Tim recently asked DICE executive producer Patrick Bach if the Battlefield 3 PC patch was being delivered in one big lump because of console manufacturer’s requirements.
“Yes,” said Bach.
Isn’t that a frustrating way to deliver a patch?
“Yes, that is correct,” he admitted, adding “there are benefits to it, because you get proper testing. There’s a lot of process that is there to guarantee a great gameplay experience.”
“We have had problems with patching in things like Battlefield 2 where you had to patch the patch because the patch screwed it up and then you have to apply a patch to the patch to the patch. And that’s, from a player perspective, that’s not a great experience – “Oh is this the 6.8 patch or the 6.9? Because the 6.8 broke the game and now you need to unbreak it!” So getting focus and testing and all those things is actually a positive.”
“It’s very frustrating when it comes to… you have the fix, it’s done but you can’t roll it out. But again, it’s not unique to us – everyone lives in this reality,” Bach continued.
“Our problem with support is we have a very big and complex game, so if something needs to be fixed, we need to be sure that it doesn’t break something at the other end and again, like I said, we don’t want to do emergency fixes to compensate for a problem in a specific area.”
“Yes,” said Bach.
Isn’t that a frustrating way to deliver a patch?
“Yes, that is correct,” he admitted, adding “there are benefits to it, because you get proper testing. There’s a lot of process that is there to guarantee a great gameplay experience.”
“We have had problems with patching in things like Battlefield 2 where you had to patch the patch because the patch screwed it up and then you have to apply a patch to the patch to the patch. And that’s, from a player perspective, that’s not a great experience – “Oh is this the 6.8 patch or the 6.9? Because the 6.8 broke the game and now you need to unbreak it!” So getting focus and testing and all those things is actually a positive.”
“It’s very frustrating when it comes to… you have the fix, it’s done but you can’t roll it out. But again, it’s not unique to us – everyone lives in this reality,” Bach continued.
“Our problem with support is we have a very big and complex game, so if something needs to be fixed, we need to be sure that it doesn’t break something at the other end and again, like I said, we don’t want to do emergency fixes to compensate for a problem in a specific area.”
So, what exactly is the reason for the PlayStation 3 getting the patch before the PC and Xbox 360 gamers then? Assuming what was said rings true and DICE wanted to ensure that everyone was on the same page with a patch, why then does one group get a patch before others? Is it to see if there are issues for the other groups? Maybe there's an exclusivity thing that just isn't being talked about?
No sir, the console certification excuse just doesn't fly when it comes to the reason why the PC player base has to wait for the patch.
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