Game delays bring tears to eyes
“Your flight has been delayed.” Those five words are a nightmare to businessmen who travel frequently. That shouldn’t be the case in video games. In today’s gaming culture, delays are so common, it might as well be a trend. I’m here to say that it should stop.
An example of this is “Gran Turismo 5.” The game was first announced in 2006 at Electronic Entertainment Expo, but under another name. In 2009, the game was given the title of “Gran Turismo 5” and its first trailer was shown at the E3 Sony press conference. After missing its Japanese release date of March 2010, it was announced at this year’s E3 that the game would be released on Nov. 2 in North America.
Fast forward to last week, when it was announced that the game would be delayed yet again. According to 1up.com, the president of Polyphony Digital Kazunori Yamauchi wrote on his Twitter account: “I’m really sorry. Everyone, it’s inexcusable.”
Damn right, it’s inexcusable. It has been four years since the game was first announced. I understand that games need to be developed and polished, but it really shouldn’t be taking this long. On the PlayStation blog Sony producer Taku Imasaki said, “Yamauchi and the team at Polyphony Digital want to make certain they are creating the perfect racing experience.”
I don’t know about anyone else, but it sounds like they are putting so much time into this game, it might be the last game of the franchise, and we certainly don’t want that to happen.
Although “Gran Turismo 5” is the king of game delays, it isn’t the only game this year to announce a delay. Other blockbuster games such as “Gears of War 3” and “Little Big Planet 2” have been pushed to release dates in early 2011. The only game that seems to stay on target with its initial release date is “Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.” The series has done well and they stay on schedule. Developers should strive even harder to get a game released on time instead of piling up multiple delays. Don’t get me wrong, I think that developers work their butts off already to create a game, but delays are not the answer to creating a great game.
Like everything else, games cannot be created with the mindset that they have all the time in the world to develop a game. Fans expect games to be released at a certain time and delays only cause anger. Everyone knows the worst thing in the gaming world are angry gamers.
On the lighter side of things, Yamauchi did say the new release date would be sometime before Christmas. So we won't have to wait a long time. But I do hope that he takes a page from the development of “Gran Turismo 5” and learn that it doesn’t need to take four years and almost $60 million (yeah, it cost that much to make it) to make a great game.
