Are business tactics ruining games?

Welcome to Memoirs, my column here on RPGSite. In Memoirs, I talk about just about anything and everything that takes my fancy in the world of gaming. This time: Business tactics.

Gaming is now serious business. Billions of dollars are poured into the industry, and billions more come out into the pockets of the investors. In terms of profit, there is definitely something to fight over, and videogame companies are doing just that as we rapidly hurtle towards the release of the PS3 and Nintendo Wii.

Microsoft's move to launch the Xbox 360 so early is the first in a long line of moves that each of the gaming companies is taking to secure that all important coveted lead spot in the market -- that spot that ensures top popularity and top tier profits across the board.

Like a game of chess, each company makes their move, and sullenly awaits the move of their opponents and rivals, hoping to high heaven that the move they've made won't cost them a huge amount of money. At E3 2005, the chess board was cleared of pieces, and the pieces were laid out once more, afresh, ready for the next gen. It was a brand new start; a chance to wipe the slate clean and captivate audiences of core and average gamers all over the world with technical demos and fancy press parties.

It's E3 2005 and the 360 launch I'll talk about most in my piece today, as I talk about the two major contenders' battle for the top spot, attempting to, while Nintendo impress but still remain the dark horse, not really showing any of their cards to their rivals.

Microsoft, as is the case throughout this build up to the next-gen, fired first and decisively. One week before the 2005 E3 Expo in Los Angeles, they unveiled their new Xbox 360 console to thousands of casual gamers using the same method rivals Sony used to launch a previous console -- MTV. The MTV show had little to do with the actual box in question, and instead featured celebrities saying they'd played it and it was great (which didn't do much for my confidence in the console). This show was peppered with some menial technical details and some short clips of games so it wasn't completely devoid of any information about the actual console. The most exciting thing to come from the show was pictures of the actual console and what it looked like, and information about the Media capabilities of the console.

Microsoft's move to reveal the 360 so early was based entirely on the fact that Sony's huge head-start with the PS2 console had sealed their place as industry leader. This time, Microsoft was determined to become industry leaders in precisely the same way -- but more on that later.

By showing the console a week before the biggest gaming event on the planet even began, Microsoft had showed almost all they had to show. While throughout E3 they revealed more of the 360's features and games -- and obviously, people at the event got to play the consoles, almost all the console's features had been revealed -- if only at the most basic level -- on the MTV show. Everybody knew exactly what to expect, and nobody was surprised or shocked at what was on offer at E3. As such, press reaction to Microsoft's showing was lukewarm, with the general consensus amongst the gaming community of fans and press being that Microsoft should've saved the announcement for E3.

This was down more than anything to the fact that Sony came into E3 with a single tactic: to beat the opposition to absolute death with hysteria for their new console. Sony held a huge press conference where they upstaged Microsoft at almost every turn. It since transpired that much of the "in game" footage Sony showed at the event wasn't generated real-time by their PS3 console, and so gave no fair indication of what the system may do. However, by this time, it was too late, and Sony fans everywhere were toting the awesome power of the console that, while undoubtedly more powerful than the 360, may not be able to perform that much better when actual games start hitting the market.
Nintendo showed at E3 with a small offering, only showing the Press what their new console looks like, and not offering them any chance to demo it whatsoever. Nintendo's E3 offering was a huge disappointment to all present, but proved to be a wise move, as Nintendo then later revealed their "Revolution" console at the Tokyo Game Show, stealing the show and impressing pretty much everybody. Despite this, little is known about Nintendo's console even now, when the next-gen has officially "started." Incidentally, Nintendo hasn't even announced the full name for the console -- Revolution is a codename, like "Dolphin" was for the Gamecube.

Now, of course, we all know different. We know the PS3 boomerang controller isn't the controller for the final console, and we know all the secrets of the Revolution, including it's new name, Wii. E3 2006 also showed what the PS3 could really do graphically, as opposed to the rough, CGed guesses of E3 2005.

However, back then, the three companies came away from E3 with varying levels of success; Microsoft bruised but definitely not broken -- having fought their corner at E3 bravely gaining the 360 a lot of support; Sony undoubtedly feeling rather fulfilled, and Nintendo walking away, head held high, distinguishing themselves from their two rivals, not even bothering to join in with their verbal fencing, clearly intending to let the games do the talking, which they certainly did the following year.

I said more on Microsoft wanting to launch between Sony; well, here we are, back here again. Microsoft pushed on and began violently promoting their 360 console with a campaign I have not seen the like of for some time. Here in the UK and abroad, you couldn't help but see or hear about the 360 everywhere you went. Microsoft announced the console would Launch before Christmas in "all major regions" (US, Europe and Japan -- Sorry, Aussies.) Shortly after this, they announced the release dates -- 22nd November for the US, and the 2nd and the 12th of December for Europe and Japan respectively.

The console hit stores in a limited manner. Microsoft's desperation to get the console out before Sony and get it out in the busy Christmas period to maximise sales had once again caused them serious problems, as it had at E3. There was a serious shortage in consoles with no region getting more than 300,000 consoles on launch day. At the time of press, this shortage is still going on, and Xbox 360 consoles are selling for as much as and above $1000 on eBay and other auction websites, desperate gamers trying to get the console at any cost, with desperate mothers who promised their young son a 360 for Christmas willing to pay even more.

The 360's launch, while a success for Microsoft, getting them a more than decent foothold in all three regions -- even Japan -- was rife with mistakes. The launch titles, particularly the first party titles by Rareware, are dogged with problems that would've needed a week, maybe a little more in production to iron out. Rare is a company with a long history of "if we rush it, you'll notice," and Perfect Dark Zero and Kameo are no exception -- though both are excellent games in their own right, given a week or two longer, they could've been bumped up a few points in every category. The fact that we are now seeing downloadable content that could've seen those titles score higher is an indication of those things that just couldn't make that tight launch schedule.

Likewise, some third party games show little initiative to do much with this next generation and the opportunities it provides -- EA's launch titles proving to be little more than more graphically robust versions of Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube titles. This is a pattern we have seen in other consoles, with a lot of DS titles (Such as Harry Potter and The Sims) being little more than a GBA game with a simple touch-screen feature tacked on.

While I still feel that the 360 Launch is one of the best in videogame history, and the console one of the best ever released (mostly thanks to Microsoft's seemingly bottomless pockets,) I can't help but ask myself if it would've been better if Microsoft hadn't pushed themselves and the second and third parties to reach this deadline of Christmas to maximize sales and damage to Sony.

It's at this point I ask -- are these business tactics harming the final product that is reaching us, the gamers?

It's an increasingly frustrating issue when titles reach us half-finished, half-baked and just plain out incomplete because it feels like a waste of what could've been a perfectly good title, and more strikingly, a waste of the development team's time.

Sitting here, writing this, and looking at my games collection, I can see countless titles that I believe have been affected by being pushed for deadlines by Publishers wanting to get one-up on another. I look at Halo 2 and remember its lacklustre ending, Enter the Matrix and its tight deadline of hitting the movie release, even Zelda wasn't safe when The Wind Waker took a blow and lost two dungeons down to hitting the deadline. All three of these examples were highly anticipated games that upon release left many disappointed -- and most of the disappointments were obvious to all, and could've been fixed given more development time.

Time and time again, I've been forced to mark a title down for tapering off in the second half, or being just plain buggy (like Enter the Matrix) because the developers were never given the time to iron them out. It pains me to mention Knights of the Old Republic II, rushed by LucasArts for a Christmas release, for fans of the original and it's deep plot only to find that the final third of the game was almost absent entirely.

Unfortunately, there is not much the Developers can do to avoid these situations. The producers, publishers, and in some cases movie studios fund these games, and so they get the final say on these matters.

It did please me to see the guys over at Rareware apologising for some things that were promised in Perfect Dark Zero being absent, as I mentioned earlier promising to work on and release it as downloadable content on the Xbox Live Marketplace -- already evidenced by four new multiplayer maps that didn't make that cut. The ability to download updates for games puts a whole new spin on this entire issue, as it allows developers to fix things after release as they have done for years with PC titles.

However, this is not and should never become an excuse to release half-finished games and then patch them up over the online service. In this case, this is where developers must take a leaf out of the book of those who develop for the PC, and ensure they put out the fullest game they possibly can.
On the bright side of all this, the examples previously mentioned were all very hard lessons to learn for all involved -- the developers and publishers alike. Thanks to this, the companies are learning that games cannot be rushed in the same way they were previously. The production values of Ubisoft's King Kong adaptation show this well recently.

The companies are definitely learning. In the case of The Wind Waker, Miyamoto and his team learnt the lesson well; they have delayed the new joint Gamecube/Wii Zelda title, Twilight Princess several times over to ensure this doesn't happen again, making additions of new features to make the game better. Much to the dismay of Zelda fans, they've had to wait almost a year longer than they thought they would.

All I can say to those dismayed fans is: Good things come to those who wait.