What's up with devs revealing system requirements for games so close to release nowadays?

[iSynthMan]

I'm keeping track of a few AAA releases I'm interested in that came out recently or are coming out soon.

 

Assassins Creed:Mirage had it's system requirements revealed in September 20, two weeks before release.

 

Alan Wake 2 releases in 10 days and Remedy still hasn't shown us what we'll need to run the game.

 

Avatar:Frontiers is one that I'm very interested in that releases in early december, if Ubisoft follows the recent pattern the specs needed won't be revealed until late november.

 

How are we expected to pre-order a game if we don't know if our PCs can run it and what sort of performance to expect...and have time to maybe plan an upgrade if we really want to play the game?

[TempestCatto]

Developing a AAA game like those I could see major changes drastically affecting performance. Whether good or bad idk, but I feel like it's impossible to accurately predict system requirements of an otherwise unfinished game. If 4 months before release they revealed system requirements, you went and saved then bought those parts, then 2 weeks before launch they come out and say you now need an even beefier system, you'd be rather annoyed (to put it lightly). I don't think what you're asking for is so possible with the way development and games in general work these days.

[iSynthMan]

15 hours ago, TempestCatto said:

Developing a AAA game like those I could see major changes drastically affecting performance. Whether good or bad idk, but I feel like it's impossible to accurately predict system requirements of an otherwise unfinished game. If 4 months before release they revealed system requirements, you went and saved then bought those parts, then 2 weeks before launch they come out and say you now need an even beefier system, you'd be rather annoyed (to put it lightly). I don't think what you're asking for is so possible with the way development and games in general work these days.

Don't they need to finish the game a good while before release anyway so the discs for consoles can get pressed?

 

I'm sure having the specs come out a month before release can't be that hard?

[Monkey Dust]

2 hours ago, iSynthMan said:

Don't they need to finish the game a good while before release anyway so the discs for consoles can get pressed?

 

I'm sure having the specs come out a month before release can't be that hard?

I think for the consoles, they rely on giant day one patches.  Games seem to release so unfinished these days, we can only imagine what state they are in 4 weeks ahead.

[Mark Kaine]

I don't really see why sys requirements should be "released" before the game is out.

 

you said your reasons but outside of consumerism i don't really see them as valid tbh.

 

 

tldr: you could just wait until the game is actually out lol

 

ps: also requirements could easily change after the fact (and they often do) even more reason to wait

[iSynthMan]

Well Alan wake 2 specs are out now

 

Yikes…

[QuantumSingularity]

It's called crunching. Devs try to squeez tighter and tighter times for releasing a game and there is no time for actual testing and optimization. That's why more and more games come out with terrible performance and get better with patches. Some companies straight ditched testers and use the audience as their testers. When you agree to send statistics to the dev, you are basically beta testing their product for them. That's the market we've built with digital distribution.

[Sharkyx1]

On 10/18/2023 at 8:39 PM, iSynthMan said:

How are we expected to pre-order a game if we don't know if our PCs can run it and what sort of performance to expect...and have time to maybe plan an upgrade if we really want to play the game?

Why are you pre ordering digital software under any circumstances