Long time lurker, first time poster

[VectorForFood]

Hey guys,

Long time IL2 player, and a long time lurker of these forums.

I just have a couple of questions for the general population here.

While I understand and respect the fact that it's now taboo to even mention the words "release date" on here, so much so I sense I will be banned for this post alone...

\I still don't understand why there is no general timeline by now, it doesn't make any sense marketing wise, and if the game truly was 80% done months and months ago, then they must have a guestimate as to when the game will be completed.

I realize all anyone here can do is speculate without Oleg actually giving some facts, but I find it utterly amazing that the population here is satisfied with a weekly collection of 4-5 screenshots, hardly any videos and they praise the team with the groundbreaking progress they are making, and are completely satisfied to believe that the project is still going ahead 100%.

Something just doesn't add up here, perhaps its the culture difference and Oleg doesn't seem to want to inform his customer base better, or he simply doesn't understand how frustrating it is (or care) that we've been waiting for years and aside from some beautiful screenshots and stories we have nothing, not even a 6 month window for a release date.

Seriously, you guys who bash people talking about vaporware can't have a firm grip on reality. I've been a PC gamer since 1992, and have never seen the likes of this, not even remotely close to this...

For example, I am an "Iracer" (www.iracing.com) that project wasn't anywhere near the drawing board when BOB:SOW was announced, and it's now a multi-million dollar online racing simulator, with 30+ lazer scanned tracks, and 20+ authentic cars, and constantly growing, and yes it was started by a very small design group in a very small office.

Either there's stuff going on Oleg does not talk about (nor does he have to) or the team simply doesn't see it important to keep his fan base alive...

I'm not saying what Oleg is doing is not worth the wait, if everything in the end holds true, then yes truly it will be a fantastic end product...

Anyway, this is probably my first and last post, since no doubt this post will be destroyed into the ether, and I can't wait to hear all the flaming comments.

[Flanker35M]

S!

This is the way Oleg & Team works, we get updates and he tells tidbits on the progress. This on a weekly basis and now he has stated release is not far off, depending on how fast they squash some bugs. And the publisher of course.

About vaporware..Duke Nukem Forever, literally ;)

[zapatista]

I still don't understand why there is no general timeline by now, it doesn't make any sense marketing wise

because the truth is that you (or I), or whiny little kids like tree, dont actually matter in the grand scheme of all-things-oleg

from late 2009 oleg knew (and stated) he was aiming for a release date around "the anniversary of BoB in 2010", and it looks like he is pretty much going to be on target for that, so for those with their ear to the ground, there were announcements on release dates.

oleg's unwillingness to commit himself to a specific fixed date works in his favor. for the extremely complex and advanced new game engine they constructed, it allows him to balance trying to cram as many features as he can into it, resist pressure from his financial investors as long as he can, and try and fix as many bugs as possible before release. all by all these factors seem to be coming together nicely by the looks of it from the most recent weeks of updates

regarding advertising and pre release promotion, this is much less important in the flightsim genre (where the fan base is much smaller but much better informed), then for console or other pc games. once the product goes gold you'll see a website for it, and an increase in promotional material (including articles/interviews on the main big flightsim related websites)

for other gamers this might seem unusual as an approach, but oleg used the same method last time and in the end it is the quality of the product that will assure it longevity, popularity and financial and commercial success

[The Kraken]

Seriously, you guys who bash people talking about vaporware can't have a firm grip on reality. I've been a PC gamer since 1992, and have never seen the likes of this, not even remotely close to this...


Off the top of my head, and limited to flight sims:

- Strike Commander: delay after delay; when it finally released in 1992 there was a nice joke in the manual (an announcement that it was "coming 2012... really!" or something like that)

- European Air War: announced, then silence for ~2 years and lots of rumors about cancellation, until it suddenly emerged

- Falcon 4: apparently restarted from scratch 3 times and then dumped onto the market in a barely working version; would have needed 1-2 more years of full time development to be considered working. But at least they made the release that everyone was waiting for...

- DCS Black Shark: major delay (2 years?) and refocus (standalone instead of addon to Lock On) because the team was assigned to different projects for quite a while. The A-10C project is also later than initially announced and currently scheduled for "hopefully before the end of the year if all goes right", which isn't much more specific than what we have with SoW.

- Rise of Flight: sudden loss of communication with the developers prompted heaps of "vaporware" posts (and of course the most original Duke Nukem Forever references)

Apparently many people would rather have sim developers work like "normal" game companies, i.e. focus on marketing and release windows instead of content and quality. Problem is, if Maddox Games were a normal game studio, they would above all do something else than flight sims...

[Chivas]

Hey guys,

Long time IL2 player, and a long time lurker of these forums.

I just have a couple of questions for the general population here.

While I understand and respect the fact that it's now taboo to even mention the words "release date" on here, so much so I sense I will be banned for this post alone...

\I still don't understand why there is no general timeline by now, it doesn't make any sense marketing wise, and if the game truly was 80% done months and months ago, then they must have a guestimate as to when the game will be completed.

I realize all anyone here can do is speculate without Oleg actually giving some facts, but I find it utterly amazing that the population here is satisfied with a weekly collection of 4-5 screenshots, hardly any videos and they praise the team with the groundbreaking progress they are making, and are completely satisfied to believe that the project is still going ahead 100%.

Something just doesn't add up here, perhaps its the culture difference and Oleg doesn't seem to want to inform his customer base better, or he simply doesn't understand how frustrating it is (or care) that we've been waiting for years and aside from some beautiful screenshots and stories we have nothing, not even a 6 month window for a release date.

Seriously, you guys who bash people talking about vaporware can't have a firm grip on reality. I've been a PC gamer since 1992, and have never seen the likes of this, not even remotely close to this...

For example, I am an "Iracer" (www.iracing.com) that project wasn't anywhere near the drawing board when BOB:SOW was announced, and it's now a multi-million dollar online racing simulator, with 30+ lazer scanned tracks, and 20+ authentic cars, and constantly growing, and yes it was started by a very small design group in a very small office.

Either there's stuff going on Oleg does not talk about (nor does he have to) or the team simply doesn't see it important to keep his fan base alive...

I'm not saying what Oleg is doing is not worth the wait, if everything in the end holds true, then yes truly it will be a fantastic end product...

Anyway, this is probably my first and last post, since no doubt this post will be destroyed into the ether, and I can't wait to hear all the flaming comments.

I suppose you will never have a clue how complex developing this sim has been until you try developing one yourself. The game your talking about has no where near the complexity of this combat flight sim.

[Aviar]

Seriously, you guys who bash people talking about vaporware can't have a firm grip on reality. I've been a PC gamer since 1992, and have never seen the likes of this, not even remotely close to this...

I guess he's never heard of the follow-up to a little title called Duke Nukem....:)

Aviar

[mazex]

Well, somehow it feels like they don't have a western publisher yet and that is the "problem" for us...

It is the western publisher who will make fancy web sites, ad campaigns and set a release date. The developer does not decide the release date - they hope to get the code running as good as possible until the day the publisher decides as the date they will maximize profits...

Look at the game "World of Tanks" that I right now enjoy playing the beta of (even though it is to arcadey the tank models are beautiful, and almost every tank,TD,SPG that existed on the eastern front + prototypes are there) ... I heard of it some time ago and now when you try the beta you realize the extreme amount of work done in Russia before the masses in the west found out about the game. The masses dont know diddley about BoB yet so the comparison could be valid?

[KG26_Alpha]

Hey guys,
this is probably my first and last post, since no doubt this post will be destroyed into the ether.

Lets hope so.

[HFC_Dolphin]

VectorForFood, if you're a long time lurker of the forums and member of the community, then you know what's the deal and it is simple: you wait for as long as it takes and then you get the best game in the market, in ALL genres.

IL-2 is still the best game in the market imo, though it doesn't have to be a favourite of everyone since this it's addressed only to a small part of the gaming community.

[Skoshi Tiger]

Hey guys,

Long time IL2 player, and a long time lurker of these forums.
...

Anyway, this is probably my first and last post, since no doubt this post will be destroyed into the ether, and I can't wait to hear all the flaming comments.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

DNFTT

[Blackdog_kt]

Zapatista and Kraken actually answered it all. There's not really anything more to say, i think they covered everything quite nicely.

[MD_Titus]

Hey guys,

Long time IL2 player, and a long time lurker of these forums.

I just have a couple of questions for the general population here.

While I understand and respect the fact that it's now taboo to even mention the words "release date" on here, so much so I sense I will be banned for this post alone...

\I still don't understand why there is no general timeline by now, it doesn't make any sense marketing wise, and if the game truly was 80% done months and months ago, then they must have a guestimate as to when the game will be completed.

I realize all anyone here can do is speculate without Oleg actually giving some facts, but I find it utterly amazing that the population here is satisfied with a weekly collection of 4-5 screenshots, hardly any videos and they praise the team with the groundbreaking progress they are making, and are completely satisfied to believe that the project is still going ahead 100%.

Something just doesn't add up here, perhaps its the culture difference and Oleg doesn't seem to want to inform his customer base better, or he simply doesn't understand how frustrating it is (or care) that we've been waiting for years and aside from some beautiful screenshots and stories we have nothing, not even a 6 month window for a release date.

Seriously, you guys who bash people talking about vaporware can't have a firm grip on reality. I've been a PC gamer since 1992, and have never seen the likes of this, not even remotely close to this...

For example, I am an "Iracer" (www.iracing.com) that project wasn't anywhere near the drawing board when BOB:SOW was announced, and it's now a multi-million dollar online racing simulator, with 30+ lazer scanned tracks, and 20+ authentic cars, and constantly growing, and yes it was started by a very small design group in a very small office.

Either there's stuff going on Oleg does not talk about (nor does he have to) or the team simply doesn't see it important to keep his fan base alive...

I'm not saying what Oleg is doing is not worth the wait, if everything in the end holds true, then yes truly it will be a fantastic end product...

Anyway, this is probably my first and last post, since no doubt this post will be destroyed into the ether, and I can't wait to hear all the flaming comments.
worst first/only post ever.

do you work in marketing?
VectorForFood, if you're a long time lurker of the forums and member of the community, then you know what's the deal and it is simple: you wait for as long as it takes and then you get the best game in the market, in ALL genres.

IL-2 is still the best game in the market imo, though it doesn't have to be a favourite of everyone since this it's addressed only to a small part of the gaming community.
hear hear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)

DNFTT
quite possibly. seems a bit obvious for any self respecting troll though - this may just be genuine.

as to reasons why there's a delay or whatever, it's speculation unless there's credible quotes.

[VectorForFood]

To those who posted meaningful replies... it's appreciated.

To those who posted the typical replies I expected from some, go take a long walk off a short pier.

Also, I'm not saying Iracing is as complex as BOB:SOW, but it sure as hell isn't just a racing game...

[ATAG_Dutch]

To those who posted meaningful replies... it's appreciated.

To those who posted the typical replies I expected from some, go take a long walk off a short pier.

Also, I'm not saying Iracing is as complex as BOB:SOW, but it sure as hell isn't just a racing game...

Errm...I for one don't care on all three counts.

[zaelu]

@VectorForFood

The most simple assumption you can make when you see no time frame for release is that they don't have it. Marketing wise is absurd not to start promoting your game with 6 months before release... especially now days.

So at any given time before a word about a possible release date posted on a dedicated site for SoW BoB we should predict at least 6 month to go... like from now on.

Given the fact that all we have as updates are simple "repetitive" photos and no clue about other things that go into the game (apart from "it will be awesome" etc etc), signs of switching technology in the course of development, no clear producer, no clear distributor, we have... or should have, if we're not completely and forever mesmerized by "Oleg's Myth", the bad feeling something is not working as expected.

Most simple assumption here is the game developer doesn't have enough resources and is barely struggling with keeping the project alive. No producer or publisher would accept to release a product without a minimum of marketing unless it gives no cash for it, which means little cash for the game itself, which means slow or near death production rate.

I partially understand that if this is the case... Oleg coming here and asking for donations or patience till he finds other funds and admitting publicly the possible demise of the project will be an even worse move.

I even understand the people that "want to believe"... is their choice of keeping the spirit and hopes.


Personally, as I've said it before, I have bad feelings about it... only looking at 4.10 patch that comes close to a joke by now and is quite clear things don't go well...

..then again, that's life.

to all those "believers" that prepare to bash/flame... I feel you bros... but... :rolleyes:

[kimosabi]

I feel ya, OP, and I have to say that OM and his team sure does have a defensive way of approaching the market. Much to the fact that they have a large and loyal fanbase.

From a general marketing standpoint, what they're doing is not very clever in terms of making lots of money and spreading the word, but let's just hope they eventually will release the damn thing. :)

After all, if I were a developer on their team, I'd be very grateful for having this large bunch of weirdos giving feedback every day, helping me make an awesome sim, but then again, atleast I would have said something if things weren't going as they should and the game development was in danger of being cancelled.

[Splitter]

@VectorForFood

The most simple assumption you can make when you see no time frame for release is that they don't have it. Marketing wise is absurd not to start promoting your game with 6 months before release... especially now days.

So at any given time before a word about a possible release date posted on a dedicated site for SoW BoB we should predict at least 6 month to go... like from now on.

Given the fact that all we have as updates are simple "repetitive" photos and no clue about other things that go into the game (apart from "it will be awesome" etc etc), signs of switching technology in the course of development, no clear producer, no clear distributor, we have... or should have, if we're not completely and forever mesmerized by "Oleg's Myth", the bad feeling something is not working as expected.

Most simple assumption here is the game developer doesn't have enough resources and is barely struggling with keeping the project alive. No producer or publisher would accept to release a product without a minimum of marketing unless it gives no cash for it, which means little cash for the game itself, which means slow or near death production rate.

I partially understand that if this is the case... Oleg coming here and asking for donations or patience till he finds other funds and admitting publicly the possible demise of the project will be an even worse move.

I even understand the people that "want to believe"... is their choice of keeping the spirit and hopes.


Personally, as I've said it before, I have bad feelings about it... only looking at 4.10 patch that comes close to a joke by now and is quite clear things don't go well...

..then again, that's life.

to all those "believers" that prepare to bash/flame... I feel you bros... but... :rolleyes:

I once went to work for a company that made a very good product that cost $40 to produce per unit and was sold for $500 per unit. The company was run by the engineers who developed the product. They did ok, but had no clue about how to market their products.

Once I got there and we implemented a sales strategy, we set records every month right up until the time the company was bought out lol. The moral there is not that I am an awesome sales and marketing guy but that there is a different mindset between engineers and sales/marketing types.

What you hypothesize might be the truth OR it could just be the fact that Oleg's team is full of software people who are very good at writing code and developing a sim but that have little understanding of marketing. (no offense to anyone....don't ask one of us marketing types about writing code lol).

OR...and most likely....the plan is already in place and being implemented.

Splitter

[winny]

Only the really big games get a 6 month marketing campaign. I would think 3-4 months is more likley for SoW but some games only get an 8 week campaign.

Technically there's nothing to market yet and Sow differs from many other titles because most big games have already got a publishing deal in place early on and the publishers would be 'teasing' by now. Plus it's such a niche title that they won't need to do a huge marketing campaign because they know that they have a very specific market and therefore can target the marketing accordingly.

The lack of any marketing for this game can only be because thay haven't yet got a publisher in place or the game is way off being finished. I think (and hope) it's the former.

[KOM.Nausicaa]

Vectorforfood,

I'll try to answer this. I am not affiliated with Oleg or team in any way, but I have some experience in game and entertainment industry. There are some 3 or 4 reasons, IMO, which can explain the 'long' development time (long, if you count since first announcement in 2004):

1) the sim was not developed with full studio resources before something like 2007

2) the sim has a entirely new game engine. The engine is specifically developed for complex combat simulation, weather simulation, flight simulation etc, and supports further extension, maybe even realistic land and/or sea combat. Writing and coding such a engine easily takes 2 years or more, and eats up a great deal of your resources. This is what the 'common' gaming public most often underestimates.

3) if you want to build historical aircraft, tanks, vehicles, ships and so forth in a correct way you put yourself in the most difficult situation, much more than for a modern racing sim. Most of the stuff you want to build doesn't exist anymore. Want to climb into a Ju88? Forget it. He111 or Me 110? Thin on the ground. And where are they? Scattered sparsely over museums all over the world. And that is just for visual documentation....I am not even talking about the can of worms which is technical performance. And then there are the high standards you put up for external and internal 3D modeling, based on actual factory blueprints (which you have to get first from official archives, factories, private collections etc) : Oleg said some years ago that the 3D building, coding, etc, of one single plane of such high standard takes up to a year for one guy. Having worked with 3D teams, and having led them as art director I know he tells the truth. Now, lets say, you want to make 12-15 flyable planes (the gaming community will already whine at you why you make so few planes flyable)....make the math: You need 5-6 full time modelers to make those planes in two years. And you haven't done the terrain yet, no vehicles, ships, buildings, trains, correct airfields (another can of worms) and so forth and so forth, and ALL of them have to be historically correct also! Why do you think 80% of the games are fantasy and SF stuff? Because nobody in the gaming communities will whine that the laser gun doesn't have the historically correct barrel. That is the reason we are not seeing true and correct, say, 1800's sea warfare sims, or 1600's japanese land warfare sims, or 1200's european middle age warfare sims. I am not talking about the fake historical stuff, like Age of Empires, or Call of Duty, Red Orchestra, or a hundred others, but about true sims, like IL2, Blackshark, ROF, or Steel Beasts. The more you go back in time, the harder it gets (and the more your audience shrinks). It's a shame really.....I would love to see a WW1 land war sim of the quality of steel beasts, or a 1800's naval warfare sim for that matter.


4) last reason: Oleg has not the money to throw against a project like companies as Electronic Arts, Ubi, etc have.


Frankly......I think we should thank the god's of gaming every day on our knees that something of the quality of SoW has the chance to see the light of day. In the current situation, PC games retreat more and more from the scene, and real sims even more.
It's a shameful situation really....the games business makes more money worldwide than the entire movie production business, and there are more and more development companies, some swimming in the money. (Blizzard) Yet, we see less and less serious PC sims, the times of thick handbooks are only memory, and so forth. I could go on for a long time.

It's depressing.

[Xilon_x]

we collect a € 100 euro or $ 100 dollars each and everyone of this forum help Oleg Maddox and 1C.

[kimosabi]

we collect a € 100 euro or $ 100 dollars each and everyone of this forum help Oleg Maddox and 1C.

If there was any confirmation on that they really were struggling, I'd have no second thoughts on participating.

[KG26_Alpha]

If there was any confirmation on that they really were struggling, I'd have no second thoughts on participating.


Struggling to comprehend the load of bollox posted here.

[VectorForFood]

Errm...I for one don't care on all three counts.

Wow, an E-thug on a gamers forum...

[zapatista]

If there was any confirmation on that they really were struggling, I'd have no second thoughts on participating.

no they arnt struggling

xilon however does not comprehend or speak english very well, and he can only partially grasp what others posted here. from that garbled information he then makes further confusing posts (most of which are completely of topic)

[kendo65]

Some nice conspiracy theories coming along here.

Really, given how little we all know most of this thread is speculation....

...and a waste of time.

[Tree_UK]

The most rational people here know that the game will be released, it isn't vapourware, but where we part company with the butt hole cleaners (if they can get past Zapatista that is) is that we dont believe everything we are told, When Oleg announced that 'thousands would be playing SOW by October or maybe before' there was a massive cheer and ripple's of excitement amongst the BHC's, but it was most obvious from what we had seen and had not seen that Oleg would never make that date. Now Oleg has stated again that it will be soon but this time we have to speculate on a date. Zapatista says Oleg will be 'close' to the BOB anniversary, not a chance, BOB day was the 15th of September.
Think about it people, do you really think Oleg who has spent over 6 years developing this game will release it with no marketing? No magazine reviews, no video footage in DX 11 or 10, no sound previews, no system specs and no dedicated website, what Publishing company would buy into that self destructive stratergy. Oleg has said that this game is going to be incredible, im certain that if he truly believe it is then he will get all the hype it deserves from whatever media possible before its release. Also Oleg has stated that work on a dedicated website was currently in progress, so when we see it we will know we are on the final leg.

[Chivas]

People in the Sim community haven't cornered the market in the common sense market. BUT most people here understand the complexity of this project and how easily the project can be set back. Oleg has expressed more than a few hoped for release agendas but even he doesn't have a Cristal ball to sidestep the multitude of road blocks thrown his way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the community hoping the developer meets his agenda, and they don't need naysayers continually stating the obvious.

This project doesn't need a huge lead time in advertising and websites. A month is more than enough time. A few magazine articles, gaming internet web site articles are all you will ever see. When you see those articles there will be a link for further information at the SOW website. You never see TV advertising campaigns because its too expensive for the tiny combat flight sim market. Although I think I remember seeing a completely bogus advertisement for CFS3 on television that only Microsoft could afford.

edit.....These days there are TV programs dedicated to gamers so there is the possibility for some TV coverage.

[ATAG_Dutch]

Wow, an E-thug on a gamers forum...

Sorry Vector, I didn't mean to insult you personally, it's just that I get a bit tired with these kind of debates.
It'll be here when it's here, and if it's not we can do something else.
I hope it won't be a case of 'the chase is better than the catch' when it does arrive, but I somehow doubt it.
Offensive thuggishness humbly retracted.

[IceFire]

When Oleg says soon I'm figuring sometime maybe on the outside of 6 months which is relatively soon on the whole. Once he gets to a point there will hopefully be a marketing machine getting turned on and we'll see official logos, box art, promo trailers, videos, an official website, etc.

No illusions here but I do have an understanding (albeit in my limited way) on what development is like and the mammoth task that Oleg set out for. Storm of War isn't just a game... it really is a foundation. We could see a full WWII combined arms simulator in maybe 5 years time based on the same engine. That is my anticipation. So I can forgive a protracted development period.

[Chivas]

I doubt very much that we will see a combined armed forces sim in 5 years as the developers will not be even close to developing all the air combat theaters. That said you could see a gradual increase in controlable vehicles etc as the SOW series progresses in the next 10 to 15 years which could lead to a complete combined forces sim. With inclusion of modders early in the SOW series we should see some amazing things as long as there is very good quality control.

[kendo65]

Oleg:

"This now will depending of publisher... and our fast woks over the bugs.
Bugs are present. The product is probably the most serious in industry in programming of features, internals, etc...
So I can't tell exact date right now. But we are close, very close in our works of final release version... We need to polish all the coming in final release features. I personally wouldn't release the product that have serious bugs that was known."

This is what we have folks. Oleg nailed it down regarding exactly where in the development cycle they are.

Unfortunately, he left a big enough ? about the time needed for bug-fixing, 'polishing', and publisher issues that no-one has felt compelled to diverge from their previous positions.

The pessimists are still pessimistic and vice versa. The argument goes on.

As a paid up member of the optimist camp, my first reaction to the posting on Friday was to expect that we'd have it for Christmas. I would still ask the pessimists to ponder on that quote:

"we are close, very close in our works of final release version..."

but I know what their answer will be.

I'm with Chivas regarding advertising / lead time etc. I don't think it will need 6 months.

But, like I said before this is all guesswork. We're all whistling in the dark and picking the bits of info that confirm our own prejudices.

[kendo65]

...
Think about it people, do you really think Oleg who has spent over 6 years developing this game will release it with no marketing? No magazine reviews, no video footage in DX 11 or 10, no sound previews, no system specs and no dedicated website, what Publishing company would buy into that self destructive stratergy. Oleg has said that this game is going to be incredible, im certain that if he truly believe it is then he will get all the hype it deserves from whatever media possible before its release. Also Oleg has stated that work on a dedicated website was currently in progress, so when we see it we will know we are on the final leg.

Does anyone here remember what the situation was with il2's release? How did they handle that? (Before my time)

[Chivas]

It was advertised thru magazines and gaming websites. These days there are more TV programs for gaming addicts so there could be a for tv coverage.

[Blackdog_kt]

It was very low key compared to titles of other genres, just like most simulators are.
Heck, i picked up Microprose's European Air War (my main WWII sim before IL-2 and among the best of its time) because i happened to see it on a shop window by chance one evening, as i was strolling down an avenue to meet some friends for a couple of beers.
Same for Red Baron II, i made a habit of going to one of the big bookshop/software retailers in town every couple of months to check for new simulators and i saw the box among Falcon4 and several Jane's titles about jets, i had no idea a Red Baron II was even being developed up to that point.

Your mileage may vary of course, as my past experiences date back to a time where internet connections where not all that common here in Greece. So, i don't know if any widespread promotion was done for RB2 and EAW online.

However, by the time IL-2 appeared i had an internet connection (dial-up at that time and usually borrowed/shared between 2-3 people). The way i remember it is that i stumbled on it by surfing websites like simhq.com and combatsim.com. Again, i didn't see a massive promotion campaign even though i was able to go on the internet and look for it.

Of course things have evolved since then, but assuming that each gaming genre has gained roughly the same amount of points on the "promotion scale", the relatice distances between them would remain the same.

What that means in plain English is that in the current age i don't expect to stumble upon SoW by chance anymore, i'm sure i'll see something about it on the internet. However, i don't expect a 6 month pre-release marketing campaign for SoW like we see for titles like Starcraft 2 either.

Most of the people who are interested in it already know about it, some people will learn about it through word of mouth (i'm talking the ears off of a couple of my buddies trying to get them interested in it) and the rest will find out a couple of months past release when they will be browsing gamespot for the latest mainstream title and happen to come across a SoW review.

[d165w3ll]

Vectorforfood,

I'll try to answer this. I am not affiliated with Oleg or team in any way, but I have some experience in game and entertainment industry. There are some 3 or 4 reasons, IMO, which can explain the 'long' development time (long, if you count since first announcement in 2004):...


A very good response that covers a lot of ground. Some of the 'angries' above take note. You cannot win an argument by bluster and shouting. A cool presentation of data does the trick.