How Many Patches Is Too Many?

It might seem like this article is aimed directly at Bethesda, but I’d really like to know your thoughts on the subject for all games. How many patches are too many?

That is, how many needed patches must we download before we just finally say “They released this game unfinished”? You could argue that if ANY patches are needed the game is unfinished, but when it comes to massive masterpieces like Skyrim you kind of have to give the developers a little leeway. (Though how they miss some of the obvious bugs I cannot guess.)

I’m actually starting to round out my playtime with Skyrim, I accomplished a lot but not with the story. You know how those big games are, you just get burnt out after so many hours, but as far as I can tell the game isn’t even completely fixed yet. I decided to revisit Fallout 3 and was shocked to see how many things were left undone or unfixed with that production. I’ve lost count on how many patches Skyrim has needed, at least three so far and it still gets choppy. What is wrong here? I’m about done with the game and the game isn’t even done! It’s a Game of the Year winner in many places, and it deserves that for the content, but many wondered if it would have scored so high everywhere had the publications spent enough time with it to find out it released essentially broken.

So what do you think? Do we allow developers their day 1 patch and then hold them responsible? Does the fact that we are soon to move to another generation signal that these patch after patch after patch days are coming to an end or will it only get worse? Whatever happens I think I’ve learned my lesson; certain games should not be purchased upon release no matter how excited you are. The worst part of it all is, like with Fallout 3, they never finish fixing the bugs.