Why Are So Many Video Games Broken At Launch?

Why are so many video games broken at launch? Because consumers put up with it. Maybe these companies would pay attention if people started voting with their wallets. Even after installing Ubisoft's "day one" patch, we encountered extreme drops in frame rate -- read: low teens -- and main story missions with broken objectives (forcing a manual reset). The game's developer/publisher went as far as to create a live update website to keep owners updated on Unity's ongoing patch work. Some folks are experiencing outright game crashes, and Ubisoft has a totally insane fix that involves deleting your list of in-game contacts. To illustrate how insane this is, allow me to point out that this year's Assassin's Creed is being sold on the hook of online, multiplayer co-op play.