[speeder]

This applies even to games. Although it is normal now for games have early access releases, it is becoming common for rushed 1.0 releases and then patching coming later... coupled with a ton of negative reviews, backlash and lost sales.

I wonder why publishers don't realize people expect the product to be done when you remove "beta" from its name.

[wongarsu]

They see companies which have great success despite consistently shipping broken products for decades (Bethesda), and lots of indies shipping unfinished products through proper expectation management (early access), and think they can get away with it. Often there's also great pressure to hit particular time windows (e.g. release October-December to get Chrismas sales, release live at a trade show, avoid releasing just before or after a more popular title in the same genre, etc)