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- Neomone
The likelihood of them not putting something in the game that's on the box is very slim, and even then, it would most likely be included for free later in the game. What does it matter if it's not there at the start? I think we're going to re-think the way games are made. The old days of everything being on the disc are likely behind us, sadly.
Slim, but not that slim considering it was done with their last game.
What does it matter if it's not there from the start? Well, you're buying a product that doesn't deliver what's on the box. If it said "matchmaking to be added at a later date", that would be acceptable. Presumably they used lobbies claiming that it was "matchmaking", just as they used their two seasonal leaderboards as leaderboards. Strictly correct, but I doubt that was what they intended and was more likely put in at the eleventh hour to prevent litigation.
Using the course maker as an example if it happened to not be in the game at release, what about the person who buys the game wanting to play the Course Maker? How long do they wait for a patch before they can claim that they were misled? A week? A month? A year? The release of GT7?
There's a reason there are laws about truthfulness in advertising. You can't say that a car has traction control when it doesn't, but you're thinking about adding it via a software upgrade. Either it's there when you buy the car, or it's a potential future upgrade that may or may not happen and shouldn't be described as part of the basic feature set. I don't see why a game is any different. Advertise what is actually in the game, and outline the additional features which may be added later if need be.
It needs to be very clear what is in the game, and what is on the way, if this is the course they choose to take.