Now here is something you practically never see these days – some big new-gen games that actually completed development on time.

It’s a momentous occasion.

I don’t know why humans are so bad, so perpetually bad at estimating the timeframes for these things. I’ve been in the middle of (much smaller) software projects that fell victim to the same thing: some combination of optimism and wanting to please our corporate masters. Everyone gets time estimates wrong in software; it’s almost a truism.

So a nice, shiny Gold Star for Effort goes to:

UbiSoft Montréal for Assassin’s Creed (out Nov.13)
and
Naughty Dog for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune (out Nov.20)

…for going gold and actually finishing their games on time.

It means a few less nights that I need to spend in a Bacchinalian coke-haze, screaming and rending my garments asunder, while the neighbours reinforce the doors with plywood. Thanks guys!