Comments on: Rocket Science 5: Who Needs Domain Experts

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:58:49 +0000

I was making games at EA at the time Rocket Science launched. There were a lot of changes in the gaming business and it was making the transition from a niche hobby into the mainstream.

However, we kept seeing people at EA who pitched ideas to us that not only didn’t understand gaming, but didn’t understand computers well enough to see that what they were pitching was ridiculous.

For example, when CDRoms started to come out, there were lots of people who were convinced that “everything was going to change” because of them. You could explain that, while you had access to more storage space per game, you were still running on the same Intel chip with the same graphics board. It didn’t matter, people “believed” and didn’t want to hear any different.

Eventually, games that depended only on CDRom for their differentiation fizzled out, as people saw that the access times for all that data made the games a painful experience. The CD became the way to get lower COG because it replaced a bunch of floppies in the box.

And then every few years, another technology fad would pop up, and people who had never worked on games in their lives decided that they knew better than we did and tried to tell us how they were going to change everything. Rocket Science was just another one of those companies (with better PR).

However, thanks for describing the experience inside the company. As I work with a startup, this blog is very helpful.

By: Cognitive Biases, Positive Black Swan Events and Startups | Market By Numbers | San Diego | Marketing Help

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:13:07 +0000

[...] Steve Blank writes: The mistake isn’t having a vision and taking risks. The mistake is assuming you are a Black [...]

By: Richard Burns

Richard Burns — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:58:38 +0000

Li Kramer gave me the link to your blog. Great series and history but I think you take to much personal responsibility for Rocket Science failure. If I look back at the time we lived in then the whole gaming industry was on explosive growth and looking for the next wave of content to fill the new generation of hardware. The whole idea of a cinematic experience in games wasn’t just hype, just look at today’s games, and everyone in the food chain was caught up on the possibilities and didn’t want to miss being on board first. Most of the problem was there was no real game play in the games being developed but it also turned out that there really was no hardware to support them even if they where good. Sega CD was a flop so who knows what would have happened even if we had a winner. Quick acquisition by a Sega or EA I suppose.

Glad to be acknowledged as the voice of reason. My only regret is not looking at the games more closely before joining but there really was nothing to see at the time. My “Epiphany” came at some early meeting and was shown Flying Aces? The one that was going to be in Black and White. Now I am no gamer but the whole idea of the new platform was new leading edge technology and this game is in Black and White!!!! The second was the consumer focus group we did on Loadstar. Universally hated. Good thing there where no sharp objects in the booth. Not sure whether you would have killed yourself or the development group.

Personally I got what I deserved. I left Sega and joined in the hopes of catching the Golden Ring and what I learned is nothing substitutes for just working hard.

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 20:49:54 +0000

It seems to me that at least YouTube should not be in the list. It never made a single penny and still does not, it only made huge cash outflows and liabilities. The fact its board members sold it to their former portfolio company does not make it a great business, it makes it a great investment.

By: Irving Reid

Irving Reid — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:34:14 +0000

I’m enjoying the series, but I have one quibble: I think founders should validate their *execution* in front of customers early and often. Vision and $1.65 will get you a cup of coffee (and maybe some VC funding).

By: Mark Essel

Mark Essel — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:27:31 +0000

Fantastic experiential wisdom gleaned from a startup that crashed and burned. If for no other reason Steve you’ve convinced me to keep on pushing forward with my own business ideas. My hope that of course I can leverage the knowledge of generous titans like yourself to maximize my opportunity for a grand slam company.
Great blog setup by the way, enjoying the narrative/play by play including ignoring your nagging (rational) fears.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:10:34 +0000

Steve,

This is an excellent post. Your point about the VC portfolio model vs. the entrepreneur’s “portfolio of 1″ is one I’ve been thinking about for a long time, and have also discussed with many other entrepreneurs. I’ve discussed this with VCs and the ratios for the VC’s portfolio can be even greater (in some cases, only 1 success out of 100 but with extraordinary returns for the 1).

The entrepreneur might be very happy with a modest outcome where the VC is more incented to swing for the fences or fail. I’m really looking forward to your next post on this.