Another Console Patch Patched

Just a quick update to follow my previous post on the Console Patch Culture spurred on by reports of serious issues with downloadable content for 360 title Crackdown. Some people who have downloaded this new content have suffered probably the most annoying type of bug that gamers come across, loss of their save game data. From what has been said on the official forums the problem is not with the downloadable content pack itself but with the associated Title Update - that is, an update for the game itself intended to fix known issues, provide new core features or otherwise update the core game. Players who download the update and immediatly go online in co-op mode may lose their save game data, the current workaround is to go into single player mode and save immediatly after updating. So it sounds as if something isn't being flagged as it should in multiplayer co-op mode on first run of the new core executable. An entirely new Title Update will be available 'soon' with a fix.

So it looks like another example of post-release patches/updates not being as thoroughly checked as they could have been. And another example of the dangers inherent with this approach. Again, I'm not against updates, it seems to be the way things are going and there are positive aspectes for games and gamers. But I'm sure we'll see more of this before solid approaches to resourcing for and provding solid development and QA of post-release content are the norm. I'm not implying anyone here was particularly lax, just that this is all new to the console world and the I don't think the new challenges presented have been fully addressed yet.