General Category > Stars Beyond Reach... This World Is Mine

New Release Date: November 18th. (edit: nevermind)

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x4000:
First off, apologies for all the people who have sent me notes publicly or privately that I've not responded to yet.  I'm really trying!  I'm just absolutely swamped and overwhelmed right now.  I will get through the backlog, and I'm trying to make sure I read as much as possible (in particular PMs) to make sure I don't miss anything.  That said, I am steering clear of some threads right now just for emotional reasons; I'm really up and down right now.

Anyway, the core topic here: there is a delay coming up in the game's release date, pushing back to November 18th.  I just don't feel like it can get polished enough in the next two weeks to do right by the company in terms of reputation, and it also wouldn't be good for marketing reasons in terms of not having advance copies to press.  In the end I'd rather eat the extra expense of another month and run the risks associated with the gauntlet of games coming out in November than put out something that I know is not quite ready.

No way to really avoid this.  The guys at Valve point out that it's better to release a game that is good than one that is early.  Not that we're on course to be early by any standard known to man, but I'm paraphrasing.  We're hitting a good spot with the game in a whole lot of respects.  Things are feeling increasingly good with the interface, things that annoy players are dropping like flies, we're moving toward a complete experience very rapidly, etc, etc.

But what about my own extensive testing?  What about prerelease press?  What about fixing the things that people are finding in testing beyond the absolute bare minimum stuff?  What about tutorials and clarity?  Not just the obvious stuff, but the stuff that really gets people into it easily.  What about reviews anywhere remotely resembling at launch?

There's a lot we could do in the next two weeks, but I'm running myself down to the point of absolute raggedness, and I'm not sure how much quality output I can maintain.  It's putting some extreme stress on my family, too.  And I don't think it's good for the final product.

I feel like a broken record, but I think it's better we take our chances in the November timeframe.  The gauntlet we have to run:

- Anno 2205 is slated for November 5th, and is a big competitor in theory.
- StarCraft II: Info The Void is November 10th and is another biggie.
- Fallout 4 is November 10th.
- Star Wars: Battlefront is November 17th.
- Thanksgiving is November 26th, so presumably there is a lot of stuff of some sort in that time period.
- Just Cause 3 is December 1st.

My thought at present is maybe the 18th of November.  Initially I would have said the 13th, but that's so darn close to SC II's expansion.  I would have said the 17th, but probably all coverage will be Star Wars.  Maybe we should even do the 19th, but I don't like getting so close to Thanksgiving and press traveling, etc.

Captain Jack:
I hate to say it but I WOULD advise at least one more day away from Star Wars. The release day coverage is going to be dedicated to everything wrong with the game and the day after will be all about inevitable server failures. If it's as bad as Arkham City then the entire week is going to be mudslinging and EA hate.

Well it should always be EA Hate Week but the monkeys and grognards will be out in force either way for a day after.  :-\

Aklyon:
I'm gonna second that strongly. Give Battlefront enough space for its big mess to show up, if it has one.

Captain Jack:

--- Quote from: Aklyon on October 06, 2015, 09:55:05 pm ---I'm gonna second that strongly. Give Battlefront enough space for its big mess to show up, if it has one.

--- End quote ---
It's going to be the servers. EA's doing the public tests starting Thursday and the closed tests that're happening now are going well. If they were sitting on another Arkham City they wouldn't be holding the tests, but they're still going to be absolutely deluged by players come November.

Misery:
I'll be completely honest here, this one doesnt sound good.  Waaaaaayyyyyyyy too many major games coming out around this time.

On one hand I can definitely applaud the fact that you guys are so willing to push things back to make sure you can fully and truly finish the product.  This has ended up resulting in great games from you, without exception I think.  Definitely expecting the same for this one once the balance is all... er.... balanced.  And of course, a far cry different from so many publishers rushing the heck outta things... And I can agree that the game probably wasnt ready for it's October release date, at least in certain ways.

But still.... that's kinda a nasty-sounding date. Heck, that whole month doesnt sound good. That huge clump of major games!  Battlefront (which frankly I'm expecting to be a disappointment) and Fallout are problematic enough, but... I hadnt even realized there were THAT MANY.

Kinda worrisome.  Though, pushing back release dates in general seems to cause alot of issues like this at times for any developer....

Though, running yourself ragged isnt going to help anything at all. 

This sounds really frustrating.  Wish I had something more useful to say here...

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