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Post by Megalon on Feb 1, 2022 17:53:19 GMT -5
I don't think they quite know what they're doing. Probably the problems foreseen by many of us here are only now becoming apparent to them, and they don't have solutions yet. Somehow they need to honor their promises to backers and make the show/Gizmoplex profitable at the same time, but those two goals might be mutually exclusive. I imagine the stress/pressure is starting to amp up.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 1, 2022 19:07:55 GMT -5
Well the timing is certainly a little messed up. I said before I kind of understand the semi-public beta for backers-only for the first month or so.
But on the other hand, you're also missing out on the prime subscription time for interested outside parties. Because those people would, one can assume, be most interested when the new season starts. That's when you'll be getting the most press, reviews, etc. Not 2 months later.
And this is vital because back when the Kickstarter was going, we all did the math on here and the math said that for there to be a season 14, the name of the game is subscriber growth.
So they probably should've started beta'ing the system in earnest a month or two ago if they wanted to go public by the premiere date. But that's a moot point by now, I guess. I suppose they COULD push back the premiere of 1301 a month+ until the system is fully tested. But that carries its own problems.
Hmm. I think they've struck a good balance for the situation they're in. Not optimal. But, it is what it is.
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Post by majorjoe23 on Feb 1, 2022 21:38:35 GMT -5
In theory, they could keep things hush hush and subscriber only for the first two months, then “go public” with a publicity push, three episodes, a few shorts and presumably a few live events to give more value to new subscribers.
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Post by kracker on Feb 1, 2022 23:18:09 GMT -5
Well that's a lot of conjecture: so basically they have no idea what they are doing, they are in over their heads, have no solutions to problems we are imagining existing, and so this whole house of cards is just going to come tumbling down, you just know it. think that about sums it up.
I mean obviously if they don't care about getting new subscribers in that first month or so, then its actually not a genuine concern (now imagine that) or the way this is going to work in that public beta period is just misunderstood, we'll just see.
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Post by wedestroymyths on Feb 2, 2022 0:44:48 GMT -5
In theory, they could keep things hush hush and subscriber only for the first two months, then “go public” with a publicity push, three episodes, a few shorts and presumably a few live events to give more value to new subscribers. This is the right play, here. Treat the first 2-3 episodes as a private event for backers, then once the bugs are fixed and the kinks worked out, go public with the publicity push, and oh, look--there's more than just one thing on the service for new subscribers to watch right when they subscribe! Might actually work a bit better than launching it all at once with a single new episodes and some back catalog titles...
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Post by jadenh on Feb 2, 2022 8:16:58 GMT -5
Okay, when it's described that way, that doesn't actually sound that bad. I just hope that the people who didn't get to back it initially will still have the option to see the first new episodes now. And that seems to be an option with the season pass still being available?
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Post by Megalon on Feb 2, 2022 11:54:27 GMT -5
In theory, they could keep things hush hush and subscriber only for the first two months, then “go public” with a publicity push, three episodes, a few shorts and presumably a few live events to give more value to new subscribers. This is my thinking too. If the beta-testers are signing NDAs (as seems to be the case), then there shouldn't be any press until the NDAs expire. And when the Gizmoplex officially launches, there will already be a (small) library of content for new subscribers to enjoy. I think that might be the way to go.
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Post by BoB3K on Feb 2, 2022 12:33:43 GMT -5
You guys are already on it, but yeah, my first thought was -- that doesn't sound like the best idea. Everyone knows that all the hype is at launch. Some things only make money/subs during the big launch/drop/whatever.
Oh and we all know how patient the modern entertainment consumer is... This just promotes interested parties and fair weather MSTies that were not in that initial backer group finding the premiere ep in other ways, ways that usually involve getting a copy from other places at no price.
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Post by Diet Kolos on Feb 2, 2022 14:44:21 GMT -5
Its surely a tightrope they're going to have to walk and I can see costs/benefits to all sides.
At the moment I'm more inclined to agree that it's probably for the best that they build a small library of a few episodes and maybe a short or two before launching the service to the public at-large.
Now obviously they would probably hold off on the publicity push until the real full public launch, whenever that is, but I can't imagine that they're going to make every MSTie that gets into this semi-public beta (probably close to 30k people if we go by the KS) come March sign an NDA.
Word of mouth and fan reviews will get out at minimum. And it's the ambivalent fence-sitting MSTies and casual fans (however many of those there are left over after the KS that didn't pledge) that'll form an opinion before the G'Plex is even publicly available.
Like I said, it's a tightrope. I'm not envious of their people in charge of decision-making right now.
But I'll wait and see on this one before I go too negative as I'm oft to do.
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Post by BoB3K on Feb 2, 2022 15:37:18 GMT -5
I'm not really being negative, I'm simply stating that this will have to lose them money. There will be people who are interested in checking out the new MST3K when it first comes out, and many will not wait and will end up watching it some other way, whether that be with a friend that is in on the beta or through other shadier online means, neither of which will produce any money for MST3K. Now I'm sure some of those people will eventually sign up to the Gizmoplex when it eventually goes public, but there could be just as many that don't.
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Post by kracker on Feb 2, 2022 16:56:53 GMT -5
When it comes to that though, keep in mind its the handicap of every content creator, yet they are doing fine. Yes, day one, the premiere will be available by other means to those who can't subscribe yet as well as to those who have never paid a cent and never will. Just as today's Star Wars episode was available to non-Disney+ subscribers minutes after its midnight release time. But somehow Disney+ is not only able to keep producing their most expensive show but is ramping up production with additional shows. Yes, they will technically take some hit in revenue, but we aren't privy to their revenue numbers, and they are, and so they are the ones able to evaluate those numbers and can say what that hit will likely be and if it will really be a thing. As Kolos pointed out, this is a nail-biter for them. A product launch always is. And the educated business decision is what side of caution to err on. the money side or the product stability side? Obviously if its the stability side, the money side must be doing rather well to be able to do so and you should probably think of it as putting the product first rather than chasing dollars.
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Post by pufncraft on Feb 2, 2022 19:17:34 GMT -5
I watched the second virtual set visit last night and laughed quite a bit at the opening riffs for Gamera vs Jiger (I can't remember any specific ones offhand but that has more to do with my bad memory).
The set visit also confirmed that the Santo episode is a Jonah episode.
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Post by monkeypretzel on Feb 2, 2022 21:30:00 GMT -5
Question: why do you announce a launch date before you've begun any beta testing at all?
This "public beta"/delay in making the Gizmoplex open to the public is a problem they created for themselves. They're doing the best they can with a situation that isn't what they wanted it to be and turned out to be more complex than they bargained for when they were drawing up plans a year ago.
As far as keeping the premiere(s) hush hush quiet, they announced March 4th during Turkey Day. There was coverage on the nerd news sites. I know they can skip the press releases and review screeners being released until the Gizmoplex is actually working, but there's still going to be some chatter out there in early March wondering where the new episodes are.
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Post by Megalon on Feb 2, 2022 22:49:51 GMT -5
Question: why do you announce a launch date before you've begun any beta testing at all? This "public beta"/delay in making the Gizmoplex open to the public is a problem they created for themselves. They're doing the best they can with a situation that isn't what they wanted it to be and turned out to be more complex than they bargained for when they were drawing up plans a year ago. As far as keeping the premiere(s) hush hush quiet, they announced March 4th during Turkey Day. There was coverage on the nerd news sites. I know they can skip the press releases and review screeners being released until the Gizmoplex is actually working, but there's still going to be some chatter out there in early March wondering where the new episodes are. I think they thought that setting up the Gizmoplex would be easy, and now it's proving to be anything but. It doesn't help that people have such high expectations for something that was originally pitched as little more than a pie-in-the-sky concept, practically an afterthought. So now the Gizmoplex doesn't just need to be functional, it needs to live up to everyone's quasi-utopian dreams ("A home for MSTies!"). Unfortunately, Joel et al. may not have another delivery method for the first episode in place, so everything may depend on the Gizmoplex's timely launch. If the launch is delayed, then people will be disappointed; but if the Gizmoplex is not as feature-rich as some people imagined, then other people will be disappointed. I think Joel et al. are between a rock and a hard place at the moment. Also, I'm not convinced that the first episode will be ready by March 4. I get the sense that everything is running behind schedule.
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Post by kracker on Feb 3, 2022 4:12:34 GMT -5
That's an amazing amount of wild assumptions you're basing on no information at all.
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