When did we accept that games ship unfinished?
Y'know there was a time when buying a game meant you were getting the entire experience on day one...not a "roadmap", not a promise, not a “give it a few patches.” You just popped the disc in, hit start, and that was the game.
In this episode of the Average Joe Nerdcast, Nate dives deep into when games stopped feeling finished and how day-one patches, live-service models, early access, and post-launch “fix it later” culture quietly rewrote the contract between players and publishers.
We break down:
When day-one patches went from embarrassing to expected
How players slowly became unpaid QA testers
Why “it’ll be good eventually” became gamer copium
The difference between buggy games and unfinished games
How redemption arcs changed accountability
Why live-service games are often designed to never be complete
Using real-world examples like Cyberpunk 2077, No Man’s Sky, Battlefield 2042, and Fallout 76, this episode explores how modern gaming shifted from finished products to ongoing processes and what that’s cost players in trust, confidence, and excitement.
It’s a reflective, honest conversation about modern gaming, consumer expectations, and why launch day doesn’t mean what it used to.
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