BDSP What if BDSP was released initially "incomplete" on purpose?

[Boss1708]

Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl were released incomplete, with a large portion of its game content missing from the physical cartridge game. Said missing content was made available to us with a Day 1 patch, adding everything that wasn't included in the physical cartridge (the game's finished music, the game intro, a big part of the postgame, etc). This hasn't really happened before in a Pokemon game. So, why did they do that? O have seen people propose 3 possible reasons.

1. The answer that a lot of people seem to be giving is that the game was released in such a state simply because ILCA didn't manage to finish the game in time, and it was already time to ship the game worldwide, finished or not.

2. Some people are saying that apparently the developers (or TPCi, or Nintendo, or whoever is in charge of the game's production) decided to use cheaper cartridges, which couldn't fit the entire game, so they left part of the game out of the physical cartridges, and made the missing content available through the Day 1 Patch.

3. Another explanation that I've read online, is that ILCA just wanted to avoid part of the game being spoiled early by leakers, so they did this to hide some of the content until close to release date (or until the reviewers were given copies of the game).

So, what's your guess? Please discuss, and share alternative reasons, if you can think of any.

 

[pokemonsim]

Manufacturing contracts are typically penned well before development is complete, so it's possible that the developers just didn't finish in time, which is typical nowadays.

But it's also possible that the ongoing global chip shortage resulted in Nintendo/TPC settling for smaller capacity cartridges due to availability. The workaround to that would be to deliver the rest of the content as a patch onto internal Switch storage.

Just a guess. Haven't actually dissected any cartridges to compare.

 

[Welkamo]

Another explanation that I've read online, is that ILCA just wanted to avoid part of the game being spoiled early by leakers, so they did this to hide some of the content until close to release date (or until the reviewers were given copies of the game).

That's a really cool explanation lol.

 

[Boss1708]

But it's also possible that the ongoing global chip shortage resulted in Nintendo/TPC settling for smaller capacity cartridges due to availability. The workaround to that would be to deliver the rest of the content as a patch onto internal Switch storage.

That's a very logical guess, imo.

If this is true, it means BDSP wasn't "unfinished", like some people claim, but rather they couldn't fit the entire game on the cartridge.

 

[TheCapsFan]

I think it's probably a mix of all of the above. Given the seemingly relatively short development time of the titles, it would make sense if they hadn't finished parts of the game before the final build for the cartridge was made. It also would make sense if they cut specific content that was large in size (like the music) to save room for more important pieces of the code on the actual cartridge itself.

The chip shortage resulting in lower-storage cartridges is also probably a factor as the chip shortage permeates pretty much everything in the industry in one way or another.

I think your theory about them deliberately leaving stuff off the cartridge is a little Farfetch'd, but still plausible. I think there were already marketing problems for this game, so leaving some of that important "new" information out on purpose may have been a mistake anyway, where marketing those new-ish additions may have led to a better initial reception.

 

[Boss1708]

I think your theory about them deliberately leaving stuff off the cartridge is a little Farfetch'd, but still plausible

Just to clarify, this is not "my" theory. It is something that people on another website were saying.

 

[Oriden]

I think the music made it clear that the games were just unfinished when they were sent out to the manufacturers. Because if it was a matter of the cartridges not being able to hold enough data, why was the music unfinished? That's not leaving things out to save space. And if it was to avoid leaks... what leaks were they trying to avoid? The title screen? Good music? Cutscenes while leaving the rest of the story intact so a lot of people didn't even notice they were missing? And they didn't take out actual new content like Ramanas Park, so we knew about it before it was revealed.

 

[Boss1708]

Ok I have a few questions:

1. Do we know how much cartridge space do things like the music and the game intro actually take? What if they take up more space than we think? I'm asking because I genuinely don't know.

2. The final music wasn't "left unfinished" in the cartridge. Instead, the final music was completely left out of the cartridge, with placeholder music in its place. Doesn't this imply that ILCA was indeed trying to hide the real music?

3. If I remember correctly, wasn't part of the postgame (including Ramanas Park) also left out of the game, and only became available after installing the Day 1 Update? This again seems to point out that ILCA was deliberately hiding some of the game's content?

I really don't know. And while it's certainly possible that the game just wasn't finished in time (which is what most people assume), I think it is equally possible that this was done deliberately, and the decision had nothing to do with time constraints.

 

[silurica]

I don't know, I'd be sympathetic if this was caused by issues outside of their control like the pandemic affecting shipping and stuff. But if they did this intentionally, that sympathy would be gone in no time since that means they have hampered with preservation of the game for... one or two weeks of preventing leak?

 

[Boss1708]

I don't know, I'd be sympathetic if this was caused by issues outside of their control like the pandemic affecting shipping and stuff. But if they did this intentionally, that sympathy would be gone in no time since that means they have hampered with preservation of the game for... one or two weeks of preventing leak?

Yes I agree, but maybe they will start releasing pre-patched game cartridges? That solves the preservation issue.

(although, personally, I prefer buying the games digitally, to avoid future cartridge failure, etc)

 

[Oriden]

Ok I have a few questions:

1. Do we know how much cartridge space do things like the music and the game intro actually take? What if they take up more space than we think? I'm asking because I genuinely don't know.

2. The final music wasn't "left unfinished" in the cartridge. Instead, the final music was completely left out of the cartridge, with placeholder music in its place. Doesn't this imply that ILCA was indeed trying to hide the real music until the reviewers got the game?

3. If I remember correctly, wasn't part of the postgame (including Ramanas Park) also left out of the game, and only became available after installing the Day 1 Update? This again seems to point out that ILCA was deliberately hiding some of the game's content, until the reviewers got the game?

I really don't know. And while it's certainly possible that the game just wasn't finished in time (which is what most people assume), I think it is equally possible that this was done deliberately, and the decision had nothing to do with time constraints.

None of that points toward deliberately hiding content.

Placeholder music for the sake of thwarting leaks would be using the original soundtrack. No one would have called it unfinished or complained about it sounding bad because it would have just been the original music.

Instead, they... what? Made intentionally bad placeholders so we would think the music was terrible before release day? All that accomplishes is making themselves look bad, over music that isn't even big spoiler content worth trying to hide.

And if they were trying to purposely hide Ramanas Park, they wouldn't have left its name in. Plain and simple. That's not hiding anything any more than putting a happy birthday sign on the front lawn for a surprise birthday party. Plus they officially revealed it within days of being leaked.

I also have to point out that reviewers don't get day one patches. Everyone receives that on release day- BDSP's patch only released early because of the leaks. If they were hiding content due to leaks they wouldn't be scrambling to patch it after it happens. And even if it was being patched for the review copies, they would have just emailed reviewers about it instead of making a public announcement that the patch was out.

Yes I agree, but maybe they will start releasing pre-patched game cartridges? That solves the preservation issue.

(although, personally, I prefer buying the games digitally, to avoid future cartridge failure, etc)

Doesn't solve the preservation issue for people who already got their hard copies but yeah, future prints will likely be pre-patched.

 

[Boss1708]

@Oriden you make some good points (especially about using the original music if they wanted to hide the new music).

That said, I still think that them leaving some of the content out of the physical cartridge because they used smaller capacity cartridges, is quite possible. This is what I found in another website:

nintendo allows companies to choose cheaper cart options that hold less data (so a smaller game would have a cheaper production cost compared to a larger game) due to how updates can be added through updates many companies choose to make their physical releases be really small and then an update is given day one to add the missing content (best example Spyro remakes where ONE of the three remakes was on cart and the other two were downloaded online)

Obviously idk how big are the cartridges used for BDSP, but it's just a guess.

 

[Oriden]

@Oriden you make some good points (especially about using the original music if they wanted to hide the new music).

That said, I still think that them leaving some of the content out of the physical cartridge because they used smaller capacity cartridges, is quite possible. This is what I found in another website:



Obviously idk how big are the cartridges used for BDSP, but it's just a guess.

Yeah, I don't know about the cartridge thing either. Given the state the music was in, I still think it was just unfinished, but of all content that was patched in, the title and cutscenes animations feel like they had to have been the most sizeable, and the patch was pretty big. There wasn't even incomplete placeholders for them, they just weren't there. So if anything was cut for space, I could see it being those.

In the end, I think it all comes down to being because of the pandemic, whether they fell behind schedule or were forced to use cheaper carts. And me, I think we ought to give them a pass on this one. Shipping an unfinished game isn't great, but it's been a rough couple of years.

 

[SeanWheeler]

It could be all three reasons.

 

[PkmnTrainerV]

3. Another explanation that I've read online, is that ILCA just wanted to avoid part of the game being spoiled early by leakers, so they did this to hide some of the content until close to release date (or until the reviewers were given copies of the game).

This is deemed impossible for me since, that wouldn’t warrant removing the title screen of all things: not to mention the things @Oriden pointed out.

Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most accurate- the game was unfinished imo.

 

[Kit Chan]

Pretty obvious the game was unfinished and the day 1 patch was early so reviewers could actually play the game as intended.

 

[Oriden]

Pretty obvious the game was unfinished and the day 1 patch was early so reviewers could actually play the game as intended.

Reviewers don't usually get day one patches. They get told what's going to be fixed in the day one patch.
And if the patch was for reviewers, they would have been notified privately, it wouldn't have been a public announcement.

Patch being early was totally due to the leaks. XD

 

[Kit Chan]

Reviewers don't usually get day one patches. They get told what's going to be fixed in the day one patch.
And if the patch was for reviewers, they would have been notified privately, it wouldn't have been a public announcement.

Patch being early was totally due to the leaks. XD

The patch literally adds the soundtrack and features the game was intended to ship with.

 

[Oriden]

The patch literally adds the soundtrack and features the game was intended to ship with.

Yes, and it was released and publicly announced early due to the leaks. It would've been playable enough for reviewers without it, they just would have told them what was broken and needed to be fixed.

 

[Kit Chan]

Yes, and it was released and publicly announced early due to the leaks. It would've been playable enough for reviewers without it, they just would have told them what was broken and needed to be fixed.

If my game was in such a state I would beg reviewers not to touch it.