How do bad games make it to the market place?

[Flake]

So we've all been there: You wait for a game to come out. You pay your currency, you come home from whatever software giant controls gaming in your area, unwrap the plastic, pop the cartridge/disc/card/umd into your beloved console...

...and ten minutes later, you have something better to do than game.

Now this isn't new. We've all been there. How does this keep on happening? How is it that so many games make it to market without someone first picking up a controller, looking at a developer and asking 'what is this s#*t?'

[PhilExile]

Sales & Marketing departments

[Ziggy]

Ya know what I understand even less? When a game sucks and you play it anyway. Who here has done this? Don't be shy.

Even when you're thinking, "This game sucks," but you can't seem to stop playing it. It's almost as if your sub-conscience is saying, "No, I PAID for this game, I'm gonna PLAY it!"

Or... who has played a game that was just borderline alright but it got to the point where you realized it's actually a horrible game, but for some reason you force yourself to finish it. If you can just beat it, just that once, it will release your soul. After you beat it, you can throw it out the window on the highway.

[Beak]

Now, I base this on little to no real knowledge but: because the purpose of a game is to sell, not be good. Why do shitty movies keep getting made? Ultimately, because people keep paying for them. The idea is to turn a profit in the end.

That's why there are a thousand reiterations of the FPS. They're safe bets and will sell. Originality is a risk.

[newt42]

Ya know what I understand even less? When a game sucks and you play it anyway. Who here has done this? Don't be shy.

Even when you're thinking, "This game sucks," but you can't seem to stop playing it. It's almost as if your sub-conscience is saying, "No, I PAID for this game, I'm gonna PLAY it!"

Or... who has played a game that was just borderline alright but it got to the point where you realized it's actually a horrible game, but for some reason you force yourself to finish it. If you can just beat it, just that once, it will release your soul. After you beat it, you can throw it out the window on the highway.

Its that thought of, "No, I will not let the game beat me... but this is a complete piece of shit. I'm moving on with something else."

[Flake]

That's why there are a thousand reiterations of the FPS. They're safe bets and will sell. Originality is a risk.

Oh, I agree whole heartedly. But my gripe isn't even that unoriginal or uninteresting games keep filling the shelves. I don't understand how BAD, terrible, unplayable, never going to be remembered as anything other than crap or spoken well of publicly games keep getting made.

[WiseFool22]

Ya know what I understand even less? When a game sucks and you play it anyway. Who here has done this? Don't be shy.

Oh man, I did this all the time back in the gameboy days. I would make $3 an hour doing yard work to save up enough to buy a game that sucked. But the internet wasn't really available then and my parent's wouldn't let me subscribe to any gaming mags.

[Jrecee]

It's like The Producers. Someone has discovered that there's money to be made on low quality games, so they make them. It's simple as that.

The question is actually, how do good games make it to the market place?

[MrPopo]

The same way bad anything makes it to market; a concept comes down from on high and eventually ships before those who are making it have a chance to pull something together that doesn't blow.

[Weekend_Warrior]

Best answer: Money