BigWeather said:
Elwro said:
G3 came out in November. It wasn't rushed for Christmas. It was rushed for November.
(?)
Most games that are slated for holiday release need to be on the shelves in mid-November. The two I worked on were that way. It was absolutely crucial to make that date not only because John and Jane Q. Public do lots of shopping in late November and early December but because publishers often purchase end cap space to snag J&J Q. Public's attention during that time. Our publisher had bought end caps at GameStop, etc. to give the product visibility for those crucial weeks. If we slipped we'd have forfeited that space (and money), not like they'd delay it for when we do ship.
Niche games with hard-core fan bases or "event" games can ship late December no problem. They'll get their audience. BG1 was that way. If Gears of War 2 or GTA IV slipped to late December availability they'd probably not see a huge sales dip. Also see WoW:tBC -- no problem shipping in January.
Maybe Gothic has a hard-core enough fan base that they were being rushed for Christmas, but far more likely it was being rushed for pre-Thanksgiving by the publisher.
I know (or can remmeber) that Gothic 3 was released in North America around Thanksgiving Day weekend in 2006, which means late November as most Christmas shopping in the US seem to begin aaround Thanksgiving Day Weekend. It is also pretty clear to me that Gothic wanted to make it big on the US market and failed miserably at it.
Not just because of the bugs in the game, but because, imo, Jowood, the publisher 'forced' Piranha Bytes to make a game that was more marketable to the Americans than the Europeans. In doing so, the baby went out with the bathwater,
(this is Danish expression meaning that the content of the game also went out of the game when PB did try to make a game for the Americans), since PB was 'forced' to make an open-endend wold, which was huge, freeform gameplay, three huge areas, and maybe also 'forced' to use or build a totally new engine for Gothic 3.
As I understand Jowood funded the development of Gothic 3, and the one with the money usually calls the shots, meaning that PB really couldn't say no to nicer graphics, a new engine (maybe), the freeform gameplay and so on... To, Jowood, hoped that Gothic would and could compete against Oblivon. However, Gothic is way more hardcore than Oblivion is, e.g. there is no piecharts, no maps, (at first), you have to read directions, or listen very carefully, dialoque, even written one, is very text heavy.
Jowood & possibly PB, too, forgot what G3 was --- in order to make a quick buck, I think.
And in doing that --- they lost customer after customer. Sad
--- but true. Gothic was, is, and will always be a niche product that maybe 500-600,000 people will buy. (or maybe even a 800-900,000 people will buy, if Jowood is very lucky...)
As for the console version of Gothic, if Jowood (and PB) already know that maybe 400-600,000 people will buy a Gothic game, then selling another 400-500,000 units for consoles will be earnings --- free of chage so to speak. I can't help thinking what if G3 had come out both for pc & console. 500,000 units for pc and maybe 500,000 units for the console could maybe made things turn out a bit different, but that's another story, I think. And, of course, pure speculation.
I just hope a final patch will be released...
edit:
As for the release date: Yes, the European release were Friday Oct 13th 2006. However, this was the latest possible EU release date, if & when G3 were to come out in the US for Thanksgivinf day weekend late in November 2006. It just seems to me that PB, and Jowood, did cater more to the American market than the European market.