I've played all of those games. None of them are that great barring Infamous.

Okay, so I'd say KZ is "good", but DriveClub is a great, fun, beautifully rendered, addictive, competitive online racer.

Havnt played driveclub but shadowfall and infamous are decent games, I definitely wouldn't call them great or amazing. They're not even the best of the franchise.

His point is none of those games suffered downgrades. They all improved visually up until release.

I tend to agree. Ive played those games and Infamous was repetitive and got boring. Driveclub whilst visually very nice it lacked content and KZ was just flat out boring. just my opinion on these games if people have different opinions that's cool

The Witcher III is a phenomenal title.

However downgrades are not inevitable when you practice honesty from the first reveal. Rendering so called gameplay on systems beyond the specs of 99% of the gamers and/or the inability to properly prototype your game leads to downgrades. It is one or the other. Or both.

The trend lately is undeniable. Intentional deception, and sometimes the development teams are ordered to do this by those holding the purse strings, designed to generate pre-orders. Or else it is ineptitude on the part of developers incapable of setting realistic goals. From the numbers of instances we have seen lately I believe it to be the latter more often than not.

As I have stated in the past the publishers are quite obviously aware that unrealistic reveals generate preorders and the backlash from downgrades leads to a very minimal and acceptable number of cancelations. In short they do it because it is profitable and the majority of fans will let them get away with it.

Either way acting as if fans just need to live with it is scapegoating and a transparent attempt to place the responsibility other than where it belongs. For someone in the development/publishing chain to make that statement is dishonest. It doesn't matter that you love the game or that it turned out great. Lying is lying no matter the source or their record of achievement.

Anyone that doesn't think a game can move up continually rather than down should catch up on the Hellblade development video series.

The downgrade issue has nothing to do with how fun a game is. It's graphics only. I stand by an earlier statement of mine in which I said that most games become downgraded in one sense or another simply because of trying to fit it into a specified package size.

I can't lie, I laughed at Chuk5.Thats a solid argument.. about as solid as water soaked toilet paper.

@morganfell
A wip doesn't always mean the final product will look better.It has nothing to do with being honest, its the nature of the beast.I understand you completely.But you have very little knowledge on game development.. compared to game developers.So being mad over hypothetical situations you came up with as to why something isn't done the way you think it should be done is stupid to be frank.I will never understand why people work themselves up on stuff like that.If theres anything to be frustrated about, its the lack of an explanation from developers explaining these "downgrades".

edit
I just read the article, and he said basically what I said lol.If you want closer to final product visuals in trailers and teasers then that means not announcing games until they are near complete, which I have no problem with, however, telling developers to guesstimate or use weaker hardware to get an more vaguely presentation of the final product is unrealistic and could be counter productive.
Putting myself in a game developers shoes, I would show the product off early.Because I would be so excited, and want to show off my work.But unfortunately there are cynical people that don't know how to be flexible, and think that bending even a little shows weakness, showing off games earlier will become less of a norm.

Just another case of not being able to please everyone I guess.

Dee, you know nothing of my experience or anyone else's for that matter. Making that sort of statement is little more than arrogance. You read something with which you did not agree and rather than attempt to use facts or logic, neither of which support your case, you instead make remarks about the person that posted rather than what they posted. Adolescent tactics at best and failing ones at that.

Where am I mad? If someone states something that doesn't worship a developer it doesn't make them mad, merely observant. It also means they may not have drank the kool aid Mr Jones.

I will never understand how people like you work themselves up because someone posts remarks concerning a game and its development process and in doing so paint a less than stellar picture of said game and process. I do not understand why you are so upset.

See what I did there? See how ridiculous your remarks sound when I was laughing and wringing out a bottle of 1800 when I made that post?

To paraphrase Harry Truman, "When I see an animal that looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I call that animal a duck."

Whe I see the same instance occurring time and again I make a logical deduction, not one composed of teenagfe wishes and fairy dust. In this case I made a either/or deduction of scxenarios that fit the facts. I look at matters as they are in the real world where greed and incompetence operate. The thing that is frustrated are the sheeple that stick their head in the sand and pretend these are mere accidents or part of the development process.

And as I said, watch Hellblade shown honestly and how the game can only get better and better.

Hmm maybe you couldn't tell, but I don't care about what you posted, but your reasoning for posting.I'm not about to get into a pissing match of hypothetical things developers should be doing, that's pointless.
So you are saying you know just as much about game development as a game developer?
Oh wow, you don't find that often here on N4G /s
Where are you mad? You're disgruntled that these developers don't do things the way you think they should.
Thats a very specific thing you think people work themselves up over.. seems like you just came up with that.
No I don't see what you did there, considering people on gaming sites guess what game developers do then get mad at those guesses quite often,soo no.. maybe that bit went over your head.

You make logical deductions based off your knowledge..Not actual facts.Thats my point.Get the facts, then get mad.Thats all i'm saying.
My logical deduction after seeing it happen time and time again is that it's a part of the development process.Who knows maybe I should be mad, I don't have the facts yet though.You call it sheep, I call it a different perspective.
Pessimist think they are realist.

Maybe you couldn't tell but you care. You have responded twice. That is caring. No matter what you say your actions define you otherwise. Go ahead and care again. I have time.

And too late. Instead of discussing matters with a degree of rationality, you decided to make this about people instead of issues. Everyone is mad mad mad, right? You did that and such an action is pissing.

I am saying you have no idea who here has been involved in developmental work. You do know what they say about assumption, right? I guess it is fitting this article relates to the Witcher as you believ yourself to be some sort of mage or diviner. Presumption is at best rife with pitfalls and that is the path upon which you have placed yourself.

It is also a bit mystifying why you think anyone critical of developer actions, particularly those intended to decieve the public, must be mad, angry, disgruntled and raving at the walls.

Your defense of the issue at hand, one that focuses on the character of those with whom you debate, rather than the issues is a failed one and laughable did it not fly in the face of the obvious. It is the last line of defense, throw intellect to the wind and call everyone mad.

My logical deductions are based off the facts. They are the fact of actions conducted repeatedly by develpers and publishers. You wish to ignore the piling evidence. That is a mistake. There is a reason the articles on this issue are accumulatiing at a geometric rate.

Ignoring the truth and its evidence is no way to approach the issue. We have the facts of conduct and we have a very easy solution employed by other development teams - show your prototyped game running on realistic hardware or in the case of console titles - running on the actual development kits or debug units. Simple. Plenty of developers do this but there are an increasing number that choose not to act likewise. Hence, downgradegate. Yet there are persons like yourself who believe whatever developers and publishers tell you. And of course it is a statement that dances away from the easy solution, leaves them unscathed and places the blame of misunderstanding upon every single consumer that calls such actions to light.

So by all means, keep pissing. I am happy to expend the the rest of my bubbles pointing out the fallacy of belief in the infallibility of developers, particularly when the facts are glaring. The Witcher III is a wonderful title, my favorite of the year. But that doesn't alter attention to the obvious.

.. You don't quite understand context do you? I specifically said I care, I never said a majority of the stuff you think I said, at least in the context you've placed it... you took literally everything I've said above and beyond its context, just to make some irrelevant point.
Try re-reading what I typed without the emotions involved.

Maybe you do not understand the context of what you posted. When you reply to what I posted then you care about what I posted. When your remarks are to the reasoning of what I said rather than why I said them then you care what I posted. And honestly that is the truth. Your last remarks fly in the face of everything you have written here. So please, continue to "not care". You have 5 more bubbles to not care at which time I will most wickedly close out this exchange.

The only person here that has become emotional is yourself. You are the one that has resorted to adolescent assessments instead of attempting to discuss the issues at hand. What an odd manner in which to view the world. Everyone is mad or angry by your deductions. Erred deductions but yours nonetheless. You remark on other's lack of temper yet your words reveal you to be the one that has chosen to operate outside the bounds of reason. Pot, meet kettle. As I have stated, injecting the personal into matters is the sure sign of one that cannot control their anger.

This is all machts nichts as it alters not one iota the facts of the matter nor the modus operandi of deceptive publishers willing to decieve the public at large in order to drive sales.

oh wow, so now I don't understand what I, myself typed..

"When your remarks are to the reasoning of what I said rather than why I said them then you care what I posted."

I care about why you posted it.. As I stated, not sure what the point of this is.

"So please, continue to "not care"."

...But I specifically said I care..As I stated, not sure what the point of this is.

"The only person here that has become emotional is yourself. You are the one that has resorted to adolescent assessments instead of attempting to discuss the issues at hand."

I don't want to discuss the issues at hand, because I don't believe there to be an issue. Adolescent assessments, because I said you don't know what goes on in developmental process.. which for some reason you think I do.. then you, yourself proceeded to say exactly that?

"Everyone is mad or angry by your deductions."
Do you know what synonyms are? Are you happy and satisfied with the process in which you think the game was developed? Clearly you are not.Therefore you are in some way of the term , angry.You put mad in the context of meaning raging, when in the context I used it, it simply meant not pleased.Because you are emotional.

" As I have stated, injecting the personal into matters is the sure sign of one that cannot control their anger. "

Well thats a very universal fact because the great morganfell said so right? Who the hell cares about context of the situation? /s

The whole point of my original comment was to say you don't know what happens during development and its stupid to get mad over your assumptions.But you made it into something completely different because you either don't understand context, or just felt like arguing on the internet.. Adolescent at best.