After all of the bugs and glitches that have plagued Call of Duty: Black Ops, many are asking why Treyarch didn't ensure the game was bug-free before shipping it to retailers. The company's response: that's not possible.
"In an ideal would we would love to ship a completely bug-proof game," said Treyarch community manager Josh Olin in a recent interview withVideoGamer.com. "I can’t think of a single developer in the world, though, that could achieve that."
When it comes to these bugs, however, Black Ops has been in the headlines much more than most games (just below Fallout: New Vegas, perhaps). That's partially because it's the fastest-selling game in US history and an extremely high profile title, but that doesn't explain everything. While Olin is almost definitely correct to state that no developer can produce a completely bug-free game, it seems that Black Ops was particularly rough around the edges.
Olin did qualify his comments, saying, "It’s really important that we are well equipped to quickly address them and quickly patch them."
Of course, back in the day, console games couldn't be patched, so if they shipped with game-crippling bugs, they'd always have game-crippling bugs.
What do you think of the mentality that bugs are inevitable, and must be handled post-release with swift patching? We certainly appreciate patches, but just how much bugginess should consumers put up with while in wait?
[Source: VideoGamer.com]
Feb 9, 2011
