When the Mansion first was opened for tours, several us on the tour said what the place really needed was a grand piano. The idea was then voiced in the HomeForum and got a good response. Bottom line, at least two developers immediately jumped into designing a piano for Home. In each instance, it took months from original concepts to finished products - and the two competing companies came out with those pianos within one week of each other. The point is, what sounds like an easy idea - one or two days on the drawing board, off to the artists, then to the programmers, set the price point and VOILA - new product a week later is so far off, the developers choke with frustration just hearing it. New items take months to create. And cost a LOT of money in salaries to everyone involved. What will people pay for a FF VII costume? $2.99? $29.99? $299.99? Obviously, the smallest amount. So how many of those costumes would have to be sold to recoup the cost of creating it? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Can you show that you AND tens of thousands of your friends would buy that costume for $2.99?
That's the biggest problem that developers face: what they do is not well known by their customers - how long does it take? how many people are involved? what profit margin does the company need to at least break even? how do you test it before releasing it for sale?
Each month I see hundreds of single requests for new 'costume' outfits from various comic books, movies, and games. The only one I have seen with any frequency is Bayonetta. And what if three different companies leap into making Bayonetta costumes and the market is diluted by all that competition?
We really need at least one of the developers to actually walk everyone through what is involved, step by step, in deciding which products to create, how the product is designed, how many people work on it, how is it produced and tested, and how long does this entire process take. Interview, anyone?
|