Why the “Patient Gamer” Movement Matters More Than Ever

Video game development has evolved dramatically over the decades. What once took a small group of developers working passionately in cramped offices now requires teams of hundreds—sometimes thousands—and budgets exceeding those of blockbuster films.

Yet despite the rise in production value, time, and cost, we’re increasingly seeing high-profile titles released in broken or incomplete states. Consumers are being asked to pay more—sometimes up to £80 or more for a base game—while receiving less. With GTA VI rumored to cost as much as £100, and industry figures like Randy Pitchford saying things like, “people will find a way to pay 80 dollars for [Borderlands 4] if they’re real fans,” it’s clear that the industry is shifting in a direction that prioritizes profit over players.

So how did we get here, and what can we, as gamers, do about it?

Development Then vs. Now

Game development has come a long way. The original Legend of Zelda was created by a team of just six people. Ocarina of Time, often cited as one of the greatest games of all time, had a development team of around 50. Fast forward to today: Diablo IV features over 8,500 names in its credits. Production pipelines now span entire departments for things like motion capture, cinematic direction, and full orchestral scores.

Games routinely take five or more years to make. Bethesda, Rockstar, and other top studios are known for these long cycles. With that much time and manpower, you’d expect polished masterpieces. But what we often get instead are buggy, unfinished messes.

Crunch Culture and Questionable Priorities

Crunch has long been a part of the industry. In the early days, small dev teams often poured themselves into their projects with pride. I remember seeing the credits for Gears of War 3 and all the dev messages thankin their families for the patience they ad received due to the hours they had worked. It really makes you appreciate the effort that goes in to creating the games we all play. You could also see from the messages the amount of passion each member had for the game they were making.

But in today’s corporate environments, crunch often feels less like passion and more like exploitation. And with teams in the hundreds, why is crunch still necessary? Isn’t the whole point of large teams to spread the workload?

Meanwhile, the cost of producing AAA games has skyrocketed, with some titles reportedly costing over $100 million. That cost gets passed down to the consumer in the form of higher game prices, microtransactions, battle passes, and overpriced deluxe editions.

Base game prices creeping towards £80 (and potentially £100 with GTA VI) are alarming enough. When the game is amazing and works flawlessly at launch it’s not as bad but when the final product isn’t even finished? That’s where frustration boils over.

Broken or terrible at Launch

Let’s talk about release day disappointments:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Dying Light 2
• Aliens Colonial Marines 
• WWE 2K20
• No Man’s Sky (at launch)
• Redfall
• Gollum (just, why?)
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• The Day Before (Yikes)

These games were either incomplete, missing major features, or downright unplayable. And yet they were all released to the public at full price.

Why? It comes down to publisher pressure, deadlines, and the need to recoup investment. Developers are forced to meet MVP (Minimum Viable Product) standards. Technically playable? Then it can be allowed to ship.

But as we saw with Cyberpunk, just because something boots up and can be completed doesn’t mean it should be released. CD Project Red saved Cyberpunk thankfully and hopefully they have learned a sell now fix later approach isn’t the right way to go.

The Problem starts with Transparency

If developers and publishers were transparent, much of this backlash could be avoided. If they simply told us, “This is a work in progress. Expect a patch day one or within two weeks,” many gamers would accept that. But instead, we get smoke and mirrors:

• Highly curated gameplay trailers
• Embargoes that lift on launch day
• No raw gameplay footage

These practices are intentionally deceptive and designed to encourage pre-orders while hiding a game’s true state.

It’s especially disheartening when figures like Randy Pitchford say, “Real fans will pay $80 for Borderlands 4.” That kind of rhetoric is toxic. It weaponizes fandom and turns financial exploitation into a loyalty test. And if Borderlands 4 launches in a buggy state, what then? Will fans still be expected to just swallow it because they’re “real fans”?

Red Flags to Watch For

To avoid falling into the same traps, here are some common warning signs:

• Multiple release delays
• Excessive reports of crunch
• Lack of raw gameplay footage
• Review embargoes until launch day
• Five-plus year development cycles without updates

The Way of the Patient Gamer

So how do we, the players, push back? Enter the “Patient Gamer” movement. The idea is simple: we wait and we hold the line with our wallets.

The Patient Gamer Manifesto:

• Research the game before you buy
• Look at the dev and publisher’s track record
• Seek raw, unedited gameplay footage
• Avoid pre-orders unless you’re absolutely confident
• Wait for launch day reviews and player feedback
• Be willing to wait for sales or subscription releases

As Mando would say: “This is the way.”

Waiting means more than just saving money. It means your first experience of a game is likely to be its best version. You get the benefit of patches, added content, and smoother performance—often at half the price or even included in a subscription.

This is not to say never buy a game day one. Those first playthroughs of newly released games, where the community is all experiencing it for the first time as well, fresh memes are being created about it. It can be amazing and well worth it. Just do your research first!

Personal Experience: A Tale of Two Games

I paid full price for Elden Ring on day one and I don’t regret a second of it. The experience was polished, epic, and everything I hoped for. I support FromSoftware because they consistently deliver and never seem to let me down.

But I also paid full price for Dying Light 2 on a friend’s recommendation. It was buggy, broken, and I never went back. That’s £70 I’ll never see again. Had I waited, I could have avoided the disappointment. The worst part is the game is fixed now and is probably great but that initial experience has soured me to a point of no return.

The Road Ahead

We need to correct our consumer practices. The more we pre-order broken games, the more publishers think it’s acceptable. If we don’t push back, we might end up in a future where games are released in thirds, require constant payments to progress, and even a base experience costs £100+.

But if we hold out, support honest devs, and vote with our wallets, maybe we can steer the industry back toward valuing the player again.

Buyer beware. Do your research. Or let us do it for you!