How do popular games handle bug fixes and updates

I’m trying to plan ahead for the release of a game.
Let’s suppose someone uncovers an item duplication glitch/exploit and starts abusing it.
As the game developer, for the sake of the game I must fix this as soon as possible otherwise the game will be flooded with millions of duplicated items.
But let’s say I was in the middle of developing a huge update when this glitch was uncovered. The game is full of untested new scripts and unfinished models and unfinished map changes.
The problem: If I fix the bug I need to publish the game to save the changes but how do I do this without releasing the unfinished update.
How can I only publish the bug fix without releasing the rest of the unfinished update

So what would a big game like Pet Simulator X do in a situation like this?

2 Likes

They would likely open a 2nd instance, fix the bug again, then publish. They then fix it on the WIP update and continue as normal.

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You mean they would go onto the previous, older version of the game (the version they last published on). Fix the bug, publish that version then go back to the latest version and continue as normal?
Also what is WIP

1: yes, you’re correct
2: work in progress

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