Ready for the BETA!

Well i don't think blizzard is worried about making their money back to fast. It true to some degree WOW will influence every game because with the resources that wow brings in the developments cycles for their other franchises can be extended and highly tested and polished because there is no investor looking over your shoulder.

It's good to have a good game, but good game + late market share < good game - X + early market share. This is business fact proven time and time again.

With nothing to fall back on that I'm aware of, the capturing of market share and a revenue stream will ensure that even though they were forced to take a -X at launch, they will be able to get +Y post-launch instead of +Z, where Y>Z>>X

To turn a good game pre-release into a great game post release, it all hinges on the revenue stream, which often does entirely fall on the back of market share timing.

Will POE tank because of D3? No. Will their release timetable dictate their future revenue stream and potentially the long term quality of the game? Yes.
The business unknown here is the optimal time vs. quality for a first release.. since there are diminishing returns to quality, but there is only 1 optimal time.

I lives in Europe, and do think they have beta here to?? =)

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zeto wrote:

Will POE tank because of D3? No. Will their release timetable dictate their future revenue stream and potentially the long term quality of the game? Yes.
The business unknown here is the optimal time vs. quality for a first release.. since there are diminishing returns to quality, but there is only 1 optimal time.

I think this is actually incorrect in the case of PoE. The reason is they are free to play with a cash shop. So basically games build up hype and release, selling tons of copies. That first month or so of selling is where the majority of their income comes from, which is why timing of the release is so important. But with a game like PoE(or League of Legends) all that matters is that the game is very appealing to players to the point where they will play it a long time and enjoy the benefits from the cash shop.

This allows GGG to "release it when it's done" instead of setting a hard release date and putting something out there that may not be complete. That being said, they have already mentioned that they likely will not wipe once it goes beta. So that could be considered the release date. No different than the "beta-testing" that Microsoft or the game Magicka has employed, except that you aren't paying for PoE haha.

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FruitLord wrote:

This allows GGG to "release it when it's done" instead of setting a hard release date and putting something out there that may not be complete.

Do you really believe that PoE will do just as well if they release a day after D3 as they would if they released several months before?

If you want to see the benefits of establishing your market share before the competition, just look at Apple. Apple has perfected the business strategy of releasing a mediocre product early and then following up six months to one year later with an actual worthwhile product. The first product is just meant to establish market share and snatch up the early adopters while the market is still open with little or no competition. It's the second iteration product that is the actual technology and feature goal from the beginning. This is a very effective business strategy that has a lot of benefits from a fiscal and engineering perspective as long as you're releasing into the right environment.

Also it doesn't hurt that their fanbase would buy a pile of dog poo if it had the apple logo on it.

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poe/ggg is privately funded .
i expect that path of exile is a personal project funed by serious/caring gamers who are tired of seeing the garbage that constantly floods the online market .

i feel their pain : if i had the money or the skills i would spearhead developement . time and money used in the process would be acceptable losses provided i like what i see.

sidenote : i like what i see .

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Wittgenstein wrote:

I said WoW is why blizzard is mainstream.

pff i never said you didnt otherwise i would of quoted you lol

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Wittgenstein wrote:

If the "bulk of the gamers will just pick one". Then how can so many millions of copies sell for both Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat? Mario and Sonic?

they are completely different games though as 3 had no progression, development or time sinks, something which is obviously present in POE D3, i would not call these casual games at all so unless you do hardly anything in either your going to be picking 1 to play the most, i never meant not trying the other product but as with all things which are similar some will prefer 1 or the other, you wont get many playing both constantly

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Wittgenstein wrote:

I know that Blizzard was inspired by other games when they created Diablo

they didnt create diablo though lol, they bought the company which was developing it, like my comparison to bethsda and fall out im sure most people think they created it wheres all they did was take it over

No not really i think everybody knows that fallout series was created by someone else. Plus they handed the development off to Obsidian for New Vegas which was good, but not as good as FO3.

you would be surprised lol, i fully expect 99% of you guys to know but not the average casual gamer

before anyone posts to say they are casual, get lost your reading and posting in a 47 page thread for a game which isnt even in public beta :-D