Editorial: Game Updates on Consoles – Developers, Please Tell Me What You’re Doing to My Game!!

One of the best aspects of this current console generation (…bar Nintendo) is the benefit that a constant Internet connection can offer the gamer. While online gameplay may be locked behind a pay-gate on the Xbox 360, the Xbox Live service, alongside the PSN has allowed for great advances in a wide variety of ways. PC gamers have long experienced these benefits well before the Xbox 360 and PS3 were even a twinkle in their CEO’s eyes, and initially paved the way for the wider mainstream audience. Be it updates, downloadable games, mods, and unique online experiences, this connected generation of consoles opens up the possibilities to a huge degree.

Updates allow developers to tweak, edit, and update areas which can cause huge impacts to the gameplay flow both in single player and online environments. There’s of course the argument to be made in regards to a developer releasing an unfinished game, to then patch on day one or at a later stage, but for the most part updates are positive and improve the original experience. Tying in with this is the thought that the Internet infrastructure and speed just isn’t there in all locations, but these will naturally improve as time goes on.

PC gamers will be familiar with ‘Patch Notes’, a document that generally arrives alongside the update, giving details on what exactly has been changed and updated. There’s no reason for a developer to hide this information, and it’s better that the gamer knows what’s changed, as these updates can often have a huge impact on the gameplay experience. Console gamers however aren’t usually as lucky, as it’s often left up to the developer to choose whether to include details or not, an aspect which I find aggravating.

While there isn’t a consistent approach to how these notes should be delivered on any console, a number of developers do communicate directly to their fans in an attempt to be open, honest, and upfront about what’s changing. DICE and Bethesda are the best in this regard, providing hugely detailed notes, and especially in Battlefield 3’s case a single minute change to the weapon damage or recoil can have huge impacts in the online play space, especially if you’ve got a weapon of choice which you’ve spent hours levelling and upgrading. These updates unfortunately can’t please everyone, although developers claim as much as possible to take all feedback into consideration.

Arguably not everyone will care what changes are made, with many casual gamers just playing it for fun, and will accustom to whatever changes may have been made in a direct capacity or subconsciously, but for the hardcore players, they’ll want to know exactly every details which has been modified. On the other hand you have Bethesda, dealing directly with a single player title. In a game on the scale of Skyrim in which players have spent tens if not hundreds of hours exploring, a single change or modification can have huge repercussions. For this reason, I’ve yet to actually start playing the game, as even just earlier this month, mounted combat arrived for the title, alongside a mountain of other tweaks. A significant change such as this can change the core experience, meaning that you don’t need to get off your horse to dispatch the lesser foes. The Kinect update also added a number of useful (and not so useful) voice commands, though again, arrived well after the initial release of the title.

Updates have to go through a comprehensive approval and certification process at both Microsoft and Sony, so there’s often a huge lead up, or even large amounts of anticipation for an update, while of course PC gamers can usually download patches directly from the developer, quickly and simply.

If we look towards a different format of gaming completely, we can see exactly how updates should be both delivered and detailed. The iOS AppStore and Android Marketplace (now Google Play) update systems are near flawless. Providing a little notification from within the AppStore (or often the App itself), you can get a detailed breakdown on all the changes, modifications and updates to the game that the developer is making. There are of course times when it just says ‘bug fixes’, but more often than not, you’re greeted to a large list of exactly what has been done. You can download the updates in bulk, or individually, in a seamless and quick manner. Consoles on the other hand require you to actually stick the disc in the drive, before prompting you with a potentially huge update. While the PlayStation Plus service has worked to alleviate this for the paying customers, it’s not an enjoyable experience when I had well over 1gb of updates to download before getting into LittleBigPlanet. Consoles going forward need a unified update system, allowing you to download patches in the background before you actually want to play the title again, providing a hassle free and painless process.

The PlayStation Vita has worked towards this also, providing a small little symbol and patch details on the LivePage for the game. If we look towards the 3DS, and even the Wii, the interface for updates is inconsistent and time consuming, especially in regards to the Skyward Sword glitch, where a special channel had to be downloaded to modify the save file, or in a worst case scenario, off your console goes to Nintendo.

In future generations the update process needs to be streamlined, allowing developers to get updates and patches out to gamers as soon as possible. The PC scene is used to this, and the method in which they are delivered needs to be improved for the console audience. A large flaw in a game, such as a save file bug, or the huge technical issues which have previously plagued the PS3 version of Skyrim need to be fixed as quickly as can be. While the Skyrim issue in-particular took a little while to come to light, the patch itself would have benefited from a more streamlined process. Alongside a faster process, update notes are integral to maintaining a positive relationship between the developers and the gamers, as a single change can have serious repercussions for long time players.

The current generation of consoles know exactly what we’re playing, when we’ve played it and for how long, so a unified system can’t be too far off where updates will be queued up, and notifications provided to the gamer on exactly how big the file is, patch notes, and the ability to download them in the background. The next generation of systems will have even more hooks into the network infrastructure, so it’s hardly much to ask. Developers, let us know what you’re doing to our games, if you’ve made a goof, be honest, as it could allow for a gamer to return to the game after an initially negative experience.