Quoted from StevenP:Stern's practice of shipping games long before the software is finished.
Welcome to the age of hurry up and wait. Almost every maker of hardware with a software back end does this because the technology allows them to. The maker has to meet a deadline and they distribute the hardware knowing that it buys them time to finish the software. This happens to iPhones, Driods, PS3, XBOX, PC Games, etc. Back in the day software had to be almost flawless because the means of updating was harder and sometimes non-existent.