Sony Delays 'Uncharted 4' To May 10 To Provide 'Extra Manufacturing Time'

[heirdeux]

In order to give the manufacturer additional time to create more copies of "Uncharted 4: A Thief's End," Sony delayed the game by two weeks. The new release date is May 10.

Sony Delays 'Uncharted 4' To May 10 To Provide 'Extra Manufacturing Time' : Read more

 

[dstarr3]

I just picked up the Jak and Daxter collection the other day. At this rate, I should be through Naughty Dog's catalog and caught up to this game by 2030, no problem!

 

[CraigN]

Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

 

[photonboy]

Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.

 

[dstarr3]

Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.

Generally, I agree with you and am the first person to make the same point. However, the article says, "Even with the two-week delay, the development team at Naughty Dog is sticking to its original schedule." So, the game itself isn't going to be worked on during that delay. It seems to be entirely to produce adequate quantities physical copies to fulfill preorders.

 

[CraigN]

Sooo..Why can't they just release *digital* copies and what manufactured ones they have on the original release date? I mean, seriously.

Isn't that obvious? It's to fix quality issues. You may be okay with an inferior product, but any major issues will end up significantly affecting sales.

The biggest gaming complaint is about games being prematurely released.

Generally, I agree with you and am the first person to make the same point. However, the article says, "Even with the two-week delay, the development team at Naughty Dog is sticking to its original schedule." So, the game itself isn't going to be worked on during that delay. It seems to be entirely to produce adequate quantities physical copies to fulfill preorders.

^ This.

I am all for games taking a delay when there is actually something being worked on.

Game data being burned to Blu-Rays, packaged and shipped, is not part of the "development" process. It has no impact on "quality" issues. The fact that the date when the game goes "Gold" (when development on the title stops, and assets are frozen so they CAN be put to disks) hasn't changed schedules means to me that there's no reason for this outside of a manufacturing delay, which means there's no reason the game couldn't go live digitally on its original release date.

 

[FITCamaro]

The dev team will certainly still be working on the game after it goes Gold to fix remaining bugs and anything else that can be patched in. They will merely cut their release build when it goes gold. None of you must be software developers.

And it won't be released on digital first because they don't do that.

 

[CraigN]

The dev team will certainly still be working on the game after it goes Gold to fix remaining bugs and anything else that can be patched in. They will merely cut their release build when it goes gold. None of you must be software developers.

And it won't be released on digital first because they don't do that.

Don't make sweeping statements about other people without knowing their educational/career background. Just makes you look like a jerk and doesn't actually contribute to the discussion. I do actually have a background in software, and am fairly familiar with how the usual process works.

"They don't do that" =/= "They can't do that." There's nothing stopping any developer from making that leap from a technical standpoint, just a financial one. If it were truly just a manufacturing delay, there's no reason they couldn't just release the disk copies they have printed presently as well as the digital release. If there's something preventing them from having ANY physical copies available on release day, then I can certainly see the appeal of waiting.

Obviously, yes, that time can be used to spend longer on a day one patch. But if their production schedule hasn't shifted, then that leads me to believe that in the grand scheme of things, that either isn't a huge concern, or, like how most other software devs operate, that's already being worked on in tandem with the team pushing towards the "gold" date.