Bugs and performance issues be damned.
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

A new report from USGamer says that Respawn Entertainment made the decision to rush the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in order to meet the holiday 2019 release window. This came at the risk of shipping a game that had a fair number of bugs and performance issues that, given more development time, may have never been seen by the public. At release, most reviews were overall positive about the game but nearly all of them noted a not insignificant number of bugs that were encountered.

These bugs included everything from texture streaming issues, pop-in, glitched enemies, and a fair number of framerate hitches and sub-par performance. Some bugs even resulted in players having to completely start the game over. That's not to say that these were the only issues the game had, but they were the most prevalent technical issues that users experienced, especially those playing on the console versions of the game. The game also suffered from some general gameplay shortcomings and pacing issues, but those aren't really the point we're talking about right now.

Even with the slew of bugs and issues, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order still managed to be a success. It was Respawn's best-selling title ever, which is actually a little disappointing to hear given how incredible Titanfall 2 is, but I digress.

Respawn's Vince Zampella said that the decision to get the game out the door was not one that he and his team made lightly.

"Yeah, it was a conversation that we had and we decided that we wanted the game out there, we wanted to get it, you know, being out for the holiday," says Zampella. "It's a game that really fits that timeframe."
As USGamer notes, the 2019 holiday season was a huge one for Star Wars. First, Disney launched their Disney+ content streaming service. This Netflix-like service included the Star Wars films. Disney+ also launched alongside a new weekly series, The Mandalorian. If you have seen anything about a Baby Yoda kicking around online, you have seen at least part of The Mandalorian. A short time later, Disney launched the ninth and (maybe) final film in the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Sandwiched neatly between the launch of Disney+ with The Mandalorian and The Rise of Skywalker was Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

A release date delay would mean missing out on that near perfect release window. In the end, no delay was made and the game still sold exceptionally well, flaws and all. At this point, multiple updates have been made to the game that theoretically addressed many of those issues that were never addressed prior to release. If you haven't yet picked the game up and still want to, it seems as though it's on sale at most digital storefronts as of February 21, 2020. Steam has it at 25% off, as does Origin, the PlayStation Store, and the Microsoft Store. Apparently it's still full price on the Epic Games Store (affiliate link), which I kind of find oddly amusing.