Fallout New Vegas director blames strict deadlines set by producers for huge bugs in games

Pillars of Eternity have fewer bugs because they have more time and fewer impositions. Fallout: New Vegas was too complex for the little time Bethesda left them.

It's easy to find people who don't like a game having bugs that spoil the experience. Some rare and casual is inevitable if the game is very big if it does not ruin the game, but the Fallout along with Skyrim have a reputation for having many bugs of all kinds. The reason for this according to Josh Sawyer of Obsidian Entertainment is that they don't give them time.

Give developers more time and games will have fewer glitches

Sawyer commented on his personal Tumblr that the reason Pillars of Eternity has fewer notable bugs is because by being self-published by Obsidian Entertainment and deciding on a final release date, they can delay a game by a few months to polish the game with. That a title has bugs is a natural part of a complex, non-linear game like Fallout: New Vegas, which Sawyer directed.

He admitted that the company he works for has a reputation for making buggy games like the aforementioned Fallout New Vegas or Alpha Protocol. But he blames a lot of the blame on dealers who want the game as soon as possible to optimize costs by not giving them extra time.

He also partly blames the extremely complex and feature-rich adventures, but their impact was relatively minor. New Vegas lacked guidelines for mission design, making them fragile and easy to break, although their greater complexity made them more interesting for the player. Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the game's publisher and producer, and now that they have The Outer Worlds in development in collaboration with Take-Two , we'll see if they've been given the resources to ensure this game doesn't have so many bugs.

Source: Videogames Chronicle