Release dates wouldn't be an issue for me, if most games worked when they were first released. The amounts of issues when games are first released is appalling, not always but the bigger titles always seem to have issues. I'd rather a company came out and said, it's not ready yet, we'll only release it when it's ready. I know "when it's ready" could mean all sorts of things but i don't believe that we should suffer for a few months just because someones decided to set a release date.
Obviously there are some games where even a release date doesn't matter and it was just going to be a crap game anyway.
I completely agree about pre sales, people got hooked on cod as being the greatest thing ever and when you're pre ordering cod Advanced Warfare, you got know there's issues. I honestly think that a lot of people pre order in hope that the game will be decent, "if i pre order, it's gota be good." Then people almost force themselves to like it, by constantly playing a game they're not enjoying. If people stopped pre ordering and just said no, we want to see how the game plays before we spend money on it, then i think it would change things. I see that as a completely understandable thing to do but the gaming community would never do that......would they?
I also agree that if people can't work to a date, then they should be fired. The problem that i see with games are the amount of companies that will work on a game, there'll be companies that you won't even hear about that will have worked on it, like outsourcing the work. This is where i feel the main issues lie but then when you're working to a date and slipping behind, you have to outsource. Too many cooks who aren't working to the same recipe.
We've also seen the opposite, what happens if people go it alone.....No Mans Lie is what you get. I know that was a group of about 7 people and i think a lot of people liked their ideas and wanted to play that game. What they should of done is said sorry but it's not ready yet instead of twisting things and making things up and basically releasing a game that wasn't even a game.
I have to post this video because it's one of my favourite of all time.
Sorry going slightly off topic on this thread.