Make a good game and it will sell itself. Don't spend most of the funds on marketing. -Ex beta tester.
This is the same erroneous assumption that causes many managers to resist marketing efforts so strongly even when marketing has been shown to be essential for achieving maximum potential sales. It's true that the marketing effort starts with a good product with preferably unique, value-laden features or benefits, and a poor product ultimately has a much higher likelihood of failure. However to just discount marketing completely is naive. In point of fact designing an excellent product is actually a part of the overall marketing strategy. The problem Epic and other console game developers face IS essentially a marketing problem. It all comes down to the quote given by Mr. Capps: "How do you sell someone a $60 game that's really worth it? They're used to 99 cents" The key is to identify the value that the professionally developed, full featured console game provides above and beyond that of the 99 cent smartphone app games and effectively communicate this value to customers in order to induce them to buy the game. Without more extensive marketing tactics, there is no way to tell consumers why your game has more value than, ie why they should pay a higher price than, a smart-phone based game
The moon is made of green cheese. -- John Heywood