Want to know the worst thing about the PlayStation 3? You'd put in a disc, and then proceed to twiddle your thumbs while you waited for it to install. Fortunately, the PlayStation 4 solves many of these issues, but it's introduced a new one in its place: the dreaded day one patch. These are getting bigger and bigger as time goes by, with Evolve requiring a 3GB download most recently. Thankfully, according to SCEE boss Jim Ryan, the platform holder's tightening up.
"I think that patching has a reasonable role to play, when it's used to address bugs that are found at the last minute, right?" he said as part of an interview with Metro. "But as a surrogate, or a safety net, for a proper QA process, I agree that things are maybe swinging too far in that direction. And certainly, as regards to our own games, we're going to tighten up."
This doesn't mean that the organisation's going to ditch day one patches in their entirety, but clearly it recognises that it's unreasonable to saddle people with piles of data at launch. This is positive news, and we hope that other publishers follow suit; we're fine with a few hundred megabytes at release, but when they become gigabytes – well, that's a bit of a strain for the average Internet connection, isn't it?
[source metro.co.uk]
Comments 17
at least you still have the option to play the game offline while the patch downloads (no good for online games I know)
but how about this option, put updates on the PlayStation store about a week before the game is released (they should be ready by then right?) and let us download it before we get the game then we can just put in the disc and play because we know what games we are getting so it's not like we will download the wrong update
"You'd put in a disc, and then proceed to twiddle your thumbs while you waited for it to install."
Actually I find th emost annoyign thing i swhen you DL a game, or maybe a 2 year old demo, and then you have to DL an update immediately before playing. If a game or demo has been on the store for 2 years why can't they update the original? THAT makes absolutely no sense to me. Discs I can understand, they have to go gold and get to the retail stores, and in the meantime Sony has probably had a firmware update so the games need a day 1 patch just to function, but a DL should NEVER need to be updated, it should be patched on the server BEFORE it is DL.
@rjejr Yeah, I agree - that's even worse!
When you buy a game there should not be the need for a day one patch at all, the game should be in full working order considering we pay full RRP: £54.99/£49.99. Use outside QA Teams like they should be doing instead of using just in-house QA, & if need be delay your game.
@rjejr hear, hear !
@rjejr Agreed so much, I hate starting a game I'm excited for, starting it up, and seeing "patch ready to download." Like, what the freak, why didn't that download with everything else?!
@Jaz007 - I used to be like that, but finally after a couple of years of it always happening I finally realized it ALWAYS happens. Seems like anything you DL needs to DL a patch before its first playthru, and after all these years it seems like something they should have been able to fix.
The quote could either mean the games themselves will be releasing more complete without the need to patch on release, or that they'll change the way patches are rolled out.
I dont see how they can change it, considering most of the data is there to fix something that would otherwise mess up your play through.
So we are talking about holding back a release 1-2 months to get all patches ready for the final games?? I think the focus should be on broken games not having a patch ready to fix problems. Not the games the are really ready with out any glitches and have a patch.
What games really need is 15 pieces of flare, maybe 37.
@get2sammyb
You know what the worst thing about the PS4? You put in the disc & proceed to play a mediocre, disappointing game unless it's a remaster of ........wait for it........a PS3 game.
@BertoFlyingFox I think he's just saying they're going to make sure they don't release a game with a massive day one patch. The Order: 1886 had a day one patch - it was 31MB. That's reasonable in my opinion.
@get2sammyb
Oh, I didn't know RaD handled the day1 patch like that. Good on them, I hope Bloodborne does the same.
@Bad-MuthaAdebisi not sure if 37 is going to be enough. That's ok though, we can ship with 37 and fix it with a day one patch.
@Godsire- why do you keep hanging around a PlayStation specific news site? Its obvious that you are not a fan, we get it already. Me on the other hand, the worst thing about loading up my PS4 is figuring out which of the many games I have that I want to play.
@thedevilsjester
Just because I call it like I see it, doesn't mean I didn't enjoy my PS1, 2, & 3. I even enjoy my PSTV, even though Sony is doing nothing to support it.
If you don't like my opinions, I don't care. Don't read them.
I remember attempting to play littlebigplanet on ps3 after it had been out for quite a while, my god the updates, there was so many and it took so long. Moving over from xbox 360 to ps3 I really noticed updates and downloads seemed to take forever on ps3 compared to 360. The updates really don't bother me on ps4 and I would say it's quicker to install games and updates on ps4 than it is on xbox one
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