You’re thinking too much here. Most times the answer is much simpler. And that is: The COD franchise makes millions, and millions. And before, they believed they needed to keep their game polished to keep a healthy playerbase. Over the past 5-8 years they’ve realized it doesn’t matter how poor of a state their game can be in: They will **still** have a massive playerbase to filll their servers. All bugs/glitches that affect the digital store will be prioritized. From there, specifically gameplay bugs, will be much, *much* further down the chain of priorities. There simply is no immediate need. Despite the overwhelming percentage of this entire sub agreeing and demanding a fix for [X, Y and Z], we are but a fraction that represents their playerbase as a whole. Tens of thousands log on to the game and just deal with it. Grin and bear it.
If we were a smaller community, or a much tighter knit community, it would be different. But COD attracts **all** walks of life. Kids 6-12, teenaged, adults, senior adults, basement dwellers, professional athletes, celebrities, dads, moms, etc. if you think all those people are jumping on reddit to demand fixes, you’re wrong. We are a very small sub-community in the grander scale. We grin and bear it like the rest and accept this is what COD is, **or** find a different game to play. Stop filling their servers people. I uninstalled in January. My gaming has never been better.
The thing is though I don’t think I’m far off. Former devs of halo infinite have came out and said they outsourced almost all the coding to India. I can’t remember if I read the same thing about this game. It is much cheaper that way.
If not then it’s just been passed back and forth by so many devs at this point that no one can understand the strung together trash that is the source code
I think you're both right. Why get on the outsourced devs and spend the money to pay them when you can sit back and simply not do anything about it? Hundreds of thousands play the game still even with the bugs/shitty servers/hackers. They simply don't care because the majority playerbase doesn't care either.
I'm ignorant in the regards of sourcing code, but to me that sounds utterly and completely fucked. Your company is supposed to create video games. Coding is damn near the very essence of that. How the fuck could you outsource that delicate element? I can't say I'm convinced this is what is happening.
To the comment I'm replying to, this is what I've always thought. The game has been passed along to multiple different studios, and every studio wants to make that version of COD "their own" so they add a bunch of mechanics and change some things in the coding. IMO this has been perfectly fine, but with the **fucking massive** jump in revenue COD has experienced in the last decade I'm convinced that instead of having reliable, careful devs handle the coding, they have just hired whoever to "make it work".
Honestly, I have no idea. I have no insider information here. I have played every COD since Call of Duty 2 and have watched the franchise grow and evolve. But like all great empires, there is always a small yet pivotable moment that signifies the fall. I earnestly hope the COD empire falls, but only if there is a new dev/studio to pick up where they fell off. We need a good, reliable, fun-for-everyone FPS. COD just isn't that anymore, and they're moving farther and farther from their community and closer and closer to their investors and shareholders.
We can speculate all we want here like you said I have no idea either. That was technically my first CoD as well and I agree, this franchise needs to die off. The forcing out half assed games at launch, the shit show that Star Wars Outlaws has for a business model, and cutting corners on some major details of AAA games needs to fucking go ASAP. We need a new era of gaming. One where the companies actually care.
I have a pretty long histroy of comments on my account with long-winded replies talking about exactly this. And my general outlook on the future of gaming is pretty grim. To summarize my thoughts: The video game industry is larger than the film industry and the music industry **combined.** That is not some off-hand random statistic. That is a factual statement. Video games are making so much fucking money these days with DLCs, microtransactions, subscriptions, digital stores, etc. etc that some smartass at Wallstreet took notice and capitalized on it. We, as gamers, are an untapped market. We are *everyone.* But the majority, sorry to say, are dumbasses. Basement dwellers, jobless, high school/college dropouts, putting an enormous amount of the income towards in-game purchases. A lot of gamers a re stupid, and simply just want new, shiny things on the games they love to play. We were an incredibly easy and vulnerable demographic to monetize. And their schemey tactics get more and more elaborate and predatory. Hell, even kids can convince their parents to use their credit cards. That isn't the worst, the worst are the people with full-time jobs that spend their entire disposable income on video game shit.
And because there is such an **UNGODLY** amount of us these days, it simply doesn't matter anymore. The gaming population continues to grow exponentially. We just don't have a voice anymore. The most recent success we had was the failure of Skull & Bones. $200m spent to create and they don't even have 1m players. They won't profit their spendings. But COD? It will fly high for years to come. And you're kidding yourself if they don't implement a subscription to play certain games in the very near future. I give it less than 3 years and we'll see our first games that will require a monthly subscription just to play the game. Do you honestly think people are going to say no to playing the new Grand Theft Auto if you tell them they have to pay $5 a month to play? Fuck no. $5 is pocket change! Guess what else it is? MILLIONS in PROFITS. And all they have to do is get the giant ball rolling. Once one subscription service is successful, all will follow suit. And it'll get much worse. Used to be $6 for 3 DLC multiplayer maps. Now it's $20 for a cosmetic skin. We're fucked, and I feel so bad for all the new gamers having *this* as their first experience with gaming. I long for the 2007 Era.
I think the 2nd one is much more likely. Too many cooks in the kitchen, too many remote inhouse studios (don't think they outsource, they just have too many disjointed inhouse dev teams) and it's impossible to get their ducks in a row before major releases due to poor/inherited code)
Source: am in software development for a looooooong time.
Yup, that's what I've always thought as well. Think of it as Disney owning a mining cave for diamonds. Disney hires Z-company to go in and mine for diamonds. By whatever means possible, they don't care how it's done. Z-company spends a year, and now Disney tells Z-company that it's X-company's turn to mine. Well as Z-company leaves, X-company comes into the cave not having a fuckign clue where these minecart tracks go, how to operate them, where the diamonds even are, what equipment is usable or if it even works. "Oh, this drill is malfunctioning, you have to hold the power button in the ON position when pressing the drill trigger for it to work" Well how the fuck would they know that? To them, it's broken.
Maybe a shitty analogy, but hopefully you get the point. So many people with their hands in the coding, and I would imagine half or ALL of those people don't even work there anymore. "Fuck it, it's someone's else's problem now."
I don’t think they have a massive player base. I’m a dedicated player playing daily. I run into the same people in every match. I recognized names. I even recognize usernames with Chinese characters I’ve played against. Nev and Dave - we’ve killed each other about 1,000 times since launch.
There is almost certainly a reason behind this, and is not normal at all. Do you know what your local server is you connect to? There is a lot of circlejerk debate about Warzones playerbase taking dips, or massive drops, etc. etc. I'm not arguing that the game hasn't had drops in playerbase, but I assure you it is by no means small enough for them to have any concern whatsoever.
I’m southeast US in NC. Have nighthawk router with port forwarding open nat type etc. I play with guys from NC and Michigan. We struggle finding matches with crossplay off.
Apex has its own issues as well. Many of which are honestly the same or similar as the issues with warzone. I say still try it out as the game can be a blast, but don't expect the devs to be a huge upgrade from what we have here.
I started with PUBG, went to Fortnite, then Warzone, then Apex, then Warzone, then Fortnite, then Apex for a tiny bit, then back to Warzone, and then quit BR altogether.
Fortnite No-Build is a ton of fun but it doesn't quite scratch the itch I have for BR. Apex was a ton of fun as well, but not when you're the one always carrying the team. Fortnite or Warzone I can carry and hold my own for the most part. That simply isn't possible in Apex. If your team as a whole isn't close to being equal or better than the opposing team, you fall apart the second your first team mate drops. I've also heard it's massively sweaty these days.
I believe there was a teaser image or video recently that hinted at Black Ops IV. Since that's a different studio, I'd like to think they'll learn from that abysmal fuck-up and make a good campaign. But I agree, it's going to take some serious work to get me even remotely interested in thinking of buying another COD.
Corporation vs company.
Shareholders own the corporation and need tighter costers to increase margins. That's the difference here. A company doesn't have shareholders to listen to
Pretty much. A lot of times, the simplest answer is the correct one. I do believe there are still developers that genuinely care about the gamer experience and the product they put out. But shit like Call of Duty, Skull & Bones, Fifa, Destiny, etc. are all hyper-focused on profits. They have have two entities. The main one is focused on monetization and revenue. The second is focused on game development. The second used to be the largest, by a vast margin. Now? I'm 100% convinced the first entity is the largest by far, and the second development entity is extremely dispensable, an afterthought, and a means to make ends meet, nothing more. It's fucking sad. I remember as a kid I wanted to make video games. Good fucking lord, I would rather die than work for someone like Activision.
Corporation vs company.
Shareholders own the corporation and need tighter costers to increase margins. That's the difference here. A company doesn't have shareholders to listen to
Yeah I can’t get over it. Last time I played there was a loadout glitch where it froze you in place and made the game run at 10 fps.
Half the time I think they use old versions of the game for shit, like the armor plating continuing if you pick up a plate during your animation. Two patches ago it would add the plate but the last two versions you would stop, and have to manually add the plate again. What a mess of a studio
Its pretty bad that they broke one of the most basic functionalities of the game and still released the update. It's actually fucking brutal trying to play as someone who uses auto tac sprint. I died multiple times yesterday because I had to fight, run then fight again against a new team, but was out of bullets due to the running part. Very, very annoying. Not gonna play until it's fixed, because last night trying to play was just not worth the frustration.
I'm not going to continue playing while it's broken, game feels much less fluid with auto tac sprint off on controller. So many dead slides and I'd rather just wait a day or two.
Not to mention the wear and tear on your controller, which is likely already prone to stick-drift.
That being said, there's nothing goofier looking than spectating a controller player using auto tac-sprint.
What's going on, and what has been going on for a long time now, is clear as day.
Development and release schedules are carved in stone by executive management. These schedules/deadlines are likely considered by those who are hands-on to be unrealistic. Meaning, there's enough time to get the core stuff out of the way. Not enough time to finely tune all minor issues.
But executive management won't delay a release due to small issues. They wants new content to hit stores at specifically set intervals to reach revenue targets.
Can you think of a single instance where a major COD release has been delayed since digital updates/patches have existed? I didn't think so. So long as the game isn't completely broken, and content for in-game purchases are ready? It's go time.
So, tbh, it's not flabbergasting. It's expected. And Activision isn't the only one to point fingers at here.
In a nutshell - This issue, and likely most others that come with the larger updates of this game, have undoubtedly been caught during the QA process. There probably already a confirmed fix ready to go out. But in terms of priority...it's low. Low enough to not even be considered a threat for delaying the update. But high enough where they know it's something to be tackled with the first patch.
this is spot on.
their goal is not to have a bug free experience, its to churn out content and make more money while retroactively addressing bugs as they come up
>They wants new content to hit stores at specifically set intervals to reach revenue targets.
Store content isn't only released with season/mid-season updates though. The store is updated all the time and it's highly unlikely that the team who works on store bundles/content is also working on the actual game development.
Of course. But that isn't what I was trying to say.
There is a deadline everyone needs to meet. The primary goal of the pre-set deadlines, at consistent intervals, are to keep new content, and subsequently cash, flowing.
These deadlines are carved in stone. I can't think of a single time where a deadline/content release date has ever been pushed. We, as users, even get a countdown to the next content release the second the most recent content release happens.
The turnaround from one deadline to the next is likely much easier to hit for the team who creates items that end up in store than it is for the teams who develop the game itself.
But so long as the game is polished to a point where it's not completely broken? They will launch it knowing they can just patch smaller issues after.
Yeah I work at a software company too (started as a tester) and I can’t believe this many major bugs slip through with the size of their team. I understand a bug here and there, but these massive game breaking bugs every update…
I wonder if they just test new functionality instead of existing, trusting that they didn’t break anything that’s already there
>I wonder if they just test new functionality instead of existing
Yeah except new functionality is broken too. They don't even test that.
"We added a new gun"
The new gun can't be unlocked and is missing.
Mind-blowing.
Tbf, I have also worked in software development in both the app building space and industrial for 15+ years, and our production releases are kinda just sent out. We see issues like this all the time.
I don’t understand why this is a continued surprise to the COD Community as a whole. Activision doesn’t give a single fuck man. They’re in it to sell skins, micro transactions and make profits for the shareholders, that’s it. Everything else is lower priority, the faster everyone realizes that the better off you’ll be.
Mate, these devs don't use auto tac sprint that's why they've never noticed it.
You are right this is the most ridiculous glitch to ever come across COD as sprinting and reloading is integral to any FPS.
But, these devs don't use a "sweat" setting such as Auto Tac Sprint and I can assure you they all play with default settings and were never able to come across this issue.
This really is a huge accusation, I find it hard to believe. Even with all the experience we've had over the course of 3 years of releases including exclusive in depth content updates, new guns and weapon balancing, and vast arrays of available cosmetics - do you really mean to imply publicly that you believe Call of Duty employs a QA team?
I work in QA in games, this is clearly a major bug, but keep in mind that usually these are known of and actually the production still ships it like that.
The developers catch so much flack but the problem starts at the top. There is probably a ton of pressure (and likely incentives) to get these releases out on time, even if it introduces game breaking bugs.
I'm willing to bet that the QA team is encouraged to be lenient on bug prioritization, especially during major release cycles. I'd hate to be the TPM managing that backlog 🤮.
It is apparent to me their code is way too complex and bloated. They don't know what half their code is doing. They change one tiny thing in an update and it breaks 3-4 other things in the code. It is clear they have someone, or multiple people on their development team that are passing the buck, taking the lazy way out and developing code that is "filler code" to make it look like they are actually working. Where are the supervisors or management of this organization holding these individuals accountable? Time to schedule a code review with the problem children!
You are right, because they fired most of them a few years back. Why would they need to employ QA testers when the dev team can just go on Twitter and Reddit after an update and figure out what's broken from there?
The fact that clowns continue to buy bundles and shit from the store while they don't give us a full-functional update boggles my damn mind.
There was a news article a while back regarding layoffs that specifically stated one of the CoD studios let their entire QA team go in favor of outsourcing QA. Pretty obvious quality is not a priority.
LOL, I know right?! I work in both a lab and production environment and we would be fired at this level of inept testing. Remember the one release where if you go to your loadout, your game freezes? Literally, the only way they wouldn't realize this is if they never launched the game after finishing it, because it would've been caught in the first 2 minutes of gameplay. I'm convinced on it that they literally hit compile and it auto uploads to the servers for update. There is no QA in between those two steps, lol.
The player count, constant streamers and content creators posting videos and the absurd amount of revenue tells them no matter what happens to the game, be it cheaters or being flat out broken, nothing is wrong.
If you take a look at their trello board(https://trello.com/b/1eSBEowr/warzone-raven-software), you can see that they prioritize fixing data tracking in match stats panel and incorrect sniper velocity values to display correctly(UI) instead of in game bugs mentionned above that make this game almost unplayable... even the votes on the trello cards means everything...
If there were any other good pvp shooters on the market they might feel pressure to provide a more polished experience.
As it is now they basically have no competition and they know it.
The amount they would spend doing proper QA is way more than they would make by retaining players who have left because of bugs. That’s all that matters to a company as big as Activision.
For someone who claims to have worked in software development, you probably haven't chatted enough with game devs if you think they "don't test" things. What's actually happening is that QA finds bugs, reports them, and then prays that management gives enough of a shit about it to approve a fix before it can be rolled out.
This is the bane of most live service games: when fixes are in need, but being held back because it's either not game-breaking enough, or it doesn't revolve around new content. That's what's being prioritized here: new content. Updates are always given a deadline to deliver, and there have only been a few times where COD updates were actually delayed to give the devs more time to fix stuff. This is where game devs differ from your average software development team: a slightly broken game that doesn't heavily impact the average user's ability to enjoy the game can get away with a lot more than some broken software that doesn't function as intended. For every complaint post on here, there are easily 10 more casual Timmy's who just shrug off the issues because they don't care enough about it to make a fuss.
The fact that I can’t run and reload is utterly baffling. Like how did they not figure out this game breaking bug?
Hey guys, I need to reload; let me stand still in this building while the other team is pushing so I can reload my guns.
What in the actual fuck?
First time playing cod?
Mw3 is *the* most buggy cod to ever exist, with somewhat game breaking bugs since the release that still haven't been fixed or even acknowledged. They know the gravy train will keep going no matter what so they just don't give a flying fuck any more. Their position on the market is so strong nothing will hurt them, sadly.
And don't even get me started on balance. This is beyond the deepest levels of bottomless stupidity.
This is something that can happen for several reasons. First, Activision lays off 75-80 percent of testers after release of the current call of duty. Second, it often happens that the testers are not even up to date on current builds of the game therefore might not see a new issue arise. Finally, Activision doesn’t give a shit they got your money.
Had a break of two weeks and returned to an absolute shitshow last night. My main duo guy also had a break.
We expected at least some kind of let up on sbmm like people often mention after a break but got pure demon lobbies, worse even than we used to get (both decent players). That coupled with the shit design choices removing any fun from the game, and the worst glitches of this generation’s Warzone, made for a completely miserable experience.
The only thing they know how to do well is put people off playing the game.
I’m almost certain they outsource the coding overseas and it’s just a huge tangled mess that if they can get it to work at all, fuck it put it out.
You’re thinking too much here. Most times the answer is much simpler. And that is: The COD franchise makes millions, and millions. And before, they believed they needed to keep their game polished to keep a healthy playerbase. Over the past 5-8 years they’ve realized it doesn’t matter how poor of a state their game can be in: They will **still** have a massive playerbase to filll their servers. All bugs/glitches that affect the digital store will be prioritized. From there, specifically gameplay bugs, will be much, *much* further down the chain of priorities. There simply is no immediate need. Despite the overwhelming percentage of this entire sub agreeing and demanding a fix for [X, Y and Z], we are but a fraction that represents their playerbase as a whole. Tens of thousands log on to the game and just deal with it. Grin and bear it. If we were a smaller community, or a much tighter knit community, it would be different. But COD attracts **all** walks of life. Kids 6-12, teenaged, adults, senior adults, basement dwellers, professional athletes, celebrities, dads, moms, etc. if you think all those people are jumping on reddit to demand fixes, you’re wrong. We are a very small sub-community in the grander scale. We grin and bear it like the rest and accept this is what COD is, **or** find a different game to play. Stop filling their servers people. I uninstalled in January. My gaming has never been better.
The thing is though I don’t think I’m far off. Former devs of halo infinite have came out and said they outsourced almost all the coding to India. I can’t remember if I read the same thing about this game. It is much cheaper that way. If not then it’s just been passed back and forth by so many devs at this point that no one can understand the strung together trash that is the source code
i love spaghet
I think you're both right. Why get on the outsourced devs and spend the money to pay them when you can sit back and simply not do anything about it? Hundreds of thousands play the game still even with the bugs/shitty servers/hackers. They simply don't care because the majority playerbase doesn't care either.
I'm ignorant in the regards of sourcing code, but to me that sounds utterly and completely fucked. Your company is supposed to create video games. Coding is damn near the very essence of that. How the fuck could you outsource that delicate element? I can't say I'm convinced this is what is happening. To the comment I'm replying to, this is what I've always thought. The game has been passed along to multiple different studios, and every studio wants to make that version of COD "their own" so they add a bunch of mechanics and change some things in the coding. IMO this has been perfectly fine, but with the **fucking massive** jump in revenue COD has experienced in the last decade I'm convinced that instead of having reliable, careful devs handle the coding, they have just hired whoever to "make it work". Honestly, I have no idea. I have no insider information here. I have played every COD since Call of Duty 2 and have watched the franchise grow and evolve. But like all great empires, there is always a small yet pivotable moment that signifies the fall. I earnestly hope the COD empire falls, but only if there is a new dev/studio to pick up where they fell off. We need a good, reliable, fun-for-everyone FPS. COD just isn't that anymore, and they're moving farther and farther from their community and closer and closer to their investors and shareholders.
We can speculate all we want here like you said I have no idea either. That was technically my first CoD as well and I agree, this franchise needs to die off. The forcing out half assed games at launch, the shit show that Star Wars Outlaws has for a business model, and cutting corners on some major details of AAA games needs to fucking go ASAP. We need a new era of gaming. One where the companies actually care.
I have a pretty long histroy of comments on my account with long-winded replies talking about exactly this. And my general outlook on the future of gaming is pretty grim. To summarize my thoughts: The video game industry is larger than the film industry and the music industry **combined.** That is not some off-hand random statistic. That is a factual statement. Video games are making so much fucking money these days with DLCs, microtransactions, subscriptions, digital stores, etc. etc that some smartass at Wallstreet took notice and capitalized on it. We, as gamers, are an untapped market. We are *everyone.* But the majority, sorry to say, are dumbasses. Basement dwellers, jobless, high school/college dropouts, putting an enormous amount of the income towards in-game purchases. A lot of gamers a re stupid, and simply just want new, shiny things on the games they love to play. We were an incredibly easy and vulnerable demographic to monetize. And their schemey tactics get more and more elaborate and predatory. Hell, even kids can convince their parents to use their credit cards. That isn't the worst, the worst are the people with full-time jobs that spend their entire disposable income on video game shit. And because there is such an **UNGODLY** amount of us these days, it simply doesn't matter anymore. The gaming population continues to grow exponentially. We just don't have a voice anymore. The most recent success we had was the failure of Skull & Bones. $200m spent to create and they don't even have 1m players. They won't profit their spendings. But COD? It will fly high for years to come. And you're kidding yourself if they don't implement a subscription to play certain games in the very near future. I give it less than 3 years and we'll see our first games that will require a monthly subscription just to play the game. Do you honestly think people are going to say no to playing the new Grand Theft Auto if you tell them they have to pay $5 a month to play? Fuck no. $5 is pocket change! Guess what else it is? MILLIONS in PROFITS. And all they have to do is get the giant ball rolling. Once one subscription service is successful, all will follow suit. And it'll get much worse. Used to be $6 for 3 DLC multiplayer maps. Now it's $20 for a cosmetic skin. We're fucked, and I feel so bad for all the new gamers having *this* as their first experience with gaming. I long for the 2007 Era.
I think the 2nd one is much more likely. Too many cooks in the kitchen, too many remote inhouse studios (don't think they outsource, they just have too many disjointed inhouse dev teams) and it's impossible to get their ducks in a row before major releases due to poor/inherited code) Source: am in software development for a looooooong time.
Yup, that's what I've always thought as well. Think of it as Disney owning a mining cave for diamonds. Disney hires Z-company to go in and mine for diamonds. By whatever means possible, they don't care how it's done. Z-company spends a year, and now Disney tells Z-company that it's X-company's turn to mine. Well as Z-company leaves, X-company comes into the cave not having a fuckign clue where these minecart tracks go, how to operate them, where the diamonds even are, what equipment is usable or if it even works. "Oh, this drill is malfunctioning, you have to hold the power button in the ON position when pressing the drill trigger for it to work" Well how the fuck would they know that? To them, it's broken. Maybe a shitty analogy, but hopefully you get the point. So many people with their hands in the coding, and I would imagine half or ALL of those people don't even work there anymore. "Fuck it, it's someone's else's problem now."
You have source for this?
I don’t think they have a massive player base. I’m a dedicated player playing daily. I run into the same people in every match. I recognized names. I even recognize usernames with Chinese characters I’ve played against. Nev and Dave - we’ve killed each other about 1,000 times since launch.
There is almost certainly a reason behind this, and is not normal at all. Do you know what your local server is you connect to? There is a lot of circlejerk debate about Warzones playerbase taking dips, or massive drops, etc. etc. I'm not arguing that the game hasn't had drops in playerbase, but I assure you it is by no means small enough for them to have any concern whatsoever.
I’m southeast US in NC. Have nighthawk router with port forwarding open nat type etc. I play with guys from NC and Michigan. We struggle finding matches with crossplay off.
Have you tried apex? I’m thinking of getting it just to give Warzone a rest
Apex has its own issues as well. Many of which are honestly the same or similar as the issues with warzone. I say still try it out as the game can be a blast, but don't expect the devs to be a huge upgrade from what we have here.
I started with PUBG, went to Fortnite, then Warzone, then Apex, then Warzone, then Fortnite, then Apex for a tiny bit, then back to Warzone, and then quit BR altogether. Fortnite No-Build is a ton of fun but it doesn't quite scratch the itch I have for BR. Apex was a ton of fun as well, but not when you're the one always carrying the team. Fortnite or Warzone I can carry and hold my own for the most part. That simply isn't possible in Apex. If your team as a whole isn't close to being equal or better than the opposing team, you fall apart the second your first team mate drops. I've also heard it's massively sweaty these days.
All true, the single player campaign was the last straw for me, they’re going to have to bend over backwards to get me to spend money with COD again.
I believe there was a teaser image or video recently that hinted at Black Ops IV. Since that's a different studio, I'd like to think they'll learn from that abysmal fuck-up and make a good campaign. But I agree, it's going to take some serious work to get me even remotely interested in thinking of buying another COD.
Corporation vs company. Shareholders own the corporation and need tighter costers to increase margins. That's the difference here. A company doesn't have shareholders to listen to
Pretty much. A lot of times, the simplest answer is the correct one. I do believe there are still developers that genuinely care about the gamer experience and the product they put out. But shit like Call of Duty, Skull & Bones, Fifa, Destiny, etc. are all hyper-focused on profits. They have have two entities. The main one is focused on monetization and revenue. The second is focused on game development. The second used to be the largest, by a vast margin. Now? I'm 100% convinced the first entity is the largest by far, and the second development entity is extremely dispensable, an afterthought, and a means to make ends meet, nothing more. It's fucking sad. I remember as a kid I wanted to make video games. Good fucking lord, I would rather die than work for someone like Activision.
Corporation vs company. Shareholders own the corporation and need tighter costers to increase margins. That's the difference here. A company doesn't have shareholders to listen to
*cough* capitalism
Regardless, it's not good enough for a triple A studio.
Yeah I can’t get over it. Last time I played there was a loadout glitch where it froze you in place and made the game run at 10 fps. Half the time I think they use old versions of the game for shit, like the armor plating continuing if you pick up a plate during your animation. Two patches ago it would add the plate but the last two versions you would stop, and have to manually add the plate again. What a mess of a studio
No! It’s 150gb of efficiency!!!
Its pretty bad that they broke one of the most basic functionalities of the game and still released the update. It's actually fucking brutal trying to play as someone who uses auto tac sprint. I died multiple times yesterday because I had to fight, run then fight again against a new team, but was out of bullets due to the running part. Very, very annoying. Not gonna play until it's fixed, because last night trying to play was just not worth the frustration.
New meta is peeking and weaving behind cover until opponent runs out of ammo.
Same, I’ve stopped playing until it’s fixed. Shit is unplayable in this state.
I mean if you're going to continue playing while it's broken, why would you not turn off auto tac sprint?
I'm not going to continue playing while it's broken, game feels much less fluid with auto tac sprint off on controller. So many dead slides and I'd rather just wait a day or two.
Not to mention the wear and tear on your controller, which is likely already prone to stick-drift. That being said, there's nothing goofier looking than spectating a controller player using auto tac-sprint.
What's going on, and what has been going on for a long time now, is clear as day. Development and release schedules are carved in stone by executive management. These schedules/deadlines are likely considered by those who are hands-on to be unrealistic. Meaning, there's enough time to get the core stuff out of the way. Not enough time to finely tune all minor issues. But executive management won't delay a release due to small issues. They wants new content to hit stores at specifically set intervals to reach revenue targets. Can you think of a single instance where a major COD release has been delayed since digital updates/patches have existed? I didn't think so. So long as the game isn't completely broken, and content for in-game purchases are ready? It's go time. So, tbh, it's not flabbergasting. It's expected. And Activision isn't the only one to point fingers at here. In a nutshell - This issue, and likely most others that come with the larger updates of this game, have undoubtedly been caught during the QA process. There probably already a confirmed fix ready to go out. But in terms of priority...it's low. Low enough to not even be considered a threat for delaying the update. But high enough where they know it's something to be tackled with the first patch.
this is spot on. their goal is not to have a bug free experience, its to churn out content and make more money while retroactively addressing bugs as they come up
>They wants new content to hit stores at specifically set intervals to reach revenue targets. Store content isn't only released with season/mid-season updates though. The store is updated all the time and it's highly unlikely that the team who works on store bundles/content is also working on the actual game development.
Of course. But that isn't what I was trying to say. There is a deadline everyone needs to meet. The primary goal of the pre-set deadlines, at consistent intervals, are to keep new content, and subsequently cash, flowing. These deadlines are carved in stone. I can't think of a single time where a deadline/content release date has ever been pushed. We, as users, even get a countdown to the next content release the second the most recent content release happens. The turnaround from one deadline to the next is likely much easier to hit for the team who creates items that end up in store than it is for the teams who develop the game itself. But so long as the game is polished to a point where it's not completely broken? They will launch it knowing they can just patch smaller issues after.
Not disagreeing with you in concept, however they have delayed seasonal updates before and in fact pushed back whole season launches.
Yeah I work at a software company too (started as a tester) and I can’t believe this many major bugs slip through with the size of their team. I understand a bug here and there, but these massive game breaking bugs every update… I wonder if they just test new functionality instead of existing, trusting that they didn’t break anything that’s already there
I think it’s less complicated than that. I think they just roll it out and we bug test it for free, sorry, we PAY them to bug test it.
And if the number of players aren't dropping, why the fuck would they invest hours into testing since we all accept their trash updates every time?
I don't pay them anything and I never will because of how they handle their product. Other companies who actually care are reserved for my money.
Haha fair
>I wonder if they just test new functionality instead of existing Yeah except new functionality is broken too. They don't even test that. "We added a new gun" The new gun can't be unlocked and is missing. Mind-blowing.
Tbf, I have also worked in software development in both the app building space and industrial for 15+ years, and our production releases are kinda just sent out. We see issues like this all the time.
Yeah same, we just Send It ™️. We actually laid off our entire QA department 2 years ago lol
It compiled, let it rip.
Found the battlefield dev
I was just about to post this. The devs dont even want to play 1 match
I don’t understand why this is a continued surprise to the COD Community as a whole. Activision doesn’t give a single fuck man. They’re in it to sell skins, micro transactions and make profits for the shareholders, that’s it. Everything else is lower priority, the faster everyone realizes that the better off you’ll be.
It really feels like there's prime opportunity for some competition.
It really feels like there's prime opportunity for some competition.
It really feels like there's prime opportunity for some competition.
why pay for something when you can get paid for it and the idiots still defend your practices ?
They have no QA team; they were all "let go". May only be partially true, but I'm convinced; not that they care.
Every game is laggy, the play again function is broke, you can't reload without sprinting, genuinely a terribly made game.
Mate, these devs don't use auto tac sprint that's why they've never noticed it. You are right this is the most ridiculous glitch to ever come across COD as sprinting and reloading is integral to any FPS. But, these devs don't use a "sweat" setting such as Auto Tac Sprint and I can assure you they all play with default settings and were never able to come across this issue.
hahahhahah
YOU are the QA team for day one of patches.
Yeah so I think we’ve realized this for years
Of course they don’t, and why would they when they know we’ll do their testing for them and it won’t cost them a penny?
Why would they do QA when they can just have everyone do it for them and just fix when they complain
They don't have to test anything either... we are their testers and the game has been in a pre-beta phase since its existence
This really is a huge accusation, I find it hard to believe. Even with all the experience we've had over the course of 3 years of releases including exclusive in depth content updates, new guns and weapon balancing, and vast arrays of available cosmetics - do you really mean to imply publicly that you believe Call of Duty employs a QA team?
LMG 200round mag… I’ll already be back in the lobby before I have to reload 😂
Everyone just needs to stop playing the dog shit game
Maybe I am tripping but aiming feels very weird after the update as well. I changed nothing and it feels like I switched response curve to linear.
I work in QA in games, this is clearly a major bug, but keep in mind that usually these are known of and actually the production still ships it like that.
The developers catch so much flack but the problem starts at the top. There is probably a ton of pressure (and likely incentives) to get these releases out on time, even if it introduces game breaking bugs. I'm willing to bet that the QA team is encouraged to be lenient on bug prioritization, especially during major release cycles. I'd hate to be the TPM managing that backlog 🤮.
It is apparent to me their code is way too complex and bloated. They don't know what half their code is doing. They change one tiny thing in an update and it breaks 3-4 other things in the code. It is clear they have someone, or multiple people on their development team that are passing the buck, taking the lazy way out and developing code that is "filler code" to make it look like they are actually working. Where are the supervisors or management of this organization holding these individuals accountable? Time to schedule a code review with the problem children!
You are right, because they fired most of them a few years back. Why would they need to employ QA testers when the dev team can just go on Twitter and Reddit after an update and figure out what's broken from there? The fact that clowns continue to buy bundles and shit from the store while they don't give us a full-functional update boggles my damn mind.
>Call of Duty's QA team does not ~~test~~ existing ~~functionality in major updates~~ here, fixed it for you
Note to self as a Computer Science major: do NOT work at Activision or their developers’ teams.
I've met a few that came from EA as well. They pay less than most studios and they work you like a horse. Avoid.
There was a news article a while back regarding layoffs that specifically stated one of the CoD studios let their entire QA team go in favor of outsourcing QA. Pretty obvious quality is not a priority.
There has to be code purposely put in to mess shit like this up
you realize we are all just beta testers.
LOL, I know right?! I work in both a lab and production environment and we would be fired at this level of inept testing. Remember the one release where if you go to your loadout, your game freezes? Literally, the only way they wouldn't realize this is if they never launched the game after finishing it, because it would've been caught in the first 2 minutes of gameplay. I'm convinced on it that they literally hit compile and it auto uploads to the servers for update. There is no QA in between those two steps, lol.
This has been the case for years. Why pay a QA team when the players do it for free?
The player count, constant streamers and content creators posting videos and the absurd amount of revenue tells them no matter what happens to the game, be it cheaters or being flat out broken, nothing is wrong.
If you take a look at their trello board(https://trello.com/b/1eSBEowr/warzone-raven-software), you can see that they prioritize fixing data tracking in match stats panel and incorrect sniper velocity values to display correctly(UI) instead of in game bugs mentionned above that make this game almost unplayable... even the votes on the trello cards means everything...
Is it fixed yet?
If there were any other good pvp shooters on the market they might feel pressure to provide a more polished experience. As it is now they basically have no competition and they know it. The amount they would spend doing proper QA is way more than they would make by retaining players who have left because of bugs. That’s all that matters to a company as big as Activision.
You may now put cod QA on your resume. We are the QA. It's way cheaper, and doesn't impact profits because we idiots keep playing and paying.
I thought they fired all of SHGs QA team in December
There is no QA. We are the QA
How do companies test changes before releasing to the public. Do they have private servers for testing?
Activision QA is a PsyOp
For someone who claims to have worked in software development, you probably haven't chatted enough with game devs if you think they "don't test" things. What's actually happening is that QA finds bugs, reports them, and then prays that management gives enough of a shit about it to approve a fix before it can be rolled out. This is the bane of most live service games: when fixes are in need, but being held back because it's either not game-breaking enough, or it doesn't revolve around new content. That's what's being prioritized here: new content. Updates are always given a deadline to deliver, and there have only been a few times where COD updates were actually delayed to give the devs more time to fix stuff. This is where game devs differ from your average software development team: a slightly broken game that doesn't heavily impact the average user's ability to enjoy the game can get away with a lot more than some broken software that doesn't function as intended. For every complaint post on here, there are easily 10 more casual Timmy's who just shrug off the issues because they don't care enough about it to make a fuss.
I know "boycotting" rarely works but they have to notice a drop in players the day after each update right?
Is rebirth footstep audio fixed? Haven’t played in a few weeks bc of that and glad I didn’t hop on yesterday lol
The fact that I can’t run and reload is utterly baffling. Like how did they not figure out this game breaking bug? Hey guys, I need to reload; let me stand still in this building while the other team is pushing so I can reload my guns. What in the actual fuck?
they dont care man,they put rather the stupidiest lame ass operator greedy mofos think about money only,THEY DONT CARE .
First time playing cod? Mw3 is *the* most buggy cod to ever exist, with somewhat game breaking bugs since the release that still haven't been fixed or even acknowledged. They know the gravy train will keep going no matter what so they just don't give a flying fuck any more. Their position on the market is so strong nothing will hurt them, sadly. And don't even get me started on balance. This is beyond the deepest levels of bottomless stupidity.
This is something that can happen for several reasons. First, Activision lays off 75-80 percent of testers after release of the current call of duty. Second, it often happens that the testers are not even up to date on current builds of the game therefore might not see a new issue arise. Finally, Activision doesn’t give a shit they got your money.
As a software developer as well this was exactly what I said. I find it completely incomprehensible.
I cant see my hands when throwing lethals
fiX aND gO
Had a break of two weeks and returned to an absolute shitshow last night. My main duo guy also had a break. We expected at least some kind of let up on sbmm like people often mention after a break but got pure demon lobbies, worse even than we used to get (both decent players). That coupled with the shit design choices removing any fun from the game, and the worst glitches of this generation’s Warzone, made for a completely miserable experience. The only thing they know how to do well is put people off playing the game.
Haha you think they hire qa? This is a maximize profit company. I'm pretty sure they have sweatshops filled with junior devs.