This article completely ignores that single player, mostly-offline games have exactly the same launch problems.
The reason games have these launch problems is that publishers got away with it for too long. Having users who already paid for the game do the beta testing is much, much cheaper and more efficient than in-house testing.
I sincerely hope that steam's move to grant refunds (http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds) will sort this out. "Oops, 30% of our pre-alpha-published-as-final purchasers want their money back". Have one or two publishers file for bankruptcy over that and it might be a very valuable, albeit painful, lesson for the industry.
The reason games have these launch problems is that publishers got away with it for too long. Having users who already paid for the game do the beta testing is much, much cheaper and more efficient than in-house testing.
I sincerely hope that steam's move to grant refunds (http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds) will sort this out. "Oops, 30% of our pre-alpha-published-as-final purchasers want their money back". Have one or two publishers file for bankruptcy over that and it might be a very valuable, albeit painful, lesson for the industry.