In the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 days pre-orders were a big thing. Pre-order bonuses, limited supply of games per shop, pre-order parties. It was a bit of a trend but the important part was that the companies were receiving money before the game was even out! And because we were in a age of online consoles the developers could fix or tweak the game even after launch.

So then it became 'Sell first, fix later.' and overworking developers to get a rough finish of a game before starting on the next one. So that's part of the reason why some games release 'broken'.

As for bad game design, well it just depends on studios and the project leads working on the title. Lots of 'bad game design' are sometimes a starting block for a better design in another studio title. Perhaps they wanted to see how it would work and be implemented while also receiving feedback from the players.

The 'Day 1 patches' and unfinished messes are the main reason why I quit pre-ordering. Promising money to somebody only to receive half a product feels like a scam.

Thank you for an interesting post. I like your 'Bad game, Broken game' image!