Recently I came across a second hand PC copy of Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup in a charity shop. The game had formed an integral part of my childhood, so I spent three euro for old times’ sake. What struck me when I loaded it that evening was how it just… functioned. It took less than a minute to install. There was no hefty, day-one patch to download. There was no online multiplayer to try and set up through a frequently crashing server. There were no visible glitches or bugs to speak of. There was no lag. The game worked perfectly. How many releases on new generation consoles can say the same? Granted, games have advanced a long way since the days when we looked at a shifting mass of blocks and saw a crowded stadium, but the gaming production process seems not to have advanced with it. It used to be that you would take the game home after it was released and play it. End of story. These days several new steps have been slotted in. Let’s go through them.

The first one I will call ‘the purchasing phase’.  This is when we see adverts up in most game stores, both online and offline, guaranteeing the game on its release date in exchange for paying an extra fiver, usually with some non-descript in-game extra thrown in. Where’s the incentive to do that? Often, getting the game on the first day is a redundant exercise. At least some of the features tend not to work due to various problems, like the frequent server crashes that plagued the release of GTA V in 2013. In some cases, the game itself may not work – look no further than Ubisoft’s interactive heartache, Assassin’s Creed Unity or the still infamous PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. Assuming you do go to the effort, and the thing actually starts, you’re sure to be interrupted a few hours in, probably right after you killed that unkillable boss but before your progress has saved, to inform you the game needs an update. These “day-one patches” range from less than 100 Megabytes to the whopping 9.6 Gigabytes of Halo 5’s patch last year. Generally about a fifth of the size of the game, the day-one patch serves to clear up all the wonky stuff that was “missed” in development. It is questionable why games companies are able to rush to meet such stringent deadlines but can’t afford to deal with this stuff while it’s, y’know, being developed.

I call the second phase ‘the disappointment phase’. This is when that great looking season pass with all the awesome downloadable content starts being advertised, and you realise you haven’t gotten anything nearly resembling the entire game for the purchase price. Take Arkham Knight, which was marketed at €60 in most games stores and online. Its season pass cost an additional €40. €100 is a lot to pay for a game. Especially when you discover – AFTER buying the pass – that it largely consists of additional suits, Batmobile racetracks and bits that supposedly add to the story but only last about thirty minutes each. Fallout 4’s season pass, originally marketed for €30 but then increased to €50 (for no stated reason), featured two moderately expansive story additions and a bunch of new options for the already ridiculously daunting crafting system. It was a far cry from the expansion packs for Bethesda’s last generation games, all of which added at least 20 hours of new gameplay. Then, of course, we have more pesky updates that don’t seem to add much of anything but are mandatory (my personal favourite in this regard was the defunct camera mode addition for Arkham Knight that took up 5 GB). We have the microtransactions that have plagued Destiny since its release and are steadily getting worse. The game functions as a node in a messy online network of consoles, PCs and apps, which work properly… occasionally. With bad review after bad review hurled at season pass content, there’s no sign of these valid criticisms being taken onboard.

And for what? Sure, new generation games look stunning but this isn’t an effect that lasts forever. Unity’s Paris would be among the most beautiful locations ever captured in a videogame but once we get past the gorgeous visuals and technically abhorrent first few months post-release, we find a game that is distinctly average. A beautifully rendered depiction of the City of Light simply couldn’t mask the fact that it wasn’t all that fun to play around in. Ironically, Assassin’s Creed Rogue (released alongside Unity for last generation) had no PC release, little pre-release publicity, no season pass and no particular attention. And it was arguably one of the most entertaining games released in 2014, with no significant bugs or technical issues to boot. Similarly, Arkham Knight looks fantastic visually and is by no means a bad game, but for all that it doesn’t nearly live up to the tour de force that was Arkham City.

The real issue is that there seems to be no widespread consensus among the gaming community that anything is wrong. People buy games every year which have the same problems and say nothing about it. With no sign of a boycott risk or any sort of widespread discontent, game companies have no motivation to improve their standards. I say different. I say we, as consumers, deserve more than half-finished products being put on the market. We should know what we’re getting. When we pay full price for what we think is a full game, it’s unfair for a third of the content to come out in subsequent DLCs. Above all else, the game should work. Games should not need a yearly deadline to make the Christmas rush. If we wait an extra few months and get a better game and a better release, I would consider it a fair trade off.

There are a few signs that things may be looking up. Last year’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate was the best in the series in years. It featured a great story, two deeply sympathetic protagonists, enjoyable missions, a beautiful city to play around in and a remarkably small day-one patch – we could be describing one of the original Assassin’s Creed games. The recently released No Man’s Sky, while a sort of disturbing crossover between Destiny and  a Magic School Bus point-and-click from the 90s, has managed to avoid the catastrophic server crashes and hideous microtransactions that typically ruin otherwise excellent MMOs. Project CD Rekt released the final DLC for their masterpiece, The Witcher 3, in May. It lasted 25 hours and could be a stand alone game. If other companies were to follow their lead, we could return to a culture of gaming that is as relaxing, simple and as fun as loading up Quidditch World Cup for some childhood nostalgia. I hope they do. It’s not too late.