RIBINGQuentin James

WAIT…WHAT?

Releasing in Beta

Releasing products that are not quite finished yet, but knowing that you can patch them later.

BLACKBERRY STORM

Prone to…• Freezes• Abrupt Reboots• Non-responsive

controls• Cosmetic glitches

Release Date: 11.11.11 Game of the Year: 2012

Patched 5 times from Nov. 12, 2011 to Mar. 20, 2012

“It’s literally the things you’ve done in what order and what’s running.”

--Todd Howard

And other games

“The iPhone 4’s proximity sensor didn’t work until last week’s software patch.”

iPhone 4

WHY?

Benefits of an early Market introduction.

Enhanced functionality &Increased quality.

FOR

Publicity… twice

Money up front

Consumer testing

You can see flaws earlier

FOR

“You wouldn’t write a thousand lines of code before you tried to compile it. Why would you spend a year or more on development before testing it in the market?” – Andy Brice

AGAINST

Company Integrity

Angry Customers

Embarrassing

AGAINST

“There’s going to be a lot of marketing hype in the next few months regarding Skyrim’s release, but you shouldn’t pay attention to any of it because Bethesda doesn’t know how to make a decent game anymore.”

WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?

“There's no question that, for whatever time budget you have, you will end up with better software by releasing as early as practically possible,

WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?

and then spending the rest of your time iterating rapidly based on real world feedback.

WHAT DOES THE MAJORITY DO?

So trust me on this one: even if version one sucks, ship it anyway.”

ETHICAL DILEMMA?

When companies release buggy software, is this a breach of contract?

They aren’t delivering what they promised.

QUESTIONS?

REFERENCES

http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/10/failure-to-launch-sots2/ http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/released-too-soon/# http

://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/12/version-1-sucks-but-ship-it-anyway.html

http://successfulsoftware.net/2007/08/07/if-you-arent-embarrassed-by-v10-you-didnt-release-it-early-enough/

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2004/10/we-make-shitty-software-with-bugs.html

http://gojko.net/2009/11/23/the-danger-of-releasing-too-early/ http

://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/abstracts/news-at-sei/feature2200604.cfm http

://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/whats-wrong-blackberry-storm/2008-12-01