You can’t be more than about 10 years old if you think the “entire history of computer games” only launched feature complete games.
Motherfucker, RETAIL BOXED RELEASES IN THE 90’s would have shit added on after publishing. The only difference is that you didn’t get regular patches that added new features, you had to wait until the expansion pack came out. Online multiplayer games where you couldn’t play with anyone that had newer map or character packs. Shit that would be a minor update now used to come out as full price releases.
Hell, if a company released a “sequel” that had as little new content as Doom 2 did compared to Doom they’d be fucking crucified. “WTF, man, only like 30 levels and two new enemies? BUT MODDERS ALREADY MADE MORE LEVELS AND ENEMIES!??!?”
“Games only released feature complete!” - Someone that has literally never played Starcraft, Diablo, Unreal Tournament, Doom, SimCity, Duke Nukem 3D, or literally hundreds of other games I can’t be arsed to list.
It’s odd you used SimCity because the expansions are two skin addition bundles and updating the modding tool.
I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but “feature complete” isn’t the term. While “stuff was added” to boxed copies back in the 80s and 90s, it wasn’t to the degree you see today.
Also consider most boxed copies didn’t see updates. They didn’t until the early 2000s because most people didn’t have (reliable) internet access. Hell I played a different version of Counter Strike than a friend of mine for months because his internet was awful and his download kept failing.
SC2K was released DOS/MAC only. A later release “Special Edition” added a mod tool, a few scenarios, and the shocking ability to play it on Windows. There was a scenario expansion pack. There was also a completely separate commercial release with this thing called “networking.” Dunno what that is.
Three separate commercial releases, all of which had different features.
You are 100% wrong about boxed games not getting updates. They did, you just had to get lucky enough to buy the most recent release of the game. Imagine for a moment if EA released a game then did bug fixes but made you buy the game again if you wanted the fixes. Yeah, that shit was COMMON. Some companies would offer bug fixes on disk but most would just lawlgoturmoney. All the arrival of the internet did was make it so that patches could be delivered separate from a retail release without physical media.
“Feature complete” is literally the fucking term used by the person I responded to. Try reading.
You can’t be more than about 10 years old if you think the “entire history of computer games” only launched feature complete games.
Motherfucker, RETAIL BOXED RELEASES IN THE 90’s would have shit added on after publishing. The only difference is that you didn’t get regular patches that added new features, you had to wait until the expansion pack came out. Online multiplayer games where you couldn’t play with anyone that had newer map or character packs. Shit that would be a minor update now used to come out as full price releases.
Hell, if a company released a “sequel” that had as little new content as Doom 2 did compared to Doom they’d be fucking crucified. “WTF, man, only like 30 levels and two new enemies? BUT MODDERS ALREADY MADE MORE LEVELS AND ENEMIES!??!?”
“Games only released feature complete!” - Someone that has literally never played Starcraft, Diablo, Unreal Tournament, Doom, SimCity, Duke Nukem 3D, or literally hundreds of other games I can’t be arsed to list.
It’s odd you used SimCity because the expansions are two skin addition bundles and updating the modding tool.
I think I understand what you’re trying to say, but “feature complete” isn’t the term. While “stuff was added” to boxed copies back in the 80s and 90s, it wasn’t to the degree you see today.
Also consider most boxed copies didn’t see updates. They didn’t until the early 2000s because most people didn’t have (reliable) internet access. Hell I played a different version of Counter Strike than a friend of mine for months because his internet was awful and his download kept failing.
https://simcity.fandom.com/wiki/SimCity_2000#Versions
SC2K was released DOS/MAC only. A later release “Special Edition” added a mod tool, a few scenarios, and the shocking ability to play it on Windows. There was a scenario expansion pack. There was also a completely separate commercial release with this thing called “networking.” Dunno what that is.
Three separate commercial releases, all of which had different features.
You are 100% wrong about boxed games not getting updates. They did, you just had to get lucky enough to buy the most recent release of the game. Imagine for a moment if EA released a game then did bug fixes but made you buy the game again if you wanted the fixes. Yeah, that shit was COMMON. Some companies would offer bug fixes on disk but most would just lawlgoturmoney. All the arrival of the internet did was make it so that patches could be delivered separate from a retail release without physical media.
“Feature complete” is literally the fucking term used by the person I responded to. Try reading.