Hire a bunch of people to go over every game thay have made? That would cost a fortune, especially since there aren't going to be much more sales for older games.

Very strong point by you too mak47. and R.J. I think you should stay out of matters that dont concern you. you apparently dont understand what this discussion is really about and your disagreement is very invalid.

Space. Older games are still producing revenue. They are releasing a combo pack for Oblivion and Fallout 3 together. Now that money could be used to patch up those games instead of tossing it to the newer stuff. Skyrim already made its profit. Now i Can tell it may be taking alot of money to fix. But with older games. If theyre gonna be re-released with all the issues and degradation it has had for the years. People aint really going to buy them anymore. Instead of re-releasing them. the best they can do is patch them up again so people can buy them again and have it generate much more revenue. People wont buy something that is broken or will be tossed aside after 2 uses of it cause issues became a problem.

What mak says is also a point i left out. with people just tossing games away to their friends or like i said the bargain bin. nothings being generated anymore. Look at android and iphones too. You still got to buy your content. Thats what Bethesda can do for patches. Sell them on PSN and Xbox Live for say $0.99 a patch or whatever and they can still make revenue for their games.

Consoles will die out. Year after year each generation gets tossed away and it just becomes another load of wasted money trying to upgrade to the next future of generation of gaming. Just like the Iphone and androids razors blackberrys etc. how much longer will they hold the place they are in till better tech comes out and kills them off. It happens every so often. Which R.J. prolly hasnt ever noticed for the past 20 or so years computers have existed and stormed the world taking everything else away with it. Where has he been all this time never keeping up with current events and doesnt even know what modding is? Look at cell phones R.J. They arent even cell phones anymore in general. Theyre a walking computer now. Modded to royal extremes that they can do just about anything than being just a phone. Patched beyond belief to run as powerful as todays top computers. Get off your butt an go outside and learn current events R.J. Heck Mak knows alot more than you do. Take a look at todays world before you come in here disagreeing about something that doesnt relate to the topic.

What is the next step for companies and their gamings? Modding and patching takes the community by storm and sits on the top raking in revenue and third parties becoming the next hirees for game companies to get their foot in the door being on the top echolon of game companies. You dont want to end up like Acclaim did. Many companies are focusing more and more everyday on the capabilities of PC over console gaming and more releases continue to flock on PC alot more than console gaming since the past 10 years. PC is capable of running such powerful games like these with no issues at all thanks to what modding and patching them yourselves can do. If you know coding, you pretty much are a game companies saint. They will want your help in catching up older games to where they should be. PC has so much more capability over consoling whats the point of making games on consoles anymore when they still plague with issues and yet PC can just keep patching and modding games not even a week after its been out people have already made the game perfect to play by then.

With how gaming is going nowdays with andriods and iphones getting game releases. It shows you to Heck with consoles getting releases. if you cant fix them. who wants them anymore? The way its looks is you either go PC or iphones etc or go home. If you want to continue wasting money on consoles how the market is starting to sound. enjoy your broken games and stop complaining about them. Hopefully one day even bethesda might just take a bite out of their heart and just go back patching the older games and just see what happens if maybe people will start looking more towards buyin fixed and fully patched games rather than arguing how lets say Elder Scrolls VI is so broken. Which chances are it will be. Theres reason why companies now are doing what blizzard is doing. take your time on a game and dont make stupid demanding release dates. take decades making the game if you have to and if better technology comes out. scrap it for the newer stuff. Watching these companies waste away their old games is one reason why theyre losing money. Its all about the new game rather than fix their games and re-release them making much more profit than before.

Like I said. No one wants to buy the broken items anymore. Its the same for a car when you buy a used one. Do you want to buy the used car that will break down days after you bought it, or buy the used car which had work put into it so it can run better and longer and may cost a bit more? Take a good guess which car you wont waste money on? If companies dont start getting into the funk with what blizzard and squarenix are doing with their games. Good luck ever expecting to make money when you have a bad company rep of releasing broken games people are getting sick and tired of year after year. How long is bethesda gonna put up with this? Guarantee you, not much longer and they will go back and patch everything they made. What more can companies do to their fan base?

Bethesda has had a seriously bad rep ever since daggerfall and arena. They never had professional coders and developers. But they try to work with what they got. But if the fan base is demanding games get fixed because the older ones seem to have more replay value than Skyrim. Something is telling the company. Maybe after Skyrim. Its time to take a break releasing new games and just learn to code on their older titles. Get them fixed. Then know how to properly make a game before going with this bad guy company stupidity which is getting way out of whack.

Every forum about bethesda has the exact same excuses bethesda continues to ignore. They want games fixed and patched. Better customer service, and for a company to care about its players like Squarenix, Blizzard, Bioware/EA, Overhaul, Naughtydog etc have to their fan base. Wheres Bethesda on that list. Believe it or not! Theyre ranked the worst of all top game companies. Truth be told. So if Bethesda cant patch their older games. Its not gonna cost them that much more money to fix them. Once theyre fixed. They can make the money back by like releasing that combo pack they expect to make money from. BUt if its not patched and is plagued with minor issues and results fans already gave it. People wont look too much at buying it. Its not about if a game is old or new, or if its about costing more money. Its none of that crock of dung. Its about people wanting benefit of the doubt and wanting their bang for their buck. Fix your games and give fans what they want. Learn coding, take advice from the PC companies and the iphone and andriod powers of technology. Understand what has to be done and solve this ever ending issue Bethesda.

Maybe patching the games is the answer to Bethesdas problems. Consolers are sick of being left out of the loop while PC just reaps in the rewards of the benefit they get. So many people are flocking to the PC or now are just strictly buying PC releases cause they get what they want there. The money is better spent on the PC from hwo this is going. Patchin a game shouldnt cost that much for what Bethesda has made in its years. They generate great revenue but they make much more if they patched games rather than making newer releases much too soon. Bethesda is the "ONLY" game company which gives up on games too soon. The rest take their time to patch it and release a game at least over a year before bothering about thinking of a new game. Of course they start production soon as a game is released. But only a small amount of staff are needed for that start. The rest continue looking at the issues of the game they just released and make sure every issue is listened to and addressed no matter how pressuring it is, which Bethesda doesnt give a rats butt about from how every forum has sounded. Maybe they do but they just dont wanna be arsed anymore. But maybe its that change Bethesda has to do and get back to addressing these issues on all their games and start making more profit re-releasing fixed games rather than junk people at this point have pretty much moved on from and went elsewhere cause you failed to give the fans what they want. More patches and issue fixes and more customer service.

Time to wake up Bethesda. Drink some coffee and take a stand on the matters all these people are asking for and just give them what they want and start thinking about your games and test them alot more often and dont release them till its doubtfully sure they will work with no issues at all. ont re-release games that arent fully patched and fixed. That combo pack is a bad idea untill issues are looked at again. Youll make more profit selling something fixed than what was ridden and resulted as a poor failure on yoru part.

People are nowdays questioning you guys on how your games are getting game of the year awards. Something fishy is going on to get you guys money you prolly dont deserve. This broken gaming has got to stop from yas. Every other compnay releases games with far less issues you guys ever have in games. So whats the speculation on your parts? Whats the shadowy concealment and the poor customer service on yoru parts? An why are you guys getting awards on broken games which those awards are better given to other companies who deserve them cause they take pride in their games and address stuff and their fans. Start doing something Bethesda. How much longer can you take this? If people are still complaining about older games.

My discussion is that you guys ansswer these compaliners from all these years. After Skyrim get back to the older games patch them up and shut these people up already and get crackin with their demands so everyone can move on from this out of whack issue thats been plaguing them for years. All I can say is people. If you cant take the issues. Go to PC and stay on PC. Youll get what you always want there compared to the console gaming. You want patches an stuff. PC is the way to go till companies start getting into the habit and get their console games fixed or redo them all and put them on stronger consoles when they come out that actually can run them properly with no issues at all and hold much more memory than the PS3 and 360 combined.

Ill stress this to Bethesda too. Elder Scrolls series and The Fallout games were meant "ONLY" for PC. Releasing them on consoles was such a stupid childish thing to do. Those games are just not ready yet for consoles. They are way too detailed for such machines. Your best bet is to put them on stronger platforms or strictly Bethesda. go PC all the way and just ignore the console gaming all together. Im sure your reputation will renew to better lengths if you just stick your games to PC only. You guys have better success on PC than consoles anyways and your games can be fixed a week after theyre released if more work is needed on them since new and old PC games still make money when they have the benefit of patching and modding done by the fans. The buck makes its bang on there and you guys have less stressful resources to work with. If consoles are becoming such an issue. Move on and stay PC all the way. That is my advice to you Bethesda.

Theres a reason why we have restorations in this world. People still want the old. We have old sitcoms on TV. People are bringing back the oldies cars and displaying them. Restoring the 50s memorabilia and such. Its all about the old mostly. The old has value and replay and that charm that catches your eye. Memories and pastimes are hard to let go of. Thats why even for games and most companies why they still look at the old and keep them up to date.

The only things that get tossed away are like tape cassettes. We dont need them thanks to Blue Rays now. Even DVD is obsolete. Records are gone too. We dont need churning ice cream buckets anymore either. Games get restored and remastered because of the replay. Most of the new stuff really is becoming like what the old used to be. Or most new stuff is just not worth it anymore. People are running out of ideas and such. Thats why Final Fantasy 4 was totally renovated and people went after it like it was the 5 cent candy that went on sale for a penny. The new is great and all. But most want to stick with the old. The new is just getting out of control. Becoming way too much work to put into. Way too detailed. Way too complex etc etc. The old doesnt have these complications to work with. Especially putting it onto stronger platforms.

Where is all this going lately? I say get the old back into the picture that still has its popularity and remaster them to better heights. Im sure they will still make plenty of profit when people hear about we have fully taken Fallout 3 and NV and Oblivion and Morrowind and totally went through the whole nine yards and remade them in much better stronger a whole new engine of play and they have no issues at all. People will flock for that. I guarantee it.

Squarenix and Blizzard have shown what capabilities fixing and remaking old releases can do. The other companies need to step up and take their masterpieces to newer levels and better tech and see where it will put them in the next 10 years from now. Companies dont need to shy away from potential profit. The risks squarenix and Blizzard took put them as the top 2 game companies people will buy from. Theyre making names for themselves. Diablo 3 will be such a big hit cause blizzard took its time and pride into it after all the issues of D2 that plagued that game had. They ptahced the hell out of Diablo 2 and its still selling on shelves making money. Now all that was implemented into Diablo 3. Imagine what the outcome that game will have on Day 1? Huge impact when games are taken time and cared for before even mentioning a release.

If Bethesda does this and takes this idea. Im sure they will become the top 3 with those 2 companies I mentioned. Bethesda has potential with their games. But only if they take more pride in them. Fallout 3/NV and Oblivion and Morrowind still have the popularity. To keep it popular. They need just a few more patches. Then Bethesda will never have to look back on them again.

I just hope that companies don't start selling patches as DLC...

@curiousgamer

I think we're on the same page with a few things, but the idea that consoles will die off in favor of PC gaming is just not anywhere close to the reality of the market. The vast majority of people don't like playing games with a mouse and keyboard. PC games are not the mainstream and are not where money is made for developers. Beyond that, like it or not, the PC is dying. Outside of professional use, it will be replaced by tablets, smartphones and other casual computing/communication devices.

I think the next generation of consoles will really be more about content delivery and ecosystem development than graphics and hardware. We'll see a transition to iOS like content stores that will encourage developers to sell games directly to the console user. In the long run this will allow developers to escape the limitations of optical media and generate ongoing revenue from classic games--much like app developers who generate continuing revenue from "classic" or "must have" apps.

With the increasing power and graphics capabilities of the iPad and Android tablets, and the financial viability of their existing content stores, we could even expect to see high end game titles released for those platforms in the not too distant future. Once the hardware capabilities are there, they will be more viable than the PC for game developers.

As for charging small fees for patches...let's hope they don't start doing that. Historically, end users don't install updates that cost money. That would be an exercise in futility.

As nice as it would be for development companies to engage in charity work and update old games, it simply isn't going to happen. The only solution is for a distribution platform with greater long-term financial viability to become the mainstream distribution point for console games. The problem you present is a self-solving one. We'll also likely see many older games reissued with patches and updates for the new distro points. Whether they'll need to be purchased again is an entirely different issue, but reissues would be likely.

I agree Tehragonborn. But with the neglection of older games still needing patches. It sounds like only way that will happen is by selling them. From what most on here dont get is they think patches will take lots of money and lots of resources. From what was officially said. Every company mostly spends no more than $40,000 a patch which is more than enough to patch pretty much an entire game of coding issue wise. Now if people think that is alot of money. They need to get their heads checked and get an MRI scan or something. $40,000 isnt alot of money at all and wont cost the company any problems at all. A patch is a minor touchup people. It wont take a companys funds right out. $40,000 is easily made up with many sales. It shouldnt be hard for companies to come out with extra patches for their older games too. If Skyrim can scrounge up more than what the 2 fallouts Oblivion and Morrowind combine from what results showed they made more than $50 million dollars of sales. Thats far more money it took for them to make the game plus the patches and Im sure theres left overs to look at the other games and still make another future release. If Blizzard and squarenix can do this and still stay at the top of the list. Im sure Bethesda can with all their game of the year awards. Im sure they got more money they can throw around to patch up a few older games still needing touchups and yet still swim in the money they have and still be successful. Theyll just make back what they spend on patching older stuff when theyre re-released anyways.

PC has controller capabilities too thanks to USB made ones. Even on a PC you can still use a controller. Like I said. PC has many ways around and what can be done on them compared to consoles. You pretty much can turn a PC into a console. Hence why 360 and PS3 got built from a computer in the first place. Thats why I say consoles may just not be around much longer but believe it or not. PC isnt dying. It never will. Computers are just getting smaller and smaller thinner and thinner stronger and stronger and phones are your to go computer. Like a pocket laptop. When you look at a console compared to a PC. The capabilities the PC has over the consoles are near infinite possibilities. They run pretty much everything with no problems at all. You pretty much can code your own games and such. What do consoles really got compared to a PC. Not much to look at honestly. Consoles yes still have some years in them. But with the way we are seeing androids and iphones/pads etc become. what purpose will the console serve much longer?

That is a very valid discussion made up about ecosystem and ios and developement matters. PSN and LIve are what is starting this trend with digitally uploading your games. Using the Blue rays and such just are getting stupid and those resources can be better used for making some other need of use. When a Blue Ray cracks or gets scratched. Its pretty much garbage after that. The downside of digital is. If you format. You lose it all. Internet goes down say permenently, yeah you lose it all. But if you got it saved to some drive. Thats the way to go. That honestly can take the discussion to a new level too. Digitally releasing games is definitely the way to go. Or do something like netflix. Your library of games are all within your hands. You just choose what to play. Maybe you wont need a monthly payment but pay for each individual game. Im sure that is a much easier way for companies to maintain and patch every game cause from what netflix says. Its actually easier this way to convert the movies to the next generation tech rather than doing it individiually when theyre on Blue rays etc. Digital is the next generation for sure.

@curiousgamer, but not everyone lives in an area that has the infrastructure to support going full digi-distro. while it would be nice the reality is many places are still limited to dial-up (either by geography or finance or both)