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Originally posted by Targonis
The issue with games is that the QA process is always a big issue, and up until the last minute, a game-stopping bug may be discovered which needs to be addressed prior to release. But one thing you forget is the "gone gold" announcement that many developers make. Once a game has gone gold, release is only a matter of weeks away, and a release date should be available.
Think about how that differs from books and music, which have the primary work complete many months in advance. I don't know how long it takes to go from the author's "final" version of a book to printing to distribution, but I expect that it's longer than the time it takes for a computer game to be reproduced, packaged, and shipped.
Of course, with the music industry, the process of recording each track is done over time, so of course the release of a new album is going to be more transparent and a release date will be made available long before it's shipped. The recording industry is a VERY different animal compared to books and computer programs.
One thing that has to be said is that I've seen a lot of problems with QA in printed books, just as we see with computer programs. Clear "typo" issues, or pages that are very faded because of a low ink issue when that page was printed. What do you do except bring it back and get a new copy, right?
The issue with games is that the QA process is always a big issue, and up until the last minute, a game-stopping bug may be discovered which needs to be addressed prior to release. But one thing you forget is the "gone gold" announcement that many developers make. Once a game has gone gold, release is only a matter of weeks away, and a release date should be available.
Think about how that differs from books and music, which have the primary work complete many months in advance. I don't know how long it takes to go from the author's "final" version of a book to printing to distribution, but I expect that it's longer than the time it takes for a computer game to be reproduced, packaged, and shipped.
Of course, with the music industry, the process of recording each track is done over time, so of course the release of a new album is going to be more transparent and a release date will be made available long before it's shipped. The recording industry is a VERY different animal compared to books and computer programs.
One thing that has to be said is that I've seen a lot of problems with QA in printed books, just as we see with computer programs. Clear "typo" issues, or pages that are very faded because of a low ink issue when that page was printed. What do you do except bring it back and get a new copy, right?
I'm starting to think Amazon doesn't do well with preorders...
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