If they were smart, they would either reincarnate the RTS LoTR Battle for Middle Earth 1 & 2 series, or make a new series of LoTR RTS games in a similar vein.
I mean, for crying out loud, they have the license and could do it. EA dropped it because they would rather see the license money go into their bonus checks than into maintaining one of the best and most popular RTS franchises ever made. So sad.
Jess, have you thought about adding your bloopers at the end of the show like they used to do, or are you just saving them up for a cool gag reel later on? ^_^
BF3 Premium probably brought in less than $200 million because there were numerous sales throughout the year where it was nicely discounted in a bundle offer with the basic game. So I'd say that figure might be more like $150 million, which is still a very nice sales figure all things considered.
To me, BF3 Premium was a win-win for the player base. You got 5 expansions and lots of perks for about the price of 3 dlc's elsewhere, not to mention so many different map packs with different play styles, game modes, and lots of new vehicles, weapons, and other stuff.
I know some players who did not buy it, who didn't take advantage of the discounted sales prices, who now look pretty silly playing nonstop Noshahr Canals cause they're too cheap to shell out $15 to $20 a year for content worth 3 times that much.
It is extremely revealing and shocking that Valve-Steam does not seem to follow standard business practices concerning preordered goods.
Standard business practice puts a "hold" on money for preordered goods that is not released until the goods are delivered.
The fact that Valve-Steam would be allowing these money transactions to be finalized and profit taking to occur, well before any possible product delivery, and especially in light of the uncertain circumstances surrounding the THQ insolvency dilemma, demonstrates a shoddy business practices model and a woeful lack of appropriate internal financial controls to protect consumers and game developers.
The money in question should have been isolated in their accounting procedures and only disbursed upon delivery of the actual preordered products to the preordering consumers. Only then should the proceeds have been released to the rightful vendor who actually delivered and supported these products.
Valve-Steam finally got caught with its pants down, and this whale's underbelly was truly not a pretty sight to see.
duderdave's comments