4 ms·

I have experienced short-term thinking, driven by stock market expectations, very directly. Working on a game, we had a build ready two weeks before the end of

I have experienced short-term thinking, driven by stock market expectations, very directly. Working on a game, we had a build ready two weeks before the end of a quarter, but we weren't quite done. We had just a few minor tweaks that needed just two more weeks to complete, and we in fact delivered a complete game two weeks later...that was ignored, because it was more important to make their quarterly goal than to release a better product. Turns out there were several games being developed that quarter, and ours was the only one to make it even close to under the deadline. But because they were doing quarterly reports, they were under tremendous pressure to release something, and so an inferior product was released. Oh, and this was the era of physical cartridges. No updates possible. We put in a ton of extra work to make it perfect and they didn't care. The international versions were shipped later and included the improved changes. If anyone is interested in seeing the difference, you can probably find the ROMs and a Game Boy Advance emulator: Check out the US release of "Tetris Worlds" and any of the international releases (all include English, but the three different international releases each included other languages as well).

WalterBright 9y ago
> We put in a ton of extra work to make it perfect and they didn't care. The question is whether the game would have made more money for the company if it was perfect and shipped later. It is not necessarily true that making a product better and delaying shipping is long term better for the company.
- chii 9y ago
  > It is not necessarily true that making a product better and delaying shipping is long term better for the company. a perfect game released later may either become a classic that has huge long tail potential. A early-to-market game may produce a short hit/fad that passes. It's almost random which will happen - as those doing these sorts of judgements prior to actually releasing have their own personal biases which can cloud their judgement one way or another.
  - WalterBright 9y ago
    Of course people can misjudge the details. But that doesn't mean they are deliberately sacrificing the long term for the short term. It just means they are mistaken.
    - gfody 9y ago
      rushing a product out, putting extra pressure on your engineers, squeezing them, is always a sacrifice and a risk. and it's always a long-term loser. you can get away with it a few times, if you do it every single time your engineers will burn out or revolt if the product failure doesn't do it for them.
  - ewjordan 9y ago
    Sure, that might be true. Or, as is more common, the people working on a game have way more of a perfectionist streak than is worthwhile given the audiences. What I always say in these situations: if two weeks worth of work would be the difference between a smash hit and a bomb, then who the fuck screwed up so bad to prioritize those work items to the last two weeks before launch? If someone really messed up that badly, they should be called out. More often, those last few features really don't matter, and shipping is better than waiting. My experience is all with games that have digital updates, to be fair, shrink wrapped stuff may have different constraints (but similar questions about prioritization).
bsbechtel 9y ago
How did those actions affect sales of the game, the short term stock price, and long term prospects of the company?
BurningFrog 9y ago
This sounds more like a story about management trying to keep their jobs rather than about the stock market.
yellow_postit 9y ago
"no one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great" (seen this attributed to a few different folks) But that also ignores the realities of deadlines, contracts, and that sometimes "done" is more important than "perfect" I'm just not totally bought into the idea that at large analysts and large investors can't recognize a short term for long term tradeoff.

WalterBright 9y ago

> We put in a ton of extra work to make it perfect and they didn't care. The question is whether the game would have made more money for the company if it was perfect and shipped later. It is not necessarily true that making a product better and delaying shipping is long term better for the company.

chii 9y ago
> It is not necessarily true that making a product better and delaying shipping is long term better for the company. a perfect game released later may either become a classic that has huge long tail potential. A early-to-market game may produce a short hit/fad that passes. It's almost random which will happen - as those doing these sorts of judgements prior to actually releasing have their own personal biases which can cloud their judgement one way or another.
- WalterBright 9y ago
  Of course people can misjudge the details. But that doesn't mean they are deliberately sacrificing the long term for the short term. It just means they are mistaken.
  - gfody 9y ago
    rushing a product out, putting extra pressure on your engineers, squeezing them, is always a sacrifice and a risk. and it's always a long-term loser. you can get away with it a few times, if you do it every single time your engineers will burn out or revolt if the product failure doesn't do it for them.
- ewjordan 9y ago
  Sure, that might be true. Or, as is more common, the people working on a game have way more of a perfectionist streak than is worthwhile given the audiences. What I always say in these situations: if two weeks worth of work would be the difference between a smash hit and a bomb, then who the fuck screwed up so bad to prioritize those work items to the last two weeks before launch? If someone really messed up that badly, they should be called out. More often, those last few features really don't matter, and shipping is better than waiting. My experience is all with games that have digital updates, to be fair, shrink wrapped stuff may have different constraints (but similar questions about prioritization).

bsbechtel 9y ago

How did those actions affect sales of the game, the short term stock price, and long term prospects of the company?

BurningFrog 9y ago

This sounds more like a story about management trying to keep their jobs rather than about the stock market.

yellow_postit 9y ago

"no one will remember if the game is late, only if it's great" (seen this attributed to a few different folks) But that also ignores the realities of deadlines, contracts, and that sometimes "done" is more important than "perfect" I'm just not totally bought into the idea that at large analysts and large investors can't recognize a short term for long term tradeoff.