Don't talk rubbish, it's nothing like that. What use is a game if you have nothing to play it on or with?
The analogy should be more like having a car but no roads to drive it on. Duh!
No, we were promised a November release. If the game was not ready and it was so obvious, then someone i.e. project leader? who decided to announce a release date messed up big time and should apologise to the disappointed public. Don't promise what you can't deliver it causes bad feeling.
You don't really understand PR do you.
And telling that disappointed public to shut up and stop complaining really goes down well... NOT!
No, there are off-road vehicles. It's more like without a console or PC you lack access to the car keys. But whatever.
Well, you seem to think I am some SMS employee. I am not. So let's get that out of the way first. I am talking from my own person here.
You say the public is disappointed but the public stops to think about what evils are better or worse when it comes to decisions like this. And it are exactly people, that act rash on the first well up of a feeling, like you who are first in line to whine when they find the first bug.
So what the heck is wrong with delaying and fixing up the game. Sure the game won't be here for Christmas, but you will get your pre-ordered copy or have the right to cancel it if you see fit, and if you do you have not gained nor lost anything.
Also a BIG misconception is that pre-order money goes directly to the developer. Actually it's just a transaction and agreement between the
customer and the
retailer that the customer will buy a copy of game X for a total sum of and that the retailer will deliver said copy on release that. On which the contract is finalized with a transaction from the customer to the retailer, which can be cancelled and the money will be returned.
The
retailer will at some point in time order a sum of copies of game X at the
distributer and again a contract is finalized with a transaction of a sum of money the total of the cost of the amount of ordered copies by the retailer.
At the end of each month the profits minus distributer costs are transferred to the development studio. At which point they will than pay any bills from it, pay employees and in this case also share profits with WMD members.
So at the end of that story, what I want to say is that even though the game is delayed your money will not have left the retailer's hands. He will not have payed for anything until shipment of his order. That shipment is delayed, and thus the money transaction from retailer to distributer as well.
Moral of a story... Slightly Mad Studios does NOT have a single cent of your pre-order money, and can't run away with it either. Or have for any other suspicious reasons been taking pre-orders.
As far as PR goes... what does that have to do with my comment?
Besides, I am not in PR but I am an IT guy at most. So I rather deal with logical computers than irrational emotions of humans.
All I was saying that as an adult one should stop for a few moments, breath in and out a couple of times to relax and than start to think logically about a few things.
Sure you are allowed to be disappointed, and that is an understandable thing. But I think you will also agree that Watch Dogs was an even bigger disappointment due to it being buggy at release. The same with DriveClub now as well, where the multiplayer (and thus club) aspect doesn't work. So in DriveClub you have the drive without the club.
So I am not saying "shut up", I am just saying "breath & think" before reacting.
