A smaller, but not insignificant part of the market. Gary stated that the market is 50% North America and 50% overseas. In the North American market, home users account for 40%. Overseas, the home markets is a very small percentage and OPs dominate it. That leaves the home market at least 20% of the total, and the portion that buys their higher margin LE's.

One of the problems these long delays creates is loss of enthusiasm for a game. That is very hard to get back. Instead of building on the early success of Metallica LE to sustain its price momentum and move large numbers of premiums, we've had this delay. I think Metallica can still recover some of that, but a game like XMen has been so tarnished, I don't know that it can ever recover. As an owner of all of these titles over the past couple of years, the amount of depreciation does matter when I eventually need to sell to make room for another title.

The code is only part of the issue. The significant engineering issues with Xmen LE, Avengers, and METLE have had an impact as well. I was glad to see the STLE release delayed to address the VUK issue. It has been the most sound of the recent Stern releases. I hope that is a sign for future titles. I think the entry of competition into the market can only make that better. I know my next NIB isn't a Stern. It's a small thing to them, but it's the only part of this process I can control.