Yes, they know it and sadly, most don't care. A bad movie is one thing since you only pay up to $10 or so and going to a movie is often more about the social interaction of going with friends. Also a bad movie can be just a matter of opinion whereas a truly bad and broken game is just terrible and nobody will ever enjoy it. While many publishers don't care, it would be nice if the console manufacturers would truly act on quality control. I'm not talking about medicore games but the horrible games that can't score higher than a 2.0 or 3.0 in any single review.
What I find most upsetting about it is that they know games cost consumers $50-60, yet don't care about releasing a game that contains numerous glitches and is generally unplayable. It was especially bad when I was a kid during the NES days, looking back now. Back then, games were mostly aimed at children. I find it sad that companies wouldn't care about releasing garbage that some kid was going to ask his parents for, not knowing it was bad. The internet wasn't there to look up info on a game. I remember getting a few clunker games and being upset about it knowing I could've had something better. Instead I had a $40 dust collector.
I'll come up with something better eventually...
