Apparently it's the same flawed logic that TV programming executives employ in the U.S. They always put new shows or special programming up against the competition's best product. It's a Dick Contest. They are either too arrogant or too stupid to believe they'll knock off the competition.
Instead of splitting the audience or market, I always thought a better strategy would be to stagger or alternate release dates with the competition. That way, each gets a big chunk of the market and everyone is happy. But, what do I know.

Originally Posted by Gorath
This is commercial suicide. Whatever the reason, it should have been avoided. The direct competition with Bethesda will cost them a lot of money.

I noticed that Amazon and a few other places quietly changed the release date to the 19th a few weeks ago. This is old news… But why? I agree with you, its commercial suicide. Maybe they thought going against Medal of Honor on the 12th was a bigger threat than Fallout? I hate these release date changes. I have a feeling that this is it for JoWOod and the Gothic series…

I have to assume this is not a strategy but some sort of risk mitigation. They probably had manufacturing problems or something. If they are trying to compete head to head with fallout then they will likely get what they deserve. The only reason I would probably have bought it was good reviews and no immediate competition and that is not happening at the moment.

Originally Posted by spiraling69
I noticed that Amazon and a few other places quietly changed the release date to the 19th a few weeks ago. This is old news… But why? I agree with you, its commercial suicide. Maybe they thought going against Medal of Honor on the 12th was a bigger threat than Fallout? I hate these release date changes. I have a feeling that this is it for JoWOod and the Gothic series…

I was thinking the same thing, but that also makes no sense - both are top-line AAA games, so why go against the follow-up to the top selling 2008 RPG … surely there is less overlap with a shooter?