Smash Bros. Delayed Until March 9th

After several delays already, Next Generation is reporting that the much-anticipated Wii title Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been pushed back yet again to early March. "The launch date for Super Smash Bros. Brawl has shifted a few weeks to March 9. The development is taking slightly longer than expected. As we're sure you have seen the game contains an unprecedented number of characters, options and experiences. Be sure to keep an eye on the Dojo site for the latest information."

Everyone always says...

[llevity]

Everyone always says "Oh, a delay. That's cool. It means they're making sure they get it right. I'd much rather have it be good and late than on time and crappy."

While I agree, can't anyone get it done right, AND on time? Or is "good" and "on time" now mutually exclusive?

Re:Everyone always says...

[cowscows]

When I was younger, I knew the world wasn't perfect, but I thought that adults were generally competent and honest enough that much of civilization and technology was really refined and well functioning. I just sort of assumed that medicine and construction and industry was all about well established procedures, precision, and organization.

These days, I make a living designing buildings, and I can tell you that I was entirely wrong about all of that. There are tons of full grown, highly educated, very experienced professionals that are just as confused, scatterbrained, and flaky as those dumbass lab partners you'd end up with in high school. And getting them to do their fair share of the work is sometimes harder than the actual project you're trying to accomplish. When something is being designed, it's really really hard to solve all the problems before you actually start building it. Lots of things will go wrong, lots of simple things will get overlooked, lots of stuff that you never expected will happen. Half the time, whoever discovers the problem will either blame someone else, or at least try to shift responsibility for figuring it out away from themselves. The other half of the time the problem will be solved on the spot by whoever happens to notice it. Then there's maybe a 50/50 chance that they'll mention that issue to anyone else involved.

I guess the point is, there are very few jobs/projects where you just sit down and crank out work according to a schedule. Design of almost any sort is less about putting down the answers onto paper/computer/whatever, and more about trying stuff out, seeing what problems arise, and then trying to fix them. Deadlines have a role in the process and are important, but unless someone is producing an exact replica of a game/building/object that they've already done, you shouldn't take a date as anything other than a very rough approximation.

Re:Yawn.

[steelclash84]

I think that's being a little over dramatic. Duke Nukem Forever has been delayed for years, SSB:B is barely at 3 months. I think we can stop panicking now.

Re:Not a big deal

[Khuffie]

Apple [apple.com] do that too.