The Joy of Expansions and Enhanced Editions

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has just made one of its supporter-funded posts available to the public, and it’s an interesting look at the benefits of expansions, patches and enhanced editions based on this year’s upgrades to Divinity: Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I find myself agreeing with many of the points raised by Adam Smith in the article:

2) Mistakes can be erased

There’s a Shigeru Miyamoto quote that does the rounds whenever a release date is postponed: (A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.) I’ve always thought it’s apocryphal, or at least paraphrased, but it’s a useful reminder that a delay of a few months can be a good thing. The nature of digital expansions and updates means that a bad game might only be bad for a while though. Well, maybe not a bad game but a decent game with flaws might see those flaws erased as time goes on. In the case of Divinity: Original Sin, the Enhanced Edition will resemble Larian’s intent far more closely than the game they released it wasn’t rushed but its success has allowed the team to return to their work and improve the elements that they weren’t entirely satisfied with, as well as applying the lessons they’ve learned since release.