Things are crazy with some games, and even systems, these days. You get a title, expect it to work, but that doesn’t happen. Instead, you need patch after patch, firmware update after update, in the hopes that what you paid good money for is ready to go immediately. Most companies do their best to have a reliable product out, but some big kerfuffles lately should leave us wondering what’s going on in quality assurance departments. Why? Because huge mistakes are slipping through.
One of the largest current issues has to do with WWE 2K16 . That’s 2K Games’ most recent wrestling title. After the problems with WWE 2K15 regarding too little content, online issues, and DLC not working properly, you’d think the company would go above and beyond for this year’s entry. Then, the Future Stars DLC ruined the My Universe save file of anyone with a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One that downloaded it. This was paid DLC, by the way, which is still for sale in its applicable stores.
2K knows there’s a problem, a fix is incoming, but people who didn’t hear the warnings could still download the game-breaking DLC . That’s messed up on so many levels, and should have been caught by QA.
Sony is the other recent offender. Do you have a Vita? Did you download firmware update 3.57? Congratulations, you were a victim of poor QA testing! People who grabbed this firmware update have found the battery decreasing much faster than usual, developed a problem that keeps them from accessing the PlayStation Store, and might not even be able to play digital versions of games they’ve downloaded. This is an actual system, something that should always be at peak performance, and Sony crippled it in one brief download. The Vita has enough trouble already without its own company directly killing off units!
Finally, there’s Mortal Kombat X . This one’s heartbreaking. If you have a Windows PC version of this game, you already had to go through so much. It was broken at launch and took weeks to get it working right. You finally thought you were in a place where it could be almost equal to the console iterations. Except it’s not, and will never be now, due to all future DLC skipping the platform. All because initial QA testing during the development phase didn’t turn up the entry’s multiple problems, and now Warner Bros. has apparently decided there’s no point in assigning competent teams to keep the game updated.
The old saying goes, “quality over quantity.” Sadly, it’s apparently being forgotten in the video game industry. Games are churned out yearly, add-ons are rushed, and firmware updates pushed before QA is able to properly test and make sure they’re ready for the general public. Companies need to slow down and take an extra week or two to get things right. We’d all rather experience a brief delay than pick up broken products.