Welp, Treyarch just need some decent programmers, a proper QA and maybe a beta.
Though I doubt working for Activision is pleasant.

It seems Treyarch can't take any criticism. First they blame us, the players, and then they make excuses about bugs.

one must be a really terrible programer to be able to create a buggy version of pong or tetris...

Exactly. Every game has bugs, but some games don't have annoying bugs that make you wanna throw that game in the toilet.

They actually have some talented coders but are rushed into releasing a game and spread themselves too thin. I was reading an interview with an ex-Treyarch dev who basically said that when they encounter a bug, they have a quick-fix culture due to the looming deadline and pressure from higher ups. They'll rarely go deep into the code and fix the inherrent problems as it could bring up a whole host of problems in the game code which could put them back weeks.

I think the example he gave was in the SP campaign where an AI character kept getting stuck by a wall. Instead of delving into the code and finding out what made the AI go up to the wall they'd just shove a table there so he couldn't get stuck. The code is still faulty, but they simply circumvent the problem when the QA picks up a problem.

OT: He's obviously right, but it's also obvious that some games have very few minor glitches whilst others have frustrating and potentially game-breaking bugs. It's extra strange considerring this is the first Call of Duty that has been reported to have such problems.

Their dev time is about 2 years though. :u
And lots of the game is already made for them, because not that much changes with every iteration.

Yes, but it's also not their engine; it was created by Infinity Ward. Altering someone else's code is always harder than changing your own because you have to bring yourself up to speed on the code. Having said that, they've already got experience with the engine through WaW...

Anyway, I'm not really defending them, simply thought it was an interesting insight into their studio culture. I actually didn't like Black Ops at all. From the outside looking in I feel Treyarch may as well be a large group of (talented) coding monkeys that just spew out a CoD game every two years. I just feel their CoD games lack direction and they've never innovated, simply added minor improvements and additions to the series.

There's a difference between bugs and bugs. Most bugs are completely harmless and won't affect your gaming experience, but then you have "in your face!" bugs that are just impossible to overlook and in some cases makes the game unplayable. While harmless bugs are somewhat acceptable, gamebreaking bugs are not and there's no excuse whatsoever for having them in the final product.

Correction: There are no bug-free Activision games.

Seriously, are these guys real? It's about time they get some real developers and fire the amateurs. At least all the crap they release would be worth a few dollars. But only a few.

That's not true. I seen slowdown for about 4 seconds (only once) in my entire 88 hour playthrough. So close!