May 2nd, 2023, Rishad Dsouza
One of the hot topics within the gaming community today is with respect to undercooked video game releases. Several major titles have come under criticism for launching with glitches, bugs, missing visuals, and other issues.
A lot of these issues can be fixed over time, and devs often release patches and updates to iron out their titles – think Cyberpunk 2077, which has gotten significantly more polished over time after having been released to widespread criticism for its glitchy gameplay.
Data from a recently conducted YouGov poll reveals that three-fifths of American gamers would rather wait for these types of issues to be fixed before playing a title that they are otherwise excited for (58%). Even so, nearly a third of them say they would play the title as soon as possible, willing to overlook potential quality issues (31%). Gamers in this article refer to those who play video games on either a PC or console for at least an hour each week.
Like in Britain, heavy gamers – those who play for more than seven hours weekly – are more eager to play new titles even at the expense of a glitchy experience. More than a third of them say they would play a title as soon as possible (36%), compared to only 25% of those who play video games for between one and seven hours each week.
Unpolished releases can also have an impact on video game sales, our data shows. Four-fifths of all American gamers say their likelihood to purchase a game is affected ‘a lot’ if a game contains bugs and glitches (41%). Another third of them indicate that their inclination towards shelling cash for a new title containing bugs is affected a little (34%).
Although more willing to overlook bugs to play a title early, heavy gamers who play for more than seven hours each week are as likely as others to be put off from purchasing those types of titles. A total of three-quarters of them say that their likelihood to purchase a game containing bugs and glitches is affected either a lot or a little (74%). The rate among those who game between one to seven hours is virtually identical (75%).
There are a lot of considerations that go into video game purchases, not least loyalty towards certain franchises. Even so, it is instructive to know that gamers are so put off by shoddy visuals and glitchy gameplay that many would consider delaying playing the title. While franchises with more ardent fan bases might be able to tide over through a patchy video game release, this might be particularly detrimental to video games that aren’t already established franchises. In a lot of cases, delaying a title to iron out issues might be the prudent choice for developers.
Explore our living data - for free
Want to run your own research? Start building a survey now
To receive monthly insights about the video gaming industry register here.
To read YouGov’s latest intelligence on gaming and e-sports explore here.
Make smarter business decisions with better intelligence. Understand exactly what your audience is thinking by leveraging our panel of 20 million+ members. Speak with us today.
Image credit: Jose Gil on Unsplash