What gets me is that this "game" was in full tilt production, crunch time and all, for what?
7 Years? And they had access to $100 million dollars to make this entertainment project a successful reality. Yet, they were
still able to piss it all away in such a fashion that the franchise will be permanently hobbled.
To give another perspective, I am going to talk about military R&D and procurement. It is field that is thought of universally as slow, and expensive. The specific example I am going to use is the JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition) Here is a 3 minute video primer on the subject for those uninitiated:
It was/is an utterly revolutionary design, implementing GPS guidance on a mass produced conventional weapon system for the first time in history. It needed to bolt onto a half-dozen different bombs,
and be able to integrate seamlessly into a dozen different military aircraft. The point of what I am saying is that this is no quick and easy job.
The JDAM went from it's first paid Feasibility Study in 1988, to the DoD asking for it in 1991, to First Functional Prototype in 1992, to Production in 1995, to Operational in 1997. So, from Confirmation of Interest to delivery of the first JDAMs was
SIX years. The budget for the development of the JDAM
was more than the game's budget, but if I recall correctly it was only around $400 millions dollars.
Bringing this all together McDonald Douglas/Boeing managed to bring a game changing weapon system into the world
less time than it took ND to put out it's latest abortion, and they did it for a sum of money that wasn't an order of magnitude higher.
Man, this world is a wacky place.
