Video games highly susceptible to becoming vaporware
by Conrad Quilty-Harper 
{ Feb 6th 2006 at 3:00PM }
In an article entitled
"Vaporware: Better Late Than Never", Wired News has published their
reader's top ten vaporware tech products for 2005. Out of the top ten, four are games and one is a games console (if
you must know, it's the Phantom). No prizes for guessing which product came in at first position.1. Duke Nukem Forever - 8 years and 11 months late
2. Phantom Game Console - 3 years late
5. StarCraft Ghost - 3 years late
6. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 1 year late but delay has been amplified due to intense demand
7. Team Fortress 2: Brotherhood of Arms - approx. 7 years late
That's right, Duke Nukem Forever (a game just 13 months short of a decade long development period) has set the standard for vaporware once again. So what is it about games that makes them so susceptible to becoming vaporware?
[Via digg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Christopher Yee Mon @ Feb 6th 2006 3:13PM
Maybe it's cuz a lot of games are still generally of high-quality. You don't hear us complaining about how an entire season's games are absolutely terrible.
Gin @ Feb 6th 2006 3:25PM
.... It would be funny .... if "Duke Nukem Forever" comes out later this year (December) and becomes one of the best games we have seen yet xD. The chances of that happening are highly unlikely, but it would be funny non the less if it did. (Half-Life 2 took 4 years to make right?)
Jim @ Feb 6th 2006 3:31PM
I think some games (like TF2) were a good idea at the time but they weren't a top priority for the developers and all of a sudden other games come in (like BF2) that makes the market for a game like TF2 fairly small. Also, I'm sure that game developers reach a point after a game has reached the vaporware point and ask themselves if there are even enough potential customers that even care if the game comes out to make it profitable enough and if the game really offers anything new to attract new customers.
anonymous coward @ Feb 6th 2006 3:33PM
Zelda isn't vaporware. Being late by itself doesn't imply vaporware status.
Shad Genki @ Feb 6th 2006 3:47PM
"Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - 1 year late but delay has been amplified due to intense demand"
That is crap. How could anyone ever think a Zelda game would become vaporware?
Captain Obvious @ Feb 6th 2006 3:58PM
By the time Duke Nukem is released, will anyone care?
10 years is too long. You could have graduated from high school, college, and started your career by the time it's released.
Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Feb 6th 2006 3:59PM
Jago, you're exactly what I meant by "amplified by intense demand".
Your justification that it's ok because Nintendo "is notorious for delaying their key franchise titles" actually weakens your argument that the game isn't vaporware.
Thomas Crymes @ Feb 6th 2006 4:01PM
I always thought vaporware was anything that was announced, but never worked on. It was just this title that no one can confirm exists.
Even though Duke Forever has taken nearly a decade, updates suggest that 3D-Realms is working on it. They changed engines like twice or three times. I believe it will come out, but the hype will build up so much, I have to believe it will suffocate under its consciderable weight.
Of course there is the cynic who looks at the title "Duke Nukem Forever" and knows that 3-D Realms is attempting to pull the wool over everyone's eyes as they work on something else.
jc @ Feb 6th 2006 4:02PM
TFA says:
"Twilight Princess is in danger of being released just before the GameCube is scrapped in favor of Nintendo's next box, the Revolution. Or it may be rehashed as a Revolution title.
Wrote reader Matt Cramp, "So: hotly anticipated product? Check. Inexplicable and tactically weak delay? Check. Public assurances that the product hasn't been shelved? Check. The sound of millions of fanboys' hearts breaking around the world? Check."
Reader Luke Gullickson said: "This is easily the most anticipated Zelda game since Ocarina of Time, and hordes of ravenous Zelda fans were looking forward to a November release of the game. Nintendo wished everyone a merry Christmas by pushing the game back to 2006, and there's nothing stopping them from pushing it back even further. Vaporware."
Slashbunny @ Feb 6th 2006 4:09PM
More importantly in regards to Zelda, a 1 year delay is hardly out of the ordinary. I think it needs to be a lot later than that and less information being released about it for people to start suspecting that it may be vaporware. I don't think its fair to call any late game "susceptible to vaporware". It happens all the time. Media blackouts and long delays, maybe. But Zelda doesn't fit that.
TF2 could questionably be almost 9 years late or so, since it was originally going to be a mod for Quake2 :D
Spencer @ Feb 6th 2006 4:16PM
Oh all-knowing Conrad, please expand on how a delay from around Oct. or Nov. to March somehow constitues an entire year?
While you're at it, please explain your logic in calling this 5-6 month delay "susceptible to becoming vaporware?"
Zelda's a major franchise. Nintendo doesn't ditch those.
Name one major key franchise game that Nintendo has scrapped. Since you're clearly an omniscient game journalist, this should be no problem.
Iced_Eagle @ Feb 6th 2006 4:36PM
So... How come S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't on your list? :-P Too hard to type out?
AJ @ Feb 6th 2006 4:41PM
Aah, silly Nintendo fanboys complaining when someone decides to give a game a plug...
jdcool88 @ Feb 6th 2006 4:59PM
How in the name of all things videogames did Phantasy Star Universe not make this list? PSU was sleighted to release early this year but has now been pushed back to the end (as in FALL) of the year.
Even worse, it is releasing on the PS2, which means that it will probably be releasing on a dead console WELL AFTER PS3 IS ALREADY SHIPPED!
Not to mention that it was first shown at E3 2004...much earlier than Twilight Princess.
Furthermore, the fact that Twilight Princess has an official release date of April while PSU doesn't even have a release date just proves the incompetency of this ridiculous article.
elmer @ Feb 6th 2006 5:34PM
Hate to say it Spencer, but the N64 MOTHER game was delayed, and delayed again, and again, and then cancelled, as was Jungle Emperor Leo, 2 major Nintendo games I looked forward to for years, one of which was a major franchise. Still though, Zelda? A year? I think not. How about including a Stargate SG1 game? What about games that were nearly vapourware (self contradictory, I know)? My friend waited for F1GPII for like 4 years or something. There was that game Edge magazine covered in its first ever issue, but didn't review until like 6 years later (something like Another World).
EvoG @ Feb 6th 2006 5:54PM
Wow, a surprisingly ignorant article. The author, in his first sentence, defines(his definition at least) vaporware as:
"...Vaporware Awards -- the prize that celebrates the tech products that were promised last year but never delivered."
Um, well, odds are he was trying to be controversial for the sake of entertainment, but the use of the term incorrectly is begining to drive its meaning down.
http://www.answers.com/vaporware&r=67
a brief quote:
"Software that is not yet in production, but the announced delivery date has long since passed. At times, software vendors are criticized for intentionally producing vaporware in order to keep customers from switching to competitive products that offer more features. However, programmers are notorious for being awful estimators of time. As a result, shipping dates often slip over and over again."
also from the definition:
"Vaporware (also spelled vapourware) is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. The term implies deception, or at least a negligent degree of optimism; that is, it implies that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility."
Vaporware has nothing to do with something as arbitrary as a delay or 'continuously in production'. Technically, DNF isn't vaporware, as it DOES exist. The Phantom though is a good candidate, as AFAIK, it has never been demo'd. Otherwise, most of the products on that list do exist and have been showcased to the public.
Well whatever makes your article more interesting I suppose. *rolls emote*
Phaeton @ Feb 6th 2006 7:36PM
Where's Kid Icarus Prime? I've been waiting for that game half my life!
bljf @ Feb 6th 2006 7:45PM
Twilight Princess?? What were they smoking??!? Replace it with Super Mario 128 and I agree. TP was delayed twice to "make it better" but it was CONFIRMED for GCN, which means it has to come out before the Rev. launch which is THIS YEAR. Mario 128 was originally hinted at at about the same time DNF was... in a 1997 interview with Miyamoto I think, he said "My next project will be Mario 128! [laughs]" (from wikipedia) I think thats when he got the idea for Mario 64x2.
As for Duke Nukem, if it ever does come out (which I highly doubt... the company's "Manhattan Project" website has already gone down the drain) will be an outdated peice of crap. You know what I think is happening? Every year thay say, "FINALLY! DONE! But wait look at this FPS... 'Halo 2'?? That looks WAY better than this peice of junk! Lets take another two years to update it using this top of the line processor/graphics chip! Then in a year their engine is a peice of crap again. It's like a perpetual cycle, man. I am like totally trippin'...
bljf @ Feb 6th 2006 7:50PM
And what about Game Zero?? That was "announced" about 2000 right?
Darren Tilley @ Feb 6th 2006 7:51PM
My favorite gaming Vaporware is Star Trek: Secret of Vulcan Fury. It was the proposed sequel to the best series of games ever. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary, and Star Trek: Judgement Rites. However it has never been shown, with the exception of some tasty (for the time) GC cutscenes.
Point and Click adventures rock! I'm still hoping it will be released.
ReyBrujo @ Feb 6th 2006 9:33PM
Mother 3 anyone? It has been recently confirmed, but until then...
Matt T. @ Feb 7th 2006 12:30AM
What about the vaperware that is Too Human, you forgot itIt was planed for a PS1 launch game,and never made it,10 years later and it is devolping for Xbox 360 for a 2007 release.12 years anyone?
Please add Too Human
Zero_ @ Feb 7th 2006 12:30AM
What about Final Fantasy XII? That's about 3-4 years late.
Jago @ Feb 7th 2006 2:51AM
Conrad:
You obviously are as misinformed as the writer of the Wired article. Zelda being delayed in no way shape or form means that it is classified as "vaporware."
In fact games are delayed all the time but most us never know about it...and it is common knowledge that Nintendo has delayed their key franchise titles to make sure it is as perfect as possible.
Conrad Quilty-Harper @ Feb 7th 2006 3:44AM
Jago, you do understand that this article was compiled based upon reader's votes?
Neither I, or the writer of the Wired article can complain that "Zelda doesn't fall into the vaporware category". Readers of Wired voted it into that category!
Merus @ Feb 7th 2006 4:52AM
Wired uses specific rules for vaporware: if it was promised in 2005 but didn't make it, it's vaporware.
Actually, a second Zelda for the Gamecube is a fine candidate for vaporware using that definition. It was set for the 2005 holiday season, up against the Xbox 360, a positioning that would have done J Allard proud. It got pushed back to a nebulous and strategically wasteful '2006', and that's way too close to the Revolution. We haven't seen anything new from Zelda since E3 last year. We don't even know if it'll actually make it to the Gamecube.
Disclosure: I was one of the people they quoted in the article. I would have voted for Duke or Team Fortress, but I figured everyone else had it covered, so I picked a game that everyone wanted but no-one got.
Super Mario 128... well, it's been rumoured for a while, but never announced. That hardly makes it a broken promise, does it?
Regarding why so many games are on the vaporware list, personally I think it's because the game industry still flies by the seat of its pants a lot. Most of the programming industry has at least some idea of engineering best practice, but games are an odd mix of engineering, art and psychology. Postmortems on games are rarely read by development teams once written. There's not much in the way of game design patterns that I've been able to find (and if anyone can point me to a good resource, please do) and game developers are big sufferers of the 'not invented here' syndrome. It's much better than it was during the SNES era, but Insomniac and Naughty Dog sharing draw distance code was considered highly unusual five years ago. You can't speed up art, though, but everything else is more a result of a lack of best practices than anything.
It takes Blizzard five years to make one game because they usually do the work twice - once to make a bad game, and once to rip out all the work they've done and start again from scratch. Even when they have outside contractors do the work. Then again, you can sort of tell Blizzard is run by artists.
Jago @ Feb 7th 2006 4:57AM
You obviously did not read the definition of what "Vaporware" is (as posted by EvoG):
"Vaporware (also spelled vapourware) is software or hardware which is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge, either with or without a protracted development cycle. The term implies deception, or at least a negligent degree of optimism; that is, it implies that the announcer knows that product development is in too early a stage to support responsible statements about its completion date, feature set, or even feasibility."
Now tell me...has Nintendo deceived the public with Zelda: Twilight Princess? It has been shown (multiple times), it has been played by quite a few people (including me at E3 2005 and I have pictures of it.) The game is also near completion since it is being shipped in a few months.
The article basically states that if a item was originally stated to be released in 2005 but never happened...it is Vaporware. Sorry but just b/c something had it's release date pushed back does not mean it is vaporware.
What is REAL Vaporware? DNF...b/c it has only been shown once (in trailer form) 5 years ago. The Phantom is vaporware...it has only been shown once at E3 and nothing has been shown or released since then about the system.
Joey Geraci @ Feb 7th 2006 5:53PM
The definition from Answers.com (from Wikipedia) is somehow the official definition of vaporware. I think not. And many of games that were wrapped up and finished were never actually released due to conflicts or timing problems.
Jago @ Feb 7th 2006 8:34PM
It may not be the "official" definition, but what this definition from dictionary.com?
"New software that has been announced or marketed but has not been produced."
Zelda does not fall under that description. It has been unveiled, it has been played by thousands of people and it has not disappeared into obscurity like the Phantom or DNF has.