Well, xgstriker, I read something slightly different into the CEO’s story. Not or not only a premature release, not a beta release, but chaos. A software package today is built from thousands of pieces. If these pieces don’t fit together, you have chaos. It looks like code was put together which was never meant to be released. Why and how I don’t know - human error, very likely. A version control problem, or a wrong backup was restored, wrong instructions to the guys or systems building the package, …, there are several other potential explanations. They didn’t use their customers as beta testers, for the software released wasn’t beta, it was simply crap.
What they apparently didn’t do was to build the package to be released and put this package through a final acceptance test. I guess even a short and quick one would have shown that something was wrong. In my (old-fashioned) mind, this is something the CEO should do – simply play the game for an hour or two himself.
They are now trying to bring the right pieces back together (or rebuild them). That they do it step by step, ensuring they don’t screw it up again, is not only understandable, but the right thing to do. This may take weeks or months, but they simply can’t afford another failure. The good thing about this process is that it’s almost certainly going to work, given enough time and given they survive it business- and money-wise.
I’d like to have another similarly honest statement from the CEO regarding their decision to go the Steam-only route. They know that hardly anyone is going to buy SoTS2 BECAUSE OF Steam, and they also must know that there will be people who DON’T buy BECAUSE OF Steam. Whatever the numbers are, Steam is not going to bring, but to cost customers (and they know it – or where are they actively promoting their Steam decision?).
I’m one of these people who would be prepared to support them through these difficult times, by buying SoTS2 now, but I won’t accept Steam. I’m sure there’s more people like me. Can they afford to lose our money after this disaster?
Don’t we deserve an honest statement, too, sir?