Journalist Opinion on the Downgrade Debacle.

[Wickedwayne]

Well, here is what -does- matter.

Did the product sell well? Were costs recouped and anticipated sales targets met?

Are reviews indicative that the sales are representative of the slaes plan and not some fluke or (mostly) aspect of market timing?

Do sales match focus group and market testing? Are things going as well as hoped?

Then the product is good. Repeat process. If possible, reduce flaws or alter marketing for even greater sales.

Do you know what difference angry forum posters and vocal minorities, ( NOT a PR term. Study some history.), make if the above is true?

Very little. And do you know why? Because in eveyr measureable way that matters to any producer, they Do Not Matter. They are an outlier.

I know it's hard to understand that your opinion doesn't matter in really any way, but that is a fact in today's market place. I'm not saying I like it, (Although in this case, I like it fine), but that is how it works.

Not everyone can matter and not everyone is accurate. And absolutely not everyone should be listened to.

History... really? Let me tell You something about history. There was a time where publishers would push out increasingly cheaper products at a faster pace again and again until the whole industry crashed. Look here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_video_game_crash_of_1983
It barely recovered and is now a multi billion dollars worth industry. The thing that history teaches us, is that its gonna repeat itself eventually. You might think it doesn't matter if "a few" people scratch on the bottom line of those big publishers and investors but in time even the smallest scratches can create a crack that lets the whole foundation this industry stands on crumble into dust.

Doomsday prediction...lol

I am actually serious but got a bit overboard there i guess.

 

[BurningVigor]

So sad that the gaming community focus so much on graphics.

Graphics are really trivial imo. To me it looked good back then, looks good now. Whoop de do.

I don't know about you, but honestly do you admire graphics all that much after the first hour? I just go fight and get stuff done.

 

[Zat0ichi]

I can't wait for a journalist to ask one of the devs
"so during the optimisation process when you first fired up the build with the troublesome assets and shaders etc removed, what was the feeling in the room?"
Flamers and arseholes will assume "oh well we've sold 100's of thousands already"

Others, myself included, would like think that there was sadness in the room.

 

[Sardukhar]

Well,I think we've seen enough from this thread.

Downgrade discussions do go downhill. It seems inevitable.