Should devs tell people about launch bugs in advance? “It’s an interesting problem” says Starfield and Skyrim designer
How do official Bethesda bug compilation videos coinciding with a game's launch sound? Or at least, a proper list of known bugs on day one, to preempt any compilations created by vengeful players? Skyrim Lead Designer and Starfield Systems Designer Bruce Nesmith has spoken a little about the “interesting problem” of how open developers should be about technical issues on day one, given the expectation some players have that every game should be "flawless".
When asked by Videogamer if lists of known bugs (Nesmith throws out ‘700’ as an example for Skyrim) should be shared with fans on launch "to temper expectations," he responded:
It’s an interesting problem, because when you’re in marketing, what you’re looking to do is manage expectations. The players expectations are that the game is flawless, that it has no bugs. That is their expectation. You don’t have to like it, but it’s there. And you aren’t going to achieve it. So what marketing has to do is say, how can we get as close as possible to that expectation. How can we make it so these guys don’t hate us for what’s wrong and love us for what’s right?
"When a developer releases a game, they know all the things that are broken with it, these aren’t mysteries,” he continued. “I mean, every now and then you get a bug that’s like, ‘Holy s**t, I didn’t know that was going to happen’, but for the most part, you know it."
“To have a bug free release is impossible. There is no game on the market that is bug free,” he continued, citing the amount of elements interacting with each other in their open worlds. To editorialise for a sec - this is a common issue with RPGs of a certain scope, and one that developers like Larian and Owlcat have remedied by launching their ambitious projects in some flavour of early access. It’s interesting how this reframes a playerbase’s relationship to both bugs and the developer as collaborative and exploratory, rather than antagonistic.
Bethesda have run early betas and other, more controlled
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