Fable II - No Online Co-Op At Launch

See... this is one of the downsides to allowing game developers to patch their games on consoles: they ship them incomplete. While there are upsides (fixing bugs that are later found), this downside almost outweighs those ups. It's like how PC games almost always come out with serious issues (although, given the wide variety of hardware out there on PCs this is a little bit more forgivable) and get a series of patches.

Why can't game developers just finish their damn games before trying to sell it? Why do some producers force the developers to rush things out the door?

Meh, I probably wasn't gonna start playing the online co-op until I'd gotten my character pretty firmly established in the world anyway.
This doesn't seem like a big setback, I'm becoming more and more intrigued to play Fable 2.

now everyones going to jump to the "bad sign, peter lies again!" bullshit.   Doesnt matter to me, online coop is far from what makes a game like fable,  I wont be trying any coop until after i beat the game anyway.

Seems like everyone was just waiting for something to come up to bitch about LH and PM, its quite annoying really.

Black and White 2 all over again, they promised online and they didn't deliver.

You guys are perhaps over reacting a little.  This is the ONLY feature that has been promised for Fable 2 that hasn't made it, and it's going to be added a week later through an update.  There's no reason to delay the whole game for that, if you must have co-op, simply wait a week before buying the game, or wait for them to patch it in, there's no reason to delay the game for everyone who wants to play the game now.

Who's really going to play through the entire game on co-op right away?  The whole point of co-op is so that you can go in and see another persons world and how it's evolved differently from yours.  Doing that from day one, before you've even made your own world seems a little pointless.

I plan on playing through the game before trying any of the online featuers, and I'm sure by the time I'm done, they'll have added it.

This is unfortunate but it makes sense to not miss your Holiday Season deadline...just ask the LittleBigPlanet devs.

ITS JUST YOU :)

Well we still have offline-co-op....right?

i rather it later, than full of bugs, plus its nice to hear that they are working out all the kinks.

You people are overreacting as usual. The only ones affected by this are the systemwars people. A person who wanted this isnt going to pass on it because the co-op wont work until a couple days after, and the people who don't read game news wont even know. I'm not even upset about this. I stopped getting mad at developers saying one thing and doing another, a long time ago.

"Bu but he said this and this happened, he LIED to me ;( ;("

Get over it you babies, things like this are part of life, just be glad it wasn't cut all together.

I don't think you guys understand what it takes for online coop. Give them a break. Its only a week anyway, you should try the game on your own first. There are a lot of games that had to drop it entirely. Who knows, they might be doing it on purpose or something. Its Lionhead after all.

I mean, Halo 3 almost had the same issue. And also remember they are not publishing their own game, so chances are its the publishers fault that its being released unfinished. Plus its hard to delay a game with only a tiny bit of time left till the release. It would be at least a big of a hit if it was delayed, possibly more.

Theres also the fact that i is  FEATURE that is the isue, not a general propblem, but a specific game feature. There won't be tons of bugs with the actual game beyond what there normally will be, but online coop is really hard to get working with the networking, and this isn't just simple coop either.

So please people, learn a thing or two about the issue at hand BEFORE jumping on the wagon and screaming, cursing, or badmouthing people, because this shit happens sometimes, its not a big deal, and it doesn't mean the game is a bad game or isn'tjust as worthy of praise or what ever.

What's with the hatred? It's just a week. Deal with it.

No freaking way.

I do wonder if it would say co op on the box.  Since it is online only coop, maybe they can, or they explain it with an insert in the game?  I mean since it has to be online and you always have to patch if you want to play online, maybe they can put it on the box?

I think this is an unacceptable common now but I'm not surprised. Hey can I get a discount on the price now that the game is technically incomplete?

So an incomplete game at launch eh? Shouldn't be that way but oh well.

At least they started working on a fix before actual release. Is it a little disappointing? Yes, it is but look how many games don't get patched for months after the initial release. I can live without the co-op for a week, so long as the core mechanics aren't flawed.

LMAO MOLYNEUX LMAO

<3 Molyneux despite this

Then why don't they just release it a week later......?

Yeah there will still be systemlink right? 

The game still has offline co-op in it and the online part will be in it sooner then we can say ....some long word. So I see no problem here as long as we get what was promised.

Great more crap to go on my hard drive that doesn't need to be there.

I don't really care, but I still think it's pretty funny.

This doesn't seem too significant to me, a bit strange, but not upsetting. I much rather have them working on it up to and passed the release date than declaring gold and just holding on to it until their decided window of release. More work is more work is more work. Some people act as if there's such a thing as too much work on a game.

yer i saw this on xbox360achievements it sucks but at least you can go on fallout 3 while your waiting for the update =)

Stop crying about it people it's not a huge deal.

This whole thing just stinks. I am still unsure if I will be getting this game or not, but this whole thing is a mess. Like you say, the game has 'gone gold' a few times now, and now we learn it's still in development. It's a joke.

The patch better be small!  That would be pretty cruel to exclude anyone with an Arcade/Core system.

I wonder if they charge for downloading the co-op? I smell a 800 - 1200 MS points deal coming...

Wouldn't Peter Molyneux make a good poitician? He is great at talking isn't he!
I loved the first Fable and plan to get the 2nd at some point but this guy has been talking it up far too much, and then this, its gold! but its not finished - and his bullshit about, oh & for those pub games advantage takers - yea we planned that, your gonna get it! ......fuck off Molyneux! I smell your bullshit from here

Personally I think the co-op portion of Fable will be quite incidental to the single player experience. In fact, many of the best roleplaying games I played were far richer and deeper experiences becauase they focused soley on the single player game and had no co-op play at all( examples: Oblivion, Mass Effect, The Witcher, Gothic etc,,,,). The problem here is that the game was not peddled as ONLY a single player game. If you're going to sell a game as both a single player and co-op game then make sure that it is exactly what you are advertising when the game ships.   For me, it won't matter as I won't even bother with the co-op but it is MOST unfair to those that are basing their decision to purchase Fable for the Co-op game play.

this game better not flop. too many flops coming out lately

Hmm to bad, but oh wel.

If its delayed a week it would be competing directly with fallout 3 at launch, perhaps they want to avoid that.

  I don't think he lied.  It seems to me that you're all jumping to conclusions.  X-Box Live is undergoing a major change with the new features and makeover.  They probably finished all the major programming of Fable 2 and maybe even sent it off for pressing before all the programming and testing for the Live update (which isn't even done now).  The architecture of the online experience is pretty much already done, all they have to do is update it with the updates that are developing with the Live update.  People need to chill out, they're releasing it on time, and a week or two of no online co-op isn't the worst thing.  If they delayed the release, not only would it have cost them a lot more money, even more people would have whined, complained and gotten angrier.

  People seem to believe that everything is so simple behind the curtains; thinking that once a game is done, it can be shipped the next week and that there are no intermediate processes that cost a lot of money and planning.  Patching the game is easier and more effective, because they can have a 'finished' product sent out for pressing while they work on the bugs between the game's online element and the new Live update, as opposed to working on those bugs and delaying it another month.

  The comments that I read on these game forums responding to events like these, suggest that most of you have never been in production or ever bother to learn how things work before getting all worked up about it.  Though I do have to say, GiantBomb has had the least fanatical responses, kudos to GiantBomb and everyone in the GiantBomb community.  In some other forums people are talking like Molyneux had just bombed the Pentagon and blamed it on Iraq.  It's a videogame...not even, it's a feature of a videogame being delayed a week....it really isn't the great betrayal that people make it out to be.  Why so serious? hahaha

this, patching after launch business HAS to stop, release a finished game and then give us extras, look at criterion for christ sake, theyve got it right.
same problem with little big planet.

I don't really think it matters all that much....

I really just hope that this is the only thing that will be kept out at launch and that Molyneux isn't cutting anything else out (at least there will be coop eventually

@baaser

The game WAS peddled as a single player game, co-op was only announced recently, and ONLINE co-op was only announced at e3.  Co-op has never been the main focus of the game, and it's very clear that it's been more of an after thought.  Again, the whole point of it is to visit someone elses world, to see how it's evolved differently from yours.

I think playing through the game on co-op will be great fun, but I don't understand why you'd want to do that before playing through by yourself.

WTF?  Not that I was going to play co-op on Day One, but c'mon!  I thought this game was "done". 

vinsanity09
on Sept. 26, 2008
why don't they just delay the game for 1 week then? i'm sure it's going to take longer then that, if not then expect a lot of bugs

I heard there would still be local co-op at launch.  At least they are still going to provide this feature shortly after release.  I'd rather it work than be rushed into the gold product.

this is just horrible

While this is disappointing, it's not stopping me from getting it day one.

if they waited to add this they couldn't start PRINTING disks till Oct 31. that's why. To us it's just a week, but they are working on it NOW.

What's Fable 2?