Jaffe: Console makers should limit game updates to four per year

During the GDC "micro-talk" panel, God of War and Twisted Metal creator David Jaffe declared that console makers should cap the number of bug-fix patches publishers can release for their games. "Hardware manufacturers, I feel, should only allow one to four updates to the software per game per year," he said, drawing a huge round of applause. "None of them should come within the first one to two months the game is shipping," he added.

Jaffe was speaking to what he sees is an industry-wide need to cut down on the amount of time it takes console gamers to actually get into playing their games -- the main topic of his five-minute speech -- but he also wanted to remind developers that releasing games with bugs is actually not okay. "When I first started, when the disc was shipped it was our last chance [to get rid of bugs] off the bat," Jaffe recalled. "If developers could make it work then, then today they can at least make sure our games don't have to be updated the first week they hit shelves."

Jaffe also suggested that hardware makers implement a feature that lets players bypass boot sequences and system menus, so they can launch directly into the latest save files for whatever games are in their consoles' drives. He noted that mobile device manufacturers and some game makers have gotten it right, citing the likes of New Super Mario Bros. on DS and pretty much all iOS titles.

We'll see if any of these bold new ideas make it into Jaffe's next release, the Twisted Metal reboot.