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RE: Is Avalanche Press Going Out-of-Business?
Alas, Poor Yorek (hey, it fits here), the reality of business is that they are probably doing the most effective thing (from a business standpoint) here. First of all, they are only getting in the components for a hundred (more or less) copies of Kursk a week. This is a big product release for them, and the best thing for AP to do in its recovery is generate new customers who will generate cash flow now and down the line. So, they are getting a lot of the attention now. Will it piss off some existing customers? Definitely. Does it make more sense (from a business standpoint) to say "Okay, Yorek, here's the $40 you prepaid for 2 games back....now let us go sell some more copies of one game at $75 where we're not losing money on them." I don't think there are a lot of old customers at this point saying "Well, if I get my copy of K:SF, I'll go spend $500 more with AP." Either they have been spending it already, or they just want their damn game and then they will wash their hands of the company. New customers, otoh, can generate a lot of cash flow over the years.
I'm not advocating pissing off existing customers. In general, that's not a good way to grow. To me, this is somewhat of a special cases. Its clear old customers are getting copies (I have one, larry has one, Jay has one, I'm sure there are others), and doling them out a few a week (or a few dozen, or whatever) and watching people grumble but then be overjoyed when it shows up while getting fresh money in the door makes sense to me here. Its not a choice I'd want to have to make in Dr. Mike's shoes, and I can definitely see the sense in it.
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