The end of our deal with Battlefront was just an unfortunate situation that should NOT reflect poorly on Battlefront in any way (nor would I think that I anyone would perceive it that way).
We enlisted the services of Battlefront primarily for their success in the on-line direct sales arena. Battlefront had really pioneered this form of distribution on a larger scale than most niche mail-order product lines had ever been able to achieve. Their Combat Mission series has been a success by any measure and we felt that it was a very strong collaboration and a worthy experiment. We anticipated that it would take time to sell via direct mail order instead of the retail shelves, but the plan was that the retail phase would be well after the initial launch and that we would give it plenty of time to perform in direct sales first. However, we also agreed that if either party was unhappy (for any reason) they could terminate the agreement and we could seek alternate methods of distribution. In our case, we were not unhappy with Battlefront in any way, they are an excellent group of entrepeneurs that really have a distinct vision for where their business is going. However, for whatever reason, DW did not perform the way that we both had initially envisioned and we had to seek alternate means of recouping our (Sonalysts') investment.
That's really all there is to it. No conspiracy theories, no back-stabbing, no drama... We are just trying to keep DW rolling the best that we can, and we hope that we are doing that with this decision.
Charles, Steve, Martin, Matt, Dan, and Fernando are truly an excellent group of guys at Battlefront and we wish them the very best with CMx2 and beyond (I know that I certainly can't wait to play CMx2, the next game in the series! :)) |
