But regardless of that, the reason why companies keep producing buggy games if because PEOPLE KEEP BUYING THEM. Too many people simply don't care that they're getting ripped off and being used as unpaid beta testers. Would you tolerate this from a company that sold you unpatchable games, like most cartridge-based machines are? Of course not, because why should you support someone who doesn't give you what you paid for?
There used to be quality control, back when computers were a niche and the customer base was small enough that a lost sale meant something and the customer investment was significant enough that they cared if they didn't get what they paid for. Now that it's becoming possible to patch console games after the sale, you're seeing more and more bugs in those games too.
I have to applaud Nintendo for holding their game writers to a high standard, and insisting that their customers really ARE deserving of a FINISHED product, even if it's only to protect their reputation. I don't own a single Nintendo product, because they don't build anything I want, but their reputation has penetrated even my thick skull. (I did enjoy playing my sister's NES when her kids asked me to play with them, though. Refreshing to not have the game crash just because I was winning a hard-fought victory, but the gameplay wasn't deep enough, nor the interface hardware sufficient for the games I like to play.)
I'm with Azzaman too: if they don't finish debugging this game, I will NOT buy the next Civ product. This from a man who has gotten almost all of them, minus the special edition stuff that simply repeated stuff I already had. (And after the debacle that was the new Pirates, I'm also not buying any Sid game sight unseen again. A similar policy in regard to Paradox's failings saved me from EU3, which won't even run on my brand new $2000 computer, and from MAN2, which won't run without a connection to their server - if people don't want my money, they can put a big sticker on the box that says "This ain't for you, Jim!" Yeah, I know I'm not the 1% of the total market that I used to be, but sooner or later, the massive stupidity fad is going to end and I won't be the only one clamoring for changes.)