I posted the full graphic earlier today... I have posted the graphic many times in this thread over the past 2 years.
No, the shareholders would not be calling for the CEO's head. It is obvious that many people here do not have the business acumen to interpret things. While the tech update has been a cluster fuck, it's purpose is to prepare the game for future profits, not current profits. The "company" as you would call it, can tread water while attempting to rework the product for a future release. As such, and as has been seen with the preview of the tech update, that what they intend is exactly what happened - an uptick (to record numbers) simply by releasing the preview.
He doesn't need the "potential income" you are referring to because at his current expenses of payroll, etc - he still brings in more each month than he puts out... remember that his staffing requirements were based on about $25k-$30k per month - and even before he turned of the $$$ public number, he was well above that number - making profits. Which is what a lot of the complaints here in this thread have been about "that he's pulling in all this money and not spending enough for the tech update to get done faster."
The whole "abandoned" tag excuse (and your maybe / maybe not hedging) makes NO sense - again, because the numbers had been climbing for the previous year back to previous highs and so he was under no rush to do anything because of some tag. And if you're a subscriber with access to the project's actual task list - it is easy to see that what was released as a preview was already stated as completed. But see, we don't see that shit here.... but
Username7 has been posting these tasks off and on ... and if people bothered to look at them they would see this is the case.
This argument is tired and old and makes no logical or common sense. If people actually took a step back (or rolled back from their computer desk and pulled up their pants) it is easy to see that the caterwalling going on here is just a moving target of complaints simply because they can't get new content on their schedule and have to wait for what DC wants to release when he releases it.
I do think the was feeling some pressure from his team that they should release something to show they aren't simply fucking around - so that they can show they have been doing things. I do think that some very loyal subscribers offered advice that maybe they should release something to quell some of the discord chatter. I do think that DC thought people would be more impressed with what he envisioned was moving the product forward for mobile gamers (his biggest market who do subscribe and what is the fastest growing VN and gaming market on the world) and because it had taken so long, he thought the preview would satisfy some. AND, the huge jump in subscribers does kind of support his thoughts --- even with the pushback from people who have played this thing for years.
Because, again, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of new people who find his game every single day because there are 2/3 of a million new people on the internet every single day... he's not going to run out of a customer base.
So, again, pushing a false narrative means I am going to pushback on it and, as such, it looks like I am defending DC --- but as I have stated time and again on this site when people ask me why I bother:
I despise the spreading of misinformation (either unintentional or intentional) and/or willful ignorance.
No one pays for the game. It's a free game. Yes, there are subscribers - but they aren't subscribing to get a free game. Everyone gets it free straight from DC. Jesus fucking Christ, you're dense. And almost no one here on this site subscribes to DC (I don't --- never have and never will).
You making fun of subscribers here where people take games without subscribing or paying for them - whether they are free or not from the developer - is like going to a Mormon Church and making fun of all the drunks in the pews. And you keep coming back with the same nonsense over and over makes you look like the fool.