Opinion: Finish your game, iPhone developers!

Apple is enabling a bad habit. We're not referring to those Macphiles that require immediate psychiatric help, but rather the growing misuse of the App Store updates. Intended as an efficient way to address problems and add bonus content to released application, updates have been turned into a point of abuse for many developers.

There's no question the company has ushered in a fantastic new generation of mobile gaming with iPhone and we're among the first to proclaim how surprisingly good some of these titles are. The games that stand out from the crowd, though, have one thing in common: they all launch feature-complete and without major technical flaws. The option to update applications post-launch has created a lazy class of developers willing to release unfinished games with the intention of updating them at a later date.

This, to be quite blunt, is totally unacceptable.

Updates can be a wonderful thing. Along with fixing minor bugs, they enable a game to include content that may have never entered a developer's mind during initial development. Bonus levels, extra characters, new puzzles – these are great for updates because they act as supplemental content. You don't need any of these to enjoy the core experience.

Technical problems, though, serve as the main reason games receive updates on the App Store. When an update addresses a few minor bugs, it's acceptable. Take Trism, for example. In our interview last week with creator Steve Demeter, he admitted work has started on an update to fix a number of small issues. Mind you, these aren't fatal errors that make the game unplayable; on the contrary, they're relatively minor problems that are being solved to polish the experience.

iPhone developers need to take stock of this example. Too many games are launching on the App Store requiring major updates in order to function as intended. If a game doesn't work, then it shouldn't be for sale. No ifs, no buts.

Games need to be completed before they hit any retail environment whether that be a store shelf or a digital outlet. Consciously releasing a game with significant technical shortcomings or lacking features is a questionable business practice. If a developer releases a game knowing that it crashes or is missing a vital element, it borders on unethical.

To be fair, developers know that releasing a technically unstable game is wrong. It's rare that a game hits the store completely dysfunctional. The real issue, then, is the growing standard for releasing titles that lack major features. Simply because updates are free doesn't justify releasing an incomplete title.

Several games have launched on the App Store without crucial components. Electronic Arts, for instance, released Scrabble without supporting wi-fi multiplayer. The company has since announced plans to update the game with this added in. Our review explicitly states the game suffers without network multiplayer, so why wasn't the game delayed and released when the feature was complete? We have to wonder how much better it would have fared in review had this occurred.

Scrabble is an extremely mild example when compared to Aki Mahjong, though. Upon initial release, Ambrosia failed to include multi-touch camera controls. With competing mahjong solitaire titles offering this vital feature, Aki Mahjong was hardly worth recommending. The ability to zoom on the board and move the camera to select tiles is critical to the game; moreover, it put the game in an inferior position. While it has since been updated to include this functionality, the game shouldn't have launched without it.

Ironically, Aki Mahjong also provides an example of how to properly update games on the App Store. Joining the new camera controls are two dozen new levels at no additional cost. It's almost as though Ambrosia is apologising to players for having shipped an incomplete package.

When it comes down to it, the solution to this growing problem is simple: developers, finish your game. If you want players to play through the games you create and extract the desired experience out of them, then the onus is on you to release titles that are compelling and complete.