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Jaydice · 01-01-12, 06:13 PM

Looking at your sales data I'll point out sales of SH5 dropped like a rock after weeks 2 & 3 and this was after much heavier promotion of SH5 than SH3. SH4 got the weakest promotion of the modern SH3 programs. The sales figures for both SH3 & 4 grew after initial release. Those were also more complete and functional product at launch but the DRM of SH3 was not as bad as the DRM of SH5.

I basically had two points that I would make to any software developer. Know what who your market is and what they want, and deliver it. If you delivery a high value and compelling product financial pay off will be profitable. Deliver crap and it wont be.

Simmers want realism, simmers are typically older computer users who can afford to buy the game, and who want to support development, and simmers repay brand loyalty with loyalty. Ubisoft both undercut their credibility, brand and industry prestige releasing what they did with SH5 and they did not do themselves any favors layering more and more restrictive DRM ontop of the it making it harder to legitimate owners to enjoy the product.

If they put the efforts and resources into development instead of ineffective anti-piracy measures they'd have a product many more people would have payed for in the weeks following release, enabling a longer term update/support path which in turn would have been rewarded with much more positive long term sales.

This is what AAA wanna be software manufactures do wrong. They promote and advertise too much prior to release, securing pre-orders, and running collector editions, etc all non-essential BS. Put that money into development and QA, and when you have a stable, product with 90% of the features developed, then release, and release with a schedule to run 5-10 patches on the product, while promoting after the product is on the market. Don't build hype levels only rivaled on facebook and twitter for a papercup product that will implode under the pressure of the littoral waters. They do not build a solid product then promote. If they promoted once the product was "done" and supported fixing problems with a long term strategy of patching and post-release development the financial rewards would be much more profitable.

01-01-12, 06:13 PM	#5
Jaydice Swabbie Join Date: Jul 2010 Posts: 7 Downloads: 9 Uploads: 0	Looking at your sales data I'll point out sales of SH5 dropped like a rock after weeks 2 & 3 and this was after much heavier promotion of SH5 than SH3. SH4 got the weakest promotion of the modern SH3 programs. The sales figures for both SH3 & 4 grew after initial release. Those were also more complete and functional product at launch but the DRM of SH3 was not as bad as the DRM of SH5. I basically had two points that I would make to any software developer. Know what who your market is and what they want, and deliver it. If you delivery a high value and compelling product financial pay off will be profitable. Deliver crap and it wont be. Simmers want realism, simmers are typically older computer users who can afford to buy the game, and who want to support development, and simmers repay brand loyalty with loyalty. Ubisoft both undercut their credibility, brand and industry prestige releasing what they did with SH5 and they did not do themselves any favors layering more and more restrictive DRM ontop of the it making it harder to legitimate owners to enjoy the product. If they put the efforts and resources into development instead of ineffective anti-piracy measures they'd have a product many more people would have payed for in the weeks following release, enabling a longer term update/support path which in turn would have been rewarded with much more positive long term sales. This is what AAA wanna be software manufactures do wrong. They promote and advertise too much prior to release, securing pre-orders, and running collector editions, etc all non-essential BS. Put that money into development and QA, and when you have a stable, product with 90% of the features developed, then release, and release with a schedule to run 5-10 patches on the product, while promoting after the product is on the market. Don't build hype levels only rivaled on facebook and twitter for a papercup product that will implode under the pressure of the littoral waters. They do not build a solid product then promote. If they promoted once the product was "done" and supported fixing problems with a long term strategy of patching and post-release development the financial rewards would be much more profitable.