EA Admits it Can Do Better at Bug-Testing, Asks Players to be Patient

In an interview with The Guardian, EA's Patrick Soderlund has admitted that the company can do a "better job" in releasing games "as bug free as possible".

However, he asked that players "be patient and allow us to update games when they come out".

Regarding criticism of the publisher over the problems affecting Battlefield 4 he commented: 

"Listen, we have to do a better job of getting games into the market that are as bug-free as possible. What I would say is, games are becoming more and more complex – even though we'll run a beta and we'll do massive amounts of testing, there are certain things, especially in an online-focused environment, that you won't catch.

"I wish I could [say] that we will, but I don't think we'll ever catch everything. I think we've got better at it, but I certainly think we're not where we need to be in terms of getting games to market that offer a friction-free experience."

Rather than making extra effort to ensure that a game ships in better condition Soderlund's solution seems to be releasing patches faster. 

"What we need to do, and what we are doing is, when we launch a game, we have to work very quickly to work course-correct to fix issues and then to get fixes into the hands of the consumers. I have to say that gamers have been good with us – they realise that we work hard, I think we've had eight or nine server updates since the launch of the PC side.

"We try and do an update every second day to improve the game experience, and there are patches in the works for the PS3 and Xbox 360. I bet we'll have to do the same thing on the next-gen machines. But our commitment to making the best gameplay experience on a continual basis is there. We devote a lot of time and effort toward making the game better as we go. But I think we need to do a better job as a company in making sure that what comes to market is in as good a shape as it possibly can be."

He also seemed to suggest that the primary reason for the problems affecting Battlefield 4 comes down to the number of people playing. 

"The number one reason for things going wrong is scale. We do a lot of testing and load balancing, we do everything we can, but my personal experience tells me there's no such thing, at this point at least, that can emulate real physical load. It's so hard to simulate that because there are so many different user cases that you can't simulate in a test environment.

"So should players be patient and allow us to update games when they come out? Yes. Should players expect base functionality for something they've purchased? Absolutely. I think if there are two people screaming at you out of a thousand, you can ask for patience, but if there are 500 out of 1,000, you've got to change something, right? You've got a problem."

DICE's latest shooter has been criticised for stability issues across most platforms since launch. PS4 gamers have reported difficulties accessing 64 player matches while Xbox One users are experiencing frequent crashes. There have also been numerous issues on PC. 

In a separate interview, Soderlund has said he expects new consoles in five to six years and discussed what EA is doing to turn around its image after being voted the worst company in America for the second year in a row.