The problem with GAMES in 2021 is that the vast majority of companies have shifted what used to be the majority of their beta-dev phase from before launch to after launch to the tune of huge profits and reduced development time. The first year after a game’s release is now the beta, early-adopters that are ignorant enough to pay full price for unfinished games are the beta testers, and these companies laugh all the way to the bank.
To top it off, game “journalists” triple dip with articles before release about how hyped they are, around release about how terrible the games are (or controversy-stoking articles about why everyone’s wrong and the game is actually good), and then a year after release when everything’s fixed they’ll wax poetic about how the game is suddenly great and everyone that missed it should now play it. The whole system sucks out loud.
