With NEC New York being pushed back almost a week, we are now at 3/4 routes having the release dates pushed back. To me, that seems to be a little more concerning than “it happens.” Something is not right if this many releases are getting release dates pushed back. TS2018 may have the same problem with the corporate overlords not giving enough time to the devs, but with TS2018, a release date isn’t marketed at all, and that date getting pushed back means nothing to the community because the community doesn’t know the release dates. So should the marketing people really be throwing out release dates instantly that have a high chance of being inaccurate when the dev team ultimately needs more time? Or should the marketing team let the release date stay internal like in TS2018?
Nope. A TS2018 route releases the day it releases, no Steam page before then, no purchase before then. The only time anyone knows the release date and can buy the route is after it has released.
With TS2018 they can afford to not worry so much about new content and therefore don’t have to advertise a DLC weeks in advance. There is enough content already to keep people entertained. With TSW, since it is still new, if they don’t announce an upcoming update people complain that there is not enough content for TSW, the delvopers are ignoring them, etc. But if you announce it too early then delays can happened as well. It’s a tough balance but I can see why they don’t pre-announce for TS2018 and they do for TSW.
Well you don't have to announce a release date when you announce a product. That's the exact trap in thought DTG is falling into-look at SCS and truck sim: they announce things, and the release date is always "when its ready" and you don't see every map they make getting pushed back.
Considering this the 3rd time a lease date has been pushed back due to bugs. I believe that DTG should not give a firm lease date given the issues seen. Rather than saying to be release March 15, they could say to be leased in March and when closer to being released they can announce a date.
This is a tough one. On one hand, it is good to keep your customer base informed and give them concrete deadlines for new content. On the other hand, it looks bad when those deadlines cannot be met. I think they should continue making deadlines, but their publishing team needs to be more transparent when it comes to exactly why the deadline cannot be met. All we have been getting is "minor issues".
No dates. They can announce new content with SOON™. Do not miss the deadline is not good sing for reputation! At least they prolong the pre-order sale date too.
As a follow up to my original question; will Steam allow you to put up content on pre-order, with or without discounts, without giving the content a release date?
Virtually every online store requires a fixed date a pre-order will end - with Valve, you cannot set up a pre-order unless you have a completion date. So effectively, if you don't want us to promote release dates (which we're more than happy to explore), then you're also asking for us to end giving pre-order discounts and charge full price from release Best, Steve
Bingo! This is what most sensible businesses do, including the movie industry, as in "Coming soon to a theater near you!"
Like most polls, questionnaires, and even tests, this one lacks a significant option: none of the above.
In order to keep the pre-order at the discounted rate could you use a release date would March 15-20. This way there is a built in window in case it cannot be released on the 15th as originally planned.
Why does the discount need to be preorder anyway? If the discount is there to support early adopters, then just make the discount happen in the time just after release. Or is there some other motivation behind preorders and preorder discounts that only works if the discount is prerelease and not post release?
pschlik: I think this is marketing strategy. Get as many preorders as you can get because if the game is out and the first (bad) reviews and gameplay videos are out some people maybe don't buy it then. Good that there is a refund possibility in steam, after the GP40 and rapid transit fail I would not preorder NEC this time. (Still waiting for a fix of this DLCs). And still no answer from DTG how many freight and passenger services we get in NEC. I asked it now 5 times in 3 different threads and still silence. Ignoring the customers. This is how business works for DTG...
How about just give a fixed 2 week pre-order bonus from the point you start the Hype-Train. And after those two weeks you release when ready, without a fixed date, just should not be like 2 months later
Same about Questions i had about the Dlc or other stuff related to the Game. No idea what they except their Customers to do to get their Questions answered. Dovetails communication with their Customers is definitly one of the worst.
Alright, as this has run most of its course, thought it best to acknowledge the results. TBH, the oddly even split is...odd. I was expecting a more normal distribution favoring the middle way of later release date announcements and just general timing. I was surprised to see so many people on the extreme of announcing release dates right away. Would comment on the middle path being considered the best by many philosophers, but then again, DTG could be announcing all the release dates for all routes like a year ahead, which (I hope) we could agree would be a clearly bad idea. So really, announcing a releae date a month before is not that extreme. Due to an even divide, I would not expect DTG to do anything (not that I have expectations that DTG would change anything willy nilly) as there are a significant enough number of people already OK with current practice.