Brain Fargo, the creator of Wasteland and founder of Interplay, has launched a scathing attack on publishers claiming developers are not responsible for buggy games.
Before we get into the article it is important to explain a bit of the gaming jargon that will be used in this article to help those who are not as familiar with gaming as others.
Developers are the men and women who design and create a game. They build the code, create the artwork, do the animations and everything that goes into making the actual game. A lot like the artists in the music industry.
On the other hand, Publishers are those studios that own or have deals with publishers and are responsible for distributing the game to the general public; much like the Labels in the music industry.
There are times when publishers tend to push developers towards unrealistic goals and schedules, however, at other times they also ensure that the developers are pushed to ensure they meet deadlines and end up with a sound product.
Also it would be wise to introduce Mr. Brian Fargo as well, who happens to have created the game which inspired the Fallout series, Wasteland.
Commenting on his experience and that of other developers that he was in contact with, Mr. Fargo said, “There is more tension than you can believe. You would not believe the stories you hear about how developers are treated by publishers these days.”
He continued, “Look at the most recent one with those poor guys at Obsidian. They did Fallout: New Vegas, the ship date got moved up and, who does the QA (Quality Assurance) on a project? The publisher is always in charge of QA. When a project goes buggy,
it’s not the developer.”
He explained that developers never want to release a buggy game or fix any issues, but rather pressure from publishers often pushes them to do so.
The recent bugs in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim are another example of a game that isn’t quite finished being released.
When asked why none of the developers ever talk about the situation he replied, “Because they are afraid to talk, because they’ll never get another contract if they do.”
However, Mr. Fargo did concede that it was not the case between every developer and publisher and that he was only speaking from experience based on the studios he has worked with.
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