quote:
Originally posted by perigee:
Since we're left to speculate, here's my contribution. GC started as a joint effort with CD Bros to see whether they could grow the English market by releasing a broad selection of new titles in a short amount of time. They got a lot of up front funding to hire enough staff and make a go of it. The one area they neglected was promotion and customer support. Their actions were typical of a Japanese-run business unused to dealing with a Western market. All decisions came from the top. Their position was We're the company. You're the customer. Don't tell us how to run our business. Unfortunately, that model doesn't always work here.Sometime during their campaign, the money began to run out. Sales forecasts didn't look good, so they tried other strategies like broadening the product line to include downloadable Japanese and Chinese games. V-Mate may have been a last desperate attempt to generate new sales, but even that wasn't enough. The last measure - and this is pure speculation - was an infusion of cash from PP to continue their operation. This probably included conditions such as hiring a public relations type person [[b]Vaga] to interface with customers. Unfortunately, upper management wouldn't loosen the reins enough to make that successful. Finally, somebody decided to cut their losses and hand over control to their overseas investor, PP. That's why Peter is able to talk about releasing patches and end-of-lifing VM. So how close am I to hitting the target? [img]http://princess.cybrmall.net/ubb/smile.gif[/img][/b]
Are you a psychic or something...? Your speculation is almost right on the money, except Vaga part. He was hired purely by GC's decision. Nonetheless, this almost covers what happened to GC in the past four years.