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Release date announced...

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  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039

    Originally posted by Dainter


    OK, so no.  Or the answer might be that FLS doesn't think a pre-Christmas release is all that important (which is a fine stance to take).
    I laugh at you for saying it leaves little time when the game has been in development for 4+ years. 
    The real answer seems to be that FLS is not very efficient (or perhaps comepletely overwhelmed), which is fine because they are a small dev team.  But to blame a simultaneous release for a 12 day delay is ludicrous.  Especially since the simultaneous release has been being worked on for at least 5 months already probably longer.
    FLS has been in way over their heads on this project.   I hope it works out for them, because the game looks great, but your excuses are comical. 
     

    But it is not 12 days it is 30 days to change a release date from Jan-22 to Dec-22. What you are talking about is the preorder deal which would by then be set back at the same amount of time.

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
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  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

    It is 12 days or 13 depending on how you count.

    I am not saying change the release date from 1-22 to 12-22 I am saying change the date pre-orders get to set sail from 1-7 to 12-25, or maybe 12-23 or something in which case it is 14/15 days.  The release date would move from 1-22 to 1-08 or something like that.

    It might actually boil down to the fact that FLS would rather spend Christmas and New Year's with their family than fixing the inevitable crashes and such on the first day of pre-order launch. (which is also a perfectly acceptable reason for not launching pre 12-25).  My complaint is that blaming it on the simultaneous Euro launch seems to be BS.

     

     

  • AgtSmithAgtSmith Member Posts: 1,498

     

    Originally posted by Dainter



    The real answer seems to be that FLS is not very efficient (or perhaps comepletely overwhelmed), which is fine because they are a small dev team.  But to blame a simultaneous release for a 12 day delay is ludicrous.  Especially since the simultaneous release has been being worked on for at least 5 months already probably longer.
    FLS has been in way over their heads on this project.   I hope it works out for them, because the game looks great, but your excuses are comical. 
     

     

     

    I wish I had your clairvoyance and mystic powers to know about things you have ZERO involvement with.  FLS has been fairly open to this point so there is little reasons to think what they have said about the release date is anything but true.  It is absolutely ridiculous how people surrounding sites such as this are constantly applying ill informed pseudo logic to events trying to expose some hidden truth when they reality of the situation is that they have no clue and their speculation is based on nothing from reality.

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  • mmonkeymmonkey Member Posts: 171
    Originally posted by AgtSmith 
    I wish I had your clairvoyance and mystic powers to know about things you have ZERO involvement with.  FLS has been fairly open to this point so there is little reasons to think what they have said about the release date is anything but true.  It is absolutely ridiculous how people surrounding sites such as this are constantly applying ill informed pseudo logic to events trying to expose some hidden truth when they reality of the situation is that they have no clue and their speculation is based on nothing from reality.

  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

    Originally posted by AgtSmith


     
     
    I wish I had your clairvoyance and mystic powers to know about things you have ZERO involvement with.  FLS has been fairly open to this point so there is little reasons to think what they have said about the release date is anything but true.  It is absolutely ridiculous how people surrounding sites such as this are constantly applying ill informed pseudo logic to events trying to expose some hidden truth when they reality of the situation is that they have no clue and their speculation is based on nothing from reality.

     

    It's too bad you don't have my clairvoyance or you would have finished the game sooner. 

    Also regardless of what you say in forums like these, clearly I hit a nerve.

  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039

     



    Originally posted by Dainter

     

     



    Originally posted by AgtSmith

     





    I wish I had your clairvoyance and mystic powers to know about things you have ZERO involvement with. FLS has been fairly open to this point so there is little reasons to think what they have said about the release date is anything but true. It is absolutely ridiculous how people surrounding sites such as this are constantly applying ill informed pseudo logic to events trying to expose some hidden truth when they reality of the situation is that they have no clue and their speculation is based on nothing from reality.







    It's too bad you don't have my clairvoyance or you would have finished the game sooner.

    Also regardless of what you say in forums like these, clearly I hit a nerve.







    *Hey wait*

     You already got a reply to your initial question.

     

     



    Originally posted by isildur

     

     



    Originally posted by Dainter

     

    @The Dev guy

    Any real reason it is releasing after Christmas? It seems silly to be missing the Christmas time by 12 days (12-25 to 1-7)??



    Christmas is a trap. Game retailers have limited shelf space for the 12357890123854 games coming out at Christmas. They're going to prefer single player games over online games, and they're going to prefer console titles over PC titles. So you get a smaller initial order from the retailer, because they know they're not going to give you much shelf space. And smaller initial orders means smaller reorders, and less exposure, and lower box sales.



    By targeting post-Christmas, we get more copies on shelves, and we're not competing with the massive Sony vs. Microsoft vs. Nintendo Christmas Console War. By having preorders on shelves pre-Christmas, we still get the ability to sell as a 'Christmas present' for enthusiastic folks.



     

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
    "You have the right not to be killed"

  • AgtSmithAgtSmith Member Posts: 1,498

    Originally posted by Dainter 
    Also regardless of what you say in forums like these, clearly I hit a nerve.

    Yes, that nerve being wild speculation with little basis in reality.  It is like those people spinning wild theories about Black helicopters and things.  it might sound interesting a follow some broken logic - but at the core it has zero merit and less foundation in truth.

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  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

    @ the other guy, not the "dev"

    See, I missed that answer.  That is a real answer.  It makes sense and has some logic behind it.

    Although I don't necessarily agree with it because all the gaming stores I have seen have console games in one part of the store and the computer games in another part. (not really far apart from one another, but they don't really share shelf space.)  Anyway, the shelf space reason seems lame, but nonetheless it is a far better reason than "because the Eurpose release was too hard and we missed the boat."

     

     

  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

     

    Originally posted by AgtSmith


     
     
    Yes, that nerve being wild speculation with little basis in reality.  It is like those people spinning wild theories about Black helicopters and things.  it might sound interesting a follow some broken logic - but at the core it has zero merit and less foundation in truth.

     

    I am beginning to doubt that you even work for FLS, actually nevermind, you don't.  You are just a fan boy who I mixed up with the dev guy from FLS.  You have no more or less inside info than I do.

    Anyway, the truth is that the logic behind my reasoning is no better or worse than the logic behind "because a simultaneous Eurpoean release is important."  The real answer is usually some sort of shade of gray and in this case probably a mixture of  FLS dragging their feet on the European release, the SOE taking more time than anyone thought, and FLS just generally being in over their head with the development of a game they lack the man power to produce in a timely fashion.

    Again, I'm not saying that it won't be a great game, I'm just saying that blaming the late release solely on Europe is a complete load of BS.

     

  • RickSaadaRickSaada Senior Developer, POTBSMember Posts: 200

    Actually, AgtSmith doesn't work for FLS.  *I* do.  So does Isildur, and we clearly state it when we post.  But AgtSmith doesn't, and hasn't ever claimed it.   So don't expect him to be omniscient about what we're doing.  Heck, don't expect *us* to be omniscient about what we're doing either.  This business still surprises us too.

    Sim shipping in Europe is important, because if you don't you hamstring your sales over there.  The true hardcore fans will just buy the game via the gray market from the US.  If you don't sim ship the stores then assume that they won't sell any, so they don't stock any, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.  In the end you lose out on all the casual sales to people who would have picked it up in stores and now can't.  Given that our games main powers are European nations, we expect to do well there, and don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot.

    Shipping in Europe is much harder than shipping in the US, because instead of a set of retailers that truly matter  that you can count on one hand (Best Buy, EB Games/Gamespot,  etc)  you've got hundreds or thousands of mom & pop retailers that you have to sell to individually.  This sucks for independants like us, which is one of the reasons we signed with Sony in the first place. But even *they* can't do it overnight, especially when they don't start until June/July (when we finished our deal with them), which is why we needed to give them more time. Which in turn gives *us* more time, which we discovered we can really use (see not being omniscient above). 

    And as our lead designer Isildur said, shipping during the X-mas holidays is a really sucky time to be out there.  Better to be the story of January then a footnote for Christmas.

    Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

    Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

    yeah I got mixed up on who was the FLS employee because agentsmith was the one who responded to my "@ the dev guy" question.  A question I was directing at you.  That was my mix up (hopefully one can understand my mix up).

    I appreciate your (actual FLS employee's) answer and I am well aware of the difficulties with selling things in Europe.   As far as being a story in January as opposed to a footnote for Christmas, well if you don't think that your game is good enough to be more than just a footnote during the Christmas season, then maybe I need to rethink my interest in it.

    Seemingly it would be better to be the story of Christmas than the story of January. 

     

     

     

     

     

  • AgtSmithAgtSmith Member Posts: 1,498

    Hey Rick - where is my last paycheck?!? 

     

    ROFL, I never said I worked for FLS, never even implied it.  I will happily take a check from FLS though, if they feel included to send some RL booty my way.

     

    Originally posted by Dainter     
    As far as being a story in January as opposed to a footnote for Christmas, well if you don't think that your game is good enough to be more than just a footnote during the Christmas season, then maybe I need to rethink my interest in it.

     

    What Isildur was getting at was not a big fish/little bond scenario but one of the crowded shelves in December mean that everything gets less shelf space.  Add in the simultaneous Euro launch issue and January isn't worse than December.

     

    But again, of all the things in this world to question the energy directed at something like this seems a bit silly.  I mean the companies and people with secret agendas like you seem to suspect of FLS are not the people on boards answering silly questions.  FLS is a rpetty straightforward group, they may forget to send my checks at times and they make mistakes - but nothing in their history or present suggests they have secret agendas or are otherwise trying to obfuscate reality.

     

    @ Being called a fanboy - rofl.  I am a fan of FLS because I think they are a good group, but exactly how am I doing any kind of 'cool aid drinking' to take me to the fanboy realm?  I guess i just fail to see the 'evil' you think you are exposing or confronting.

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  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039

    Originally posted by Dainter


    As far as being a story in January as opposed to a footnote for Christmas, well if you don't think that your game is good enough to be more than just a footnote during the Christmas season, then maybe I need to rethink my interest in it.
     

    The scare tactic will not work I think. If they think releasing before christmas is a bad idea they have more water in that ship then what your subscription can drain.

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
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  • RickSaadaRickSaada Senior Developer, POTBSMember Posts: 200

    Sigh, the internet.  Where you can exaggerate for effect and be taken seriously.  

    No, I don't really think we'd just be a footnote.  But in terms of press coverage and store interest there *is* a big difference between what you can do in January and December.   We're realistic, while we've written a good game we expect to sell well, we're not Halo 3.  We're not Bioshock, and we're not GTA4.  Those are the kinds of games that are going to get the limited number of magazine covers for the holidays, because they're the "big news."  We're far more likely to get featured in a January issue than in a December one.

    They're the ones who are going to get prominently displayed on end caps at Best Buy, because Microsoft or EA will shell out the half a million dollars it costs to buy an end cap during the holidays.  Sorry, I don't have that kind of cash to blow.  It might make sense if you plan to sell a couple million copies on day one like Halo 3, but for an MMO, where  a reasonable success is 100K and a hit is 250K shelling out $2-5 per expected total sale for a single store's marketing campain is ludicrous. 

    We're gamers, but we're business people too.  We have to look at the bottom line to stay in business.  And the numbers all point to getting much better sell in to the retail channel, which means higher sales numbers and more success, if we don't try and force it out the door for the holidays.

    Rick

    Rick Saada - FLS Dev & EPFBM

  • chaintmchaintm Member UncommonPosts: 953

     

    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Sigh, the internet.  Where you can exaggerate for effect and be taken seriously.  
    No, I don't really think we'd just be a footnote.  But in terms of press coverage and store interest there *is* a big difference between what you can do in January and December.   We're realistic, while we've written a good game we expect to sell well, we're not Halo 3.  We're not Bioshock, and we're not GTA4.  Those are the kinds of games that are going to get the limited number of magazine covers for the holidays, because they're the "big news."  We're far more likely to get featured in a January issue than in a December one.
    They're the ones who are going to get prominently displayed on end caps at Best Buy, because Microsoft or EA will shell out the half a million dollars it costs to buy an end cap during the holidays.  Sorry, I don't have that kind of cash to blow.  It might make sense if you plan to sell a couple million copies on day one like Halo 3, but for an MMO, where  a reasonable success is 100K and a hit is 250K shelling out $2-5 per expected total sale for a single store's marketing campain is ludicrous. 
    We're gamers, but we're business people too.  We have to look at the bottom line to stay in business.  And the numbers all point to getting much better sell in to the retail channel, which means higher sales numbers and more success, if we don't try and force it out the door for the holidays.
    Rick



    If I can help here a bit and make it all simple.. The best reasons to do a Jan sale compaired to Dec is the cost factor. Not only shelf space, but advertisment etc is top dollar, think of it as the NFL SuperBowl, everyone by now knows that is the most expensive time to advertise on T.V.  It goes the same for christmas and retails/advertisers in mags etc.. it is that time of year everyone wants to be known so ofcourse more demand, more cost.  I totally get this and you should too, alas I think the extra time is needed. Oh on another note, you will be happy to know I will be pre-ordering after all! Aye, there are some things I just miss allready for the short stress test I got to try. Looking forward to some sea bearing fun :)

     

    Funny I was totally against these guys and knocking their game sense day one, all the stuff that was missing etc, a few years down the road and now they have a game that is fun to play and that is , in the end, what it is all about for us gamers. Having fun. This title is a prime excample of when devs listen to their gamer base and take things to heart , not all things obviously, (we can't have it all or it would never come out) but it is good to see allot there that we wanted a long time ago. So to this end devs, my hat is off to you. Your interaction with the community has to be the best there ever has been and your constant need of details and really wanting to know what people think just shows your dedication to make something people really want to play. salu!

    "The monster created isn't by the company that makes the game, it's by the fans that make it something it never was"

  • DainterDainter Member Posts: 45

    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Sigh, the internet.  Where you can exaggerate for effect and be taken seriously.  
    No, I don't really think we'd just be a footnote.  But in terms of press coverage and store interest there *is* a big difference between what you can do in January and December.   We're realistic, while we've written a good game we expect to sell well, we're not Halo 3.  We're not Bioshock, and we're not GTA4.  Those are the kinds of games that are going to get the limited number of magazine covers for the holidays, because they're the "big news."  We're far more likely to get featured in a January issue than in a December one.
    They're the ones who are going to get prominently displayed on end caps at Best Buy, because Microsoft or EA will shell out the half a million dollars it costs to buy an end cap during the holidays.  Sorry, I don't have that kind of cash to blow.  It might make sense if you plan to sell a couple million copies on day one like Halo 3, but for an MMO, where  a reasonable success is 100K and a hit is 250K shelling out $2-5 per expected total sale for a single store's marketing campain is ludicrous. 
    We're gamers, but we're business people too.  We have to look at the bottom line to stay in business.  And the numbers all point to getting much better sell in to the retail channel, which means higher sales numbers and more success, if we don't try and force it out the door for the holidays.
    Rick
    This is a far better answer than "the Euro release made us do it", which was all I was looking for.  Thanks!  And you should note that I too was exaggerating with my comeback in regards to the footnote in January.

    But I still think that one guy is a moronic fan boy.

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,975

     

    Originally posted by RickSaada


    Sigh, the internet.  Where you can exaggerate for effect and be taken seriously.  
    No, I don't really think we'd just be a footnote.  But in terms of press coverage and store interest there *is* a big difference between what you can do in January and December.   We're realistic, while we've written a good game we expect to sell well, we're not Halo 3.  We're not Bioshock, and we're not GTA4.  Those are the kinds of games that are going to get the limited number of magazine covers for the holidays, because they're the "big news."  We're far more likely to get featured in a January issue than in a December one.
    They're the ones who are going to get prominently displayed on end caps at Best Buy, because Microsoft or EA will shell out the half a million dollars it costs to buy an end cap during the holidays.  Sorry, I don't have that kind of cash to blow.  It might make sense if you plan to sell a couple million copies on day one like Halo 3, but for an MMO, where  a reasonable success is 100K and a hit is 250K shelling out $2-5 per expected total sale for a single store's marketing campain is ludicrous. 
    We're gamers, but we're business people too.  We have to look at the bottom line to stay in business.  And the numbers all point to getting much better sell in to the retail channel, which means higher sales numbers and more success, if we don't try and force it out the door for the holidays.
    Rick
    OK, I am impressed... great answers from you Rick, and heck, even Agentsmith sounds sort of reasonable in this thread. (no mean feat)

     

    This game hasn't really been on my radar (pirates being way outside of my comfort zone) but after reading threads like this (with the many intelligent answers) you now have my interest.  I'll be glad to buy a couple of copies in January and give the game a trial.

    (but don't slip into March or April.... cause once WAR comes out I think my focus will be on that game...unless of course POTBS has captivated me before then)   

     

     

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  • OrphesOrphes Member UncommonPosts: 3,039

    Originally posted by Kyleran
    (but don't slip into March or April.... cause once WAR comes out I think my focus will be on that game...unless of course POTBS has captivated me before then)    
    Focus on the next kill an elfmale game?

    PvP is PvP is PvP.

    I hope they give Sid Meier lifetime sub with this game, heck throw him in some commercials and I even think of subbing to some american channels.

    I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
    "You have the right not to be killed"

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