Why A Developer Should Never Rush Out A Game, Ever

Every developer has felt the pressure of meeting a release date deadline. It happens and it's so very real. But is the pressure of meeting the deadline really worth the entirety of the game? No, it's not.

We've seen what happens when games are rushed out to meet their release dates time after time after time, the most recent incident being Mighty No. 9. Matter-of-fact, I don't even know what the hell went wrong there or where all the money really went, or what they were doing for the past so many years, because what came out was not years of work.

Regardless, this is probably the worst thing you can do to the the game that has sucked up a portion of your life. And when you're so close to the finish line, are you really going to throw it all away just to get it out and say it's "better than nothing"?

Capcom saw firsthand what happens when you rush to get a game out to the fans when they released Street Fighter V, and everyone was met with devastating errors and bugs. It was so bad that Capcom even apologized publicly more than once.

Fallout 4 had the same problem. While the announcement of the game at E3 2015 was staggering enough, the very-near release date threw everyone into a tizzy. How had they managed to keep the game secret for so long only to release it so soon? I mean the game wasn't even playable at E3. Instead, they had an exhibit where you could interact with the robot from the game, which was really just a dude standing in a booth watching people walk by and commenting on what they were doing or wearing. And when Fallout 4 released, it also had a ton of bugs that took a few updates to smooth over.

So I really want to ask developers, what's the rush? Would you rather have your game live up to its hype or release it with catastrophic errors and bugs, only to piss off your dedicated audience?

Matter-of-fact, Nintendo just commented on why Legend Of Zelda games are almost always delayed; because they are almost always trying something new and need that extra time to iron it out and make it perfect. Why can't all developers follow this philosophy? Yes, you might have some fans upset over the fact they have to wait another year for their favorite game to release, but from what I know about the gaming community, most understand why games are delayed. As long as it's nothing like Mighty No. 9's disastrous delay story, I think you'll find that gamers can be very understanding when they're dedicated to the product you're making.