I didn't see a topic about this on the front page, so I decided to make one. Forgive me if there is already a discussion about this.

But today when I saw Dawnguard on Steam, it really was the final straw for me. I'm no longer buying Bethesda's games when they come out, and I'll probably only buy them used to cut them out of the profit. It's just gotten ridiculous to me how they've been supporting the console. I've always bought all of Bethesda's games at full price on the PS3, and I've always managed to pull through the bugs since I usually don't get any of the worse ones.

But then I bought Skyrim, and I've been plagued with bugs since I got it on release day. And even with all the patches, it's still not perfect. It still freezes and whatnot. And I recall how angry I was with that water bug after 1.5. How do you create a fatal bug in a new patch?

I didn't really care with Oblivion, how we never got those small DLC's because those really weren't a big deal to me. Would've loved to have them, but whatever, we got Knights of the Nine free on the Disc and we did get Shivering Isles. Fallout 3 made me a little angrier considering we didn't get DLC for what was it, 6 or 7 months? But whatever, even through the numerous bugs and everything in those games, I continued to love the games and as I stated before bought Skyrim on release day.

And now we have yet to get the mounted combat patch, we have yet to get Dawnguard, and I have seen no signs of faith towards the console that makes up 30% of its player base beyond that Bethblog post we had today.

Now that I've got out of my system, I want to hear your guys' thoughts about the PS3 - Bethesda relationship, how it's affected you, and how you think it will progress in the future.

I feel like Bethesda has gone Molag Bal on the PS3 users, and we can do nothing about it, but it does not bother me that much as long as I get the DLC eventually.

I haven't been a console user now since the days of the original xbox, Gamecube, PS2, and Dreamcast so I'm not sure if my opinion is worth much, but from what I hear the PS3 was notoriously difficult to code for and that bit Sony in the [censored] pretty hard early on.

Of course we have studios like Naughty Dog (the Uncharted guys) putting out great games but that's because they've been paid by Sony to exclusively do so, so it's no wonder that they have learnt to get to grips with the PS3's dev kit. Other studios don't have that luxury so I can't blame them for not being able to put out completely bug free games on time when working with such a difficult console. And from what I recall it was only the minority of PS3 users who suffered terrible lag and other problems (I'm not trying to belittle you own PS3 related problems with Skyrim, btw), and I don't recall seeing any angry PS3 gamers here in Japan (though I'm not sure how well Skyrim sold here to be honest).

As for DLC, all we can do is blame MS for being aggressive enough in their business strategy to go around buying 30 day exclusive DLCs for their console. Sony could have easily done the same (I assume) but they didn't.

You clearly haven't read the Bethblog article, which has also been posted in the Dawnguard forum. Bethesda are delaying the release of Dawnguard as its too buggy and unstable for release. Would you rather your game be one a buggy mess, or wait a few extra weeks for Dawnguard?

That is great, but why weren't they testing it for bugs, and all that the whole month the Xbox had it exclusive.

Of course we want them to get it right, but the fact is that we have been waiting, and will continue to wait.

I agree with the OP, my patience are being tested. Not enough to boycott TES though. I just wont rely on the PS3(or sonys next-gen equivalent) for the next installment of TES.

No I clearly didn't read the Bethblog article, even though I said that I did in my original post.

And I would have loved to have waited 6 months for Skyrim if it meant that it was less buggy than it was/has been. You seem to assume that I want everything now, bug-free. I understand that it takes time to do these things, but the way that they have handled the situation is irritating. And it's also irritating that it's the PS3 version always getting screwed.

As for Dawnguard, they've had a month and change to get it working without bugs, plus however long they were actually developing the DLC. I don't claim to know what's going on in Bethesda's office, but if they want to keep my business and the business of many, many PS3 owners, they had better shape up.

Bear in mind, they weren't allowed to do anything for those 30 days.

The PC version was ready to go straight away for numerous reasons. Firstly, the DLC is developed on the PC using the Creation Kit, so no porting or anything is necessary. They had the files ready, all they had to do is release them. Considering the fact that patches and DLCs can be released pretty much as soon as Bethesda want to, because Valve don't really impose any limits or restraints on when patches and DLCs can be pushed out, all they had to do was do a quick 1.7 beta, release the patch straight away, test the DLC for a few days and then push it out for release. It's rather simple.

On the PS3, not so simple. Not only would Bethesda have to port the assets to the PS3, but patches cost money to release. Plus the patches and the DLCs have to be put through the idiotic verification process that takes weeks to complete.

It's hardly surprising the PC version is released, while the PS3 is lagging behind, as always.

I meant developing and bug-testing the patch and Dawnguard during the 30 days...are you trying to say Bethesda isn't allowed to develop content during an exclusivity period? What on earth are you talking about?

The patch was ready this week. They're submitting it to Sony later this week, but it seems highly convenient that they couldn't release it in the 30 day period (same with the PC). It seems like that was part of the deal.

As many issues as i have with BGS this is not really just their fault. As has been mentioned it has a lot to do with Sony and Sony's lack of trying to purchase exclusive deals for DLC to bump their sales. Then there is the problem with the Sony console itself as has also been mentioned. Lastly there is the fact that the PC version is the easiest to release. That is why it came out before the PS3 one. It was probably mostly finished beforethe Xbox one.