[neoglow]

I find it hard to call this a good argument for why this is. If an appliance does not work out of the box, it is not finished and not ready to ship to customers.

The game industry does this, which is crap, but appliances are people use to cook their meals and should not be unfinished.

If you are right, it should be illegal.

[avar]

> The game industry does this, which is crap

No, it's fantastic. If they did what you think you want you'd get the same games perhaps a year later.

So because they're doing it you can get what you'd have gotten anyway and more, because if you just buy games after they've been out for a while you'll likely get a large discount.

And people who are big fans of the franchise can get the game earlier if they want, and essentially pay for being beta testers.

It's a win-win.

[londons_explore]

In a world of investors demanding large percentage returns on their investments, investing money in a programmer and then not being able to sell a product to the public for a year isn't financially viable. The time between doing the work and getting paid must be minimized to get decent returns.

That's why they develop the firmware while the hardware is on the boat.

With games and games consoles it's really noticeable - there is no games console you can buy and use without a day-1 update to make it functional.