[JCrowe]

Wow. So many ways to comment, so little breath to spare.

Sad to say, Aaron's assessment is probably accurate - for all the wrong reasons. Put a turd sandwich on your menu, and call me Captain Crazy, but I'll go out on a limb here and guess that demand for a change in the recipe will be low. Because no one will be buying one in the first place. Adding cilantro and a dash of salt just won't cut it. But replace "turd" with "pulled-pork barbeque and bacon-cheese" and you might have yourself a white-hot best seller.

Instead, we've got crash - burn - suck.

That and a bag of grievances. And more than a little wonderment. Questions I would ask, and expect we'll never know:

1.) Why would you launch a new product for the holiday season that was so woefully incomplete, thus maximizing the exposure of your flaws to the very public you hope to court?

2.) Why (HOW?) could you consider it a 'finished' work, unworthy of updating and correction, and due for general abandonment, after having made such a huge (? - I would presume...) investment in its initial creation? You mix the batter but don't bake the cake?

3.) What other project over there so consumes the balance of their time, that no attention can be paid to a flagship (?) product? What is this 'next great thing' that now so occupies their minds? What incredibly cool piece of candy is the ol' Wonka factory over there tweaking for release?

4.) And lastly, why do they think their customer base is going to throw down dollars on New Thing!! (With Sparkles!) when their last big showhorse was allowed to suck air and die as they stood by and watched? Really. This isn't the kind of confidence-building precedent a business wants to set. GM & Chrysler tried it for 40 years and it's still not working.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again - it's a shame. This game had real potential. And unfortunately, it appears that potential is all that it will ever have.