Comment The Zero-Sum Fallacy (Score 1) 133
This is a problem fundamental to marketing folks looking at video games. These guys in suits think "Market Share" and visualize getting a bigger slice of a limited pie. Releasing earlier gets you a bigger slice of the pie so it must be a good thing.
The truth is that the market for games is not anywhere close to reaching the limits of the pie-tin. The hope of an early release is you'll steal the thunder from the competition, which is actually true. The competition loses business when you release a product ahead of theirs, but if you rush it out, so do you! A lot of the folks not who haven't bought a game before look at a buggy, early release and stay away from MMORPGs. Everyone loses!
On the other hand, Sony could wait, watch WoW attract a lot of new gamers to the MMORPG fold, continue to refine their own masterpiece and release it to a larger audience with more confidence in the industry to produce good games. Blizzard makes more money, Sony makes more money, gamers get more great games.
This same fallacy shows in the approach to piracy. If people pirate a game, the fixed-sized-pie crowd screams because that looks to them as a piece of the pie they can't sell. In fact, it's probably someone who wasn't in the pie to begin with, and once they play a pirated copy are likely to become icing on the mixed-proverbial cake.
Sony is a large corporation with a lot of marketing folks who need to prove their worth. I wouldn't expect them to understand.
The truth is that the market for games is not anywhere close to reaching the limits of the pie-tin. The hope of an early release is you'll steal the thunder from the competition, which is actually true. The competition loses business when you release a product ahead of theirs, but if you rush it out, so do you! A lot of the folks not who haven't bought a game before look at a buggy, early release and stay away from MMORPGs. Everyone loses!
On the other hand, Sony could wait, watch WoW attract a lot of new gamers to the MMORPG fold, continue to refine their own masterpiece and release it to a larger audience with more confidence in the industry to produce good games. Blizzard makes more money, Sony makes more money, gamers get more great games.
This same fallacy shows in the approach to piracy. If people pirate a game, the fixed-sized-pie crowd screams because that looks to them as a piece of the pie they can't sell. In fact, it's probably someone who wasn't in the pie to begin with, and once they play a pirated copy are likely to become icing on the mixed-proverbial cake.
Sony is a large corporation with a lot of marketing folks who need to prove their worth. I wouldn't expect them to understand.
