Observing forum topics, Youtube videos and new releases first-hand, I seem to notice a trend of companies releasing games too early, with the games being half-done. A few examples are Assassin's Creed 3, which was broken to a point where I couldn't properly play it, Skyrim, which was so broken it required 4 patches to simply stabilize the game and more recently Battlefield 4 which I hear is rather buggy (I can't honestly speak for myself on BF4, I haven't played it yet).
While Bethesda has been known to release buggy games, I recall Oblivion as being a lot more stable (Skyrim felt like a beta to me, in comparison to Oblivion). To be honest, the Halo: Reach beta felt like a more stable game than a lot of the recent games I've played.
But where does this apparent trend come from? Was it always there, and was I too young to see the bugs in some of the early games I played, or do developers really release games before they are done? Why would they do that? To make more money? I'd figure a properly working game gets more sales than a broken one, due to reviews and word-to-mouth comments, but I don't have insights into the business models of such companies.
Where does #Gaming stand on this point? Do you see the same trend, or was it always there? Do you have an explanation for the (apparent) increase of buggy releases? Please, share your opinions.
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Battlefield 3.5 (4)