Thursday's announcement also took a chunk out of Ubisoft's share price, which has lost more than half its value within the past year. And for the coders and artists actually working on the game, the extension can mean so many more weeks or even months in the intense so-called crunch period immediately before release. "Everyone would rather put out a good game," said David Rabineau, who heads French independent developer Homo Ludens. But "for the team, that depends hugely on the quality of the working environment". – Image woes – Ubisoft has another major reason for perfecting the new "Assassin's Creed" as far as possible by release day, rather than relying on the now industry-standard practice of day-one software updates or "patches" to fix bugs. Consumers have long accused the publisher of putting out visibly unfinished games, a black mark on the image of the industry giant only worsened by the "Star Wars: Outlaws" release.