Sapphire blog post urges people to stop pre-ordering games

[zMeul]

source: http://sapphirenation.net/pre-order-not-question/

it's big, it's really interesting to see a major video card manufacturers getting involved in this - makes you wonder why exactly is going on

my guess, Sapphire had their share of people complaining to them for issues in games assuming it's a hardware problem, and not a broken game

 

 

Instead of us paying a small retainer to ensure we got a copy we are now asked to fork over full price for the game, often many months in advance. We do not get early access but in essence we are paying for the privilege of doing the QA work the developer should be paying people to do. You may think that the concept of paid beta testers sounds odd, but it is not. Again, it was not all that long ago that companies took applications for beta testers and then would reward the small number selected with a free copy of the game for their efforts.

The results of these changes have, sadly, not been for the better when it comes to the quality of games we get from developers. Pre-pay and founders programs no longer need to exist to ensure you get a copy in a reasonable time. Now they are used to fund the games development. That’s right, the money is generated to pay for the games development to be finished, you are in essence paying for an incomplete product.

This is a large departure from the original premise of pre-pay and not one good for gamers in my opinion. With no need to worry about getting your game day one there is no need for a pre-pay system in the ways it existed before. The use of the consumer public to fund game development is not a bad idea except it has not helped make games better – in fact it has made them worse.

we all know the shit-show Assassin's Creed Unity has been - is it even fixed by now?

not to mention the very recent Batman: Arkham Knight

[Ghostay]

source: http://sapphirenation.net/pre-order-not-question/

it's big, it's really interesting to see a major video card manufacturers getting involved in this - makes you wonder why exactly is going on

my guess, Sapphire had their share of people complaining to them for issues in games assuming it's a hardware problem, and not a broken game

 

 

we all know the shit-show Assassin's Creed Unity has been - is it even fixed by now?

not to mention the very recent Batman: Arkham Knigh

 

The end is nigh for Arkham knigh.

[Bouzoo]

This is a pretty respectable thing from them, different reasons or not.

[DarkBlade2117]

Good, maybe this will influence others companies. I think preorders are aboslute horse shit. Boogie made any amazing video on this topic. Devolpers are getting tomthe point where they take chunks of the game out just to get the money early, which results in lazy devolpment. Didn't COD AW do this? Some outfit people could buy for lile $50-$100?? Pre-Orders results in lazy devolpment, bad bugs, incomplete games, and more. I hate paid DLCs just as bad... I gurantee these devolpers take paid DLCs when they see the pre-order sales rising, copy and paste it ( lot more complicated ) and 2 months down the rosd charge people $20 for it because they are such money whores.

[ivan134]

I'm impressed. I was expecting this to somehow lead to RIP AMD since Sapphire is partnered with them. Well done. There might still be hope for you.

[Khvarrioiren]

my guess, Sapphire had their share of people complaining to them for issues in games assuming it's a hardware problem

 

You guessed wrong.

None of the above is straight from Sapphire; Sapphire Nation is a community hub ran by Edward Crisler, Sapphire's PR guy, who is the original writer of the article.

Nice try for trying to twist it to something else again, though.

 

[Bogica]

+1 for Sapphire for having the balls to speak up.

All we see these days is a bunch unoptimized shitstorm games which is sad.

And we read that the gaming industry is stronger than ever, how it has grown by insane amounts and how more and more money is poured into it.

But yet we get games that are shitier quality than the ones from 15 years ago when game developers were still struggling and when the market wasn't this big.

[Notional]

I love the picture, as the faceless rendering is an Nvidia exclusive issue.

 

That being said, preordering digital games makes little sense, unless you get a lot of free stuff with it. Physical editions are another thing, as they are limited. So I will pre order the Deus Ex Mankind Divided CE for instance. Other than that I tend not to preorder games, unless there is hefty pre order stuff.

 

Seeing an industry insider officially stating this is very interesting though, and I do hope developers (or maybe publishers in particular) should focus more on proper optimization and bug fixing before shipping. That being said, day 0/1 patches are not a problem for me, as long as the product I get works as good as possible.

[zMeul]

You guessed wrong.

None of the above is straight from Sapphire; Sapphire Nation is a community hub ran by Edward Crisler, Sapphire's PR guy, who is the original writer of the article.

Nice try for trying to twist it to something else again, though.

I haven't twisted a single thing - the title clearly indicates it's a blog post

number two: it's not a personal blog, it's Sapphire's blog - otherwise it would not be called Sapphire, for obvious reasons duh!  <_<

 

also, this:

[DevilishBooster]

You guessed wrong.

None of the above is straight from Sapphire; Sapphire Nation is a community hub ran by Edward Crisler, Sapphire's PR guy, who is the original writer of the article.

Nice try for trying to twist it to something else again, though.

If the original article was written by Sapphire's PR guy, and posted to the community hub that is run by Sapphire's PR guy, unless Edward Crisler explicitly states that the article is his own view and not the opinion of Sapphire Tech, then yes this is a statement from straight from Sapphire. (I can't seem to get the page with the article to load here at work, so I haven't read it yet.)

 

As for the reasoning why the article was written, that is just speculation in the part of the OP, but one that I would agree with without doing extra research into it. I don't think @zMeul was trying to twist anything.

[Khvarrioiren]

I haven't twisted a single thing - the title clearly indicates it's a blog post

number two: it's not a personal blog, it's Sapphire's blog - otherwise it would not be called Sapphire, for obvious reasons duh!  <_<

 

Surely you read the whole article making perfectly clear he's speaking on his own behalf?

[ACatWithThumbs]

 we all know the shit-show Assassin's Creed Unity has been - is it even fixed by now?

Nope it hasn't they only released 4 patches that were all pretty tiny and then let the game die.

This is the reason why I don't buy Ubisoft games anymore not because they have bugs but because they refuse to fix them Watchdogs has still stutter while driving.

EA might rush sometimes games but every single game they release gets patched until the problem is fixed.

[Khvarrioiren]

I don't think @zMeul was trying to twist anything.

 

After a tad of self-reflection, you are correct. I'm just hung up with his track record and I've had an extremely shitty day and I let it cloud my judgement.

 

Apologies, @zMeul

[Lethal Seraph]

Yeah I don't pre-order. The stigma has been lost since ESV:Skyrim. Most recent I had was MGS:V game code that came from a hardware purchase.

[Prysin]

@zMeul

Please dont drag Sapphire into this ridiculous bullshit rodeo you have going with AMD...

Post real news, from real sources......

[zMeul]

Surely you read the whole article making perfectly clear he's speaking on his own behalf?

when a person speaks on it's own behalf and not from a employee perspective, he does so on a personal blog and not on the company's blog

[NAP51DMustang]

@zMeul

Please dont drag Sapphire into this ridiculous bullshit rodeo you have going with AMD...

Post real news, from real sources......

how is this not a real source? it's directly from Sapphire's community hub blog. and he isn't dragging Sapphire into anything.

[dragosudeki]

Too bad there is no talk about the delaying of release dates, which is now my major concern. If they can't finish the project by the date (that they declared themselves), then that is also a failure of project management. I feel like delaying something to make it more optimized is just as bad as releasing an improper product just to meet the date. I'd prefer the latter, just so I can see what the state of the game is and how bad they managed the project.

[Khvarrioiren]

when a person speaks on it's own behalf and not from a employee perspective, he does so on a personal blog and not on the company's blog

 

Gladly for you and the rest, I know Ed, and decided to clear this thing up with him directly:

 

[cesrai]

@zMeul

Please dont drag Sapphire into this ridiculous bullshit rodeo you have going with AMD...

Post real news, from real sources......

You didn't even fucking read did you ?

Geez you people like to flame zemul don't you.

Thus may have been ED personal opinion but this isn't topic isn't flamming AMD or even saying anything about it. It's just about a blog post.

[Misanthrope]

That's big talk from Sapphire Ed: pretty sure all his cards are often bundled with AMD games, including buying Sapphire cards that included the still non-existent Star citizen, effectively pre-ordering the game.

 

I agree with the sentiment and Ed's entire attitude about being gamer centric: he streams a show, he uploads legitimately nice videos. But come on, Sapphire signs your checks you can't tell me you're impartial and that you're all about gamers, I just don't buy that.

[Egad]

I think the never preorder thing too broad of a generalization.  I would agree never preorder from large studios that already have the cash to fund a game.  However when you look at smaller studios, they don't have the luxury of having those resources.  So to develop the game they have to get investors to back them.  Given how hard the SEC makes it to offer out part of your company (which is why Kickstarter is structured the way it does and makes sure equity is never sold when you back something), a preorder is the next best thing.  At that point you're making the deal that if we basically give the developer an interest free loan, we'll get significant content in return since more money can be spent on the game instead of paying back investors.  Preorders can also be the difference between a game being able to raise capital from investors or not (since the preorder proves interest).  The flaw of course is in the significant part.  Most people just offer some reskins or a gaming breaking god gun type thing.  

 

So really the mantra doesn't need to be don't preorder, but rather only preorder when the developer makes a strong case that there is a benefit.  Some like the Augement your Preorder thing wouldn't necessarily be BS coming from a small studio with no backing.  Then it would be reality, the studio can only program that it has the money to program.  For Eidos of course, given their size and the fact it was for a game franchise with proven sales and following, it was total BS.  When you're that established, it's tacky to try to pass risk on to your customers.

 

If you have a small studio that has published a couple good titles, whose flaws are acceptable given the size of the studio, and they come out and ask for an advance, it's definitely something to consider based on their track record and what they'll give you for the interest free loan.

[Misanthrope]

I think the never preorder thing too broad of a generalization.  I would agree never preorder from large studios that already have the cash to fund a game.  However when you look at smaller studios, they don't have the luxury of having those resources.  So to develop the game they have to get investors to back them.  Given how hard the SEC makes it to offer out part of your company (which is why Kickstarter is structured the way it does and makes sure equity is never sold when you back something), a preorder is the next best thing.  At that point you're making the deal that if we basically give the developer an interest free loan, we'll get significant content in return since more money can be spent on the game instead of paying back investors.  Preorders can also be the difference between a game being able to raise capital from investors or not (since the preorder proves interest).

 

So really the mantra doesn't need to be don't preorder, but rather only preorder when the developer makes a strong case that there is a benefit.  Some like the Augement your Preorder thing wouldn't necessarily be BS coming from a small studio with no backing.  Then it would be reality, the studio can only program that it has the money to program.  For Eidos of course, given their size and the fact it was for a game franchise with proven sales and following, it was total BS.  

 

If you have a small studio that has published a couple good titles, whose flaws are acceptable given the size of the studio, and they come out and ask for an advance, it's definitely something to consider based on their track record and what they'll give you for the interest free loan.

 

Smaller studios are arguably a worst risk overall if you consider the number of shit games, you need only to look at Jim Sterling's channel to see some of the shit indie "devs" pull as well.

[zMeul]

Gladly for you and the rest, I know Ed personally, and decided to clear this thing up with him directly:

 

then he should not post this on the company's blog and issue a immediate retraction - period

[Khvarrioiren]

then he should not post this on the company's blog and issue a immediate retraction - period

 

Sapphire Nation is a COMMUNITY HUB. It's not an integral part of the company. He has every right to post his opinions under Sapphire Nation; period.

 

Send a fuming email SapphireTech's way if you can't handle this concept.