available and a bit of guesswork about which direction trends will move in. Once these companies make the decision to develop the software it is in their interest to release it as soon as possible. This is because other software could be released in the meantime taking their imagined market share.

There may be certain circumstances where it might be advantageous to delay the release, such as another similar product being released around the same time. A company might use the extra time to further differentiate their product. There may also be circumstances where there is less pressure to release as soon as possible, such as when a company has strong brand loyalty. However it is a safe assumption to make that if there is a delay in the release of any product, software included, then there is a problem with either production or distribution of that product.