Pete Hines, Bethesda's VP of PR and marketing, has asked for players to give the publisher time as it works on patching out problems with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Yesterday we reported that Bethesda had acknowledged texture scaling issues on the Xbox 360 version of the game. Since then, PS3 players have reported texture streaming problems and stuttering framerates, while those with the PC version are complaining of freezes of several seconds in outdoor areas. Hines, an active presence on Twitter, has borne the brunt of criticism from disgruntled players.
Over the course of several Tweets, he writes: "We are continuing to work on an update for all platforms to address issues. Patches/updates take a little time. We can't turn it around quite that fast. It's been three days. Calm down, we're working on it.
"We will fix as much as we can for your platform. I don't know if it will fix "your" bug. [It] takes a while to fix/test/regress. Hang in there."
Despite the issues, Skyrim is proving enormously popular. Steam stats show that the PC version has been played by over 230,000 people today, more than three times as many as its nearest competitor, Modern Warfare 3.
Source: Twitter
Comments
9Telling people who just spent $60 on buggy software that doesn't work how it is supposed to to "calm down." Does Bethesda need a community manager? If I ran Bethesda I would fucking fire his ass for going online and telling my fans to calm down.
Of course I would also ask my lawyers to stop humiliating my company in court.
The entertainment software industry has it pretty damn good. I can't think of any other product that you can just not bother finishing before selling and then make it impossible to return the product if a person isn't satisfied with the unfinished product.
One of the reasons I love Nintendo compared to other developers: they finish their games before releasing them.
I'm running everything maxed out (and I mean everything, not just clicking on ultra, but all sliders to the right) on a 2600k/8GB RAM/GTX 570 and haven't noticed any hard errors. I'm also running it on an SSD so all the load screens are laughably (mixed with a few tears of joy) quick.
Sure, I've seen a dog sitting on a fence, and a giant launch a bandit into planetary orbit, what looks like a hip bone hovering about fifty feet up in the air by the Honey Mead cottage outside Whiterun city proper, and a zombie doing the jiggy dance in a shallow pool of water...after I killed him...again...but that's to be expected.
I have to say that considering the past titles in the Elder Scrolls series, this game is pretty light on bugs--so far. I'm genuinely impressed...and relieved I can get my arse handed to me by exploring areas I know I shouldn't. That's what made Daggerfall so fun: danger.
What I find hilarious is that anyone should be surprised. I associate the name Bethesda with the words: bugs, glitches and laziness. That may seem unfair considering the time limits and restrictions imposed on them when making a massive, open game, however, those are still excuses for not releasing a completed piece of work, which in my mind is totally unacceptable. As such, I haven't bothered with their games since buying my first and only Bethesda glitch-fest, Fallout 3. As BabyWuigi pointed out, Nintendo do it right, so why can't everybody else?
Having to put up with a few dodgy textures would certainly be preferable to the crap I've been putting up with over the last few days. In fact, the only issues I've EVER had with my PS3 crashing during offline gameplay have been with Bethesda games. You can't help but get the feeling that the more you see the 'Your PS3 was not shut down properly' message on startup that it's not doing your hardware any favours.
Interestingly, Nintendo seem to ship a prefect game every time. I've had a wii now for as long as it's been available and have never had a single issue.
No one is denying the ambition of the titles Bethesda produces. They are tremendously exciting, but this is their 4th botched attempt on the same standard hardware. Rockstar seem to manage the same sort of game map streaming along with incidental dialog and 15 odd radio stations to choose from, no problem. Pull your socks up for Christ's sake.
In my opinion, buying a game at 9am on the day of release, putting it in the drive, and being redirected immediately to the store for an update is an absolute disgrace.
Take pity on the poor souls who have no Internet, for they are being shipped an inferior product from which they will never get the value they deserve. They will effectively never recieve the final product. I feel more for them than I do for myself. They are truly being ripped off.
I'm far too busy loving this game to complain about texture issues. I'm astounded by how much creativity and quality is here compared to other games.
The problem is the way the release schedule works. Publishers seem so desperate to get a game out before christmas that they'll release unfinished.
Some gamers need to ask themselves a question: would you rather get the game now and have it patched, or wait another year until the publishers are happy to release it again.
As far as I am concerned, I am not unhappy to buy an unfinished product as long as I am confident that at some point it will be finished. If the game is fundamentally broken, like Dead Island was, I get just as annoyed.
By the way, what is so wrong with telling fans to calm down?
I was (and am) really excited about this game, but after purchaing New Vegas on release day, I've wised up to buying Bethesda games at least 6 months later.
I have plenty of backlog anyway!
That's the price you pay when you drive the hype train. Skyrim is a single-player game. There really is no need to get it day one. In fact with so many games out, many of them multi-player heavy and therefore having more of a "get in on the ground floor day one" incentive, Skyrim should get less day one priority.
But they've made a massive marketing hype about it coming, picking 11/11/11 for effect, the constant pressure on consumers to NOT MISS OUT!!!!? All to boost day one sales.
And then there are issues and they tell their fevered fanbase to "calm down". Well Bethesda, it's your own fault for whipping them into a frenzy. Don't throw chum in the water and then complain the sharks are biting you.