Well, not really. The first item on the roadmap is the event which already took place.
I’m here just trying to think up all the entries I can for a “what will they break before winter vacay” betting pool.
Separate yes or no pool for whether they will have another “HOT” fix ready to go a month after we hear about it.
There is definitely a GW bubble reaching apex. There have been a lot of gems such as this, Rogue Trader, and Space Marine (1 and 2), but now that they’re king of the gaming media hill it’s only a matter of time before poor management causes a burst.
No idea if GW really was responsible for this idiotic decision today, but I’m playing these games despite GW at this point and have very little interest in the UK’s Disney getting my money.
Having seen similar situations in my time in and around this industry and enterprise communications, the Fatshark approach does have the same vibe. Obviously can’t say with any certainty, but my gut tells me it’s as much to do with a bitter oldhead or two who won’t just quit their post as it is to do with GW.
On one hand, it’s great that they confirmed that. On the other hand, that release date means there’s only 1-3 weeks after it releases before they go on their Christmas holidays for a few weeks. This is just the original and Arbites release all over again.
we share a braincell
If true, this definitely puts some new light on the situation. I can easily see GW being the culprit here, but I can also easily see Quickpaw’s vernacular saying “We’re upset” pertaining to the developers being mad at the management/marketing heads within FS for the decision without actually saying that it’s management’s fault.
It wouldn’t be the first time workers within a game developer had to be oblique about shenanigans from their higher-ups for fear of losing their jobs.
See, this is what baffles me beyond anything right now.
Having to delay…. AN ANNOUNCEMENT. Are you ******* kidding me?
Fatshark….. you can just WRITE some WORDS: “And the next class will be: “TAH DAH”.
I am.. speechless.
They delayed the reveal and we are to believe that it’s going to release right on schedule on December 2nd, yeah right, not with their track record
Reminds me of a message I sent to @FatsharkQuickpaw, which never got a response and I’m not sure if it was even read lol. I initially changed my mind on posting it publicly, but with this latest development, here we go!
If it is just a GW thing; it could be as simple as some body armor logo was not lore appropriate and so they had to redo the marketing video, but that wouldn’t necessarily be enough to slow down the release itself.
That said, if there were a polymarket for betting on keeping release dates, you would find out pretty quickly that it’s never safe to bet on keeping those dates. Anything can happen, especially when you have so many different moving parts involved.
Modern games require enormous volumes of art, animation, and voice work. Pipeline delays in any of these areas can cascade. A change in one feature can break others. Art, design, physics, AI, networking, and performance; all of which must integrate smoothly.
True, but this is normally something one can see coming.
I really don’t think so. I’ve been involved in a few mod projects, and you can anticipate issues, but you never know how long they’ll take to fix. Last minute things can go bad.
Unfortunately that would be, lose lose scenario.
People getting angry at a delay or people calling FS trash for an “pathetic Reveal”.
FS had so many hiccups that anything else than “all in” marketing isnt sticking with fans. ofc this is self-inflicted but still the truth.
Unless it’s an exceedingly unlikely fan favorite unit like Sister of Battle, or a flawless execution of an ambitious project like Skitarii, this is probably inevitable with the dissatisfied portion of their converted users after the delay.
They set themselves up for critics to find any angle possible for a poor reception.
There are things they could have - and could still - do to mitigate that, even without revealing the class. Unfortunately, that’s just not the type of approach they take with their community.
While both scenarios would be a lose-lose case, I still think the lesser evil would be to do a lackluster announcement, something simple along the lines:
“We didn’t quite manage to get our trailer ready in time, but the next class is gonna be ‘insert class’, we hope to get the trailer and accompanied blog post out sometime in the comming week”
Instead we get meme levels of history repeating itself with FatShark failing to meet the first “real” roadmap goal, we get “next week’ed™” and whatever else types of jokes people have been making.
However worse than that, by simply delaying the announcement, they are allowing discontent to foster.
People are already making suggestions for the reason behind the delay and none of them are painting FatShark in a flattering manner.
All of which could’ve been avoided by just saying what the class is and let people instead speculate/discuss how the class might or might not play out.
thats what im saying, discontent is there regardless of what they do.
That’s where I disagree.
I don’t think, FS has any tools to avoid backlash, because they f*cked up so much that there will always be people who pick apart everything they do. Just look at any announcement they do, you’ll always find people in comments saying stuff like “no solo mode? Trash update”.
They garnered a community with so many groups that have individual gripes that when you cater to one, all the others come and say “what about my gripe”. So they can’t really afford small announcements because the positive sentiment of the group they appease with that will be drowned out by all other groups.
thats what i meant with “all in strategy” they have to make big announcements in hope they appease all groups enough so that the public sentiment at least looks positive.
The solo mode thing is another thing that Fatshark has let fester this whole time. There is no blame for other people bringing it up other than Fatshark themselves. They could, I dunno, communicate about the pain points and there’ll usually be overall grudging acceptance of what they say; they’re the developer, after all.
But silence? That’s them deliberately letting it fester for no good reason.