Hey Gang here is some good info on Voodoo 2 from Creative Management. Thanks to Ching Lee of Creative's Yahoo thread for first pointing it out. Originally posted to TDFX thread. This is part 1.
First, I'd like to say that I wish I had more time to participate on this ng, but I'm supremely busy right now getting the 3D Blaster Voodoo2 ready to ship. There's a FAQ that we're trying to use to address your most common questions, you can find it on our web site. If I could answer every message personally, I would; I can't so you'll have to accept group postings like this one and use the FAQ whenever possible
Second, there's a lot of speculation about us rushing the product to market. I'd like to address this, as I think there are *some* legitimate concerns and a whole lot of misconceptions in the messages.
COMING TO MARKET TOO QUICKLY
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We decided to build a Voodoo2 around September of last year and have been working with 3Dfx virtually every single day since
then. The original schedule was very different (much earlier) for release, but it takes time to develop chips and boards with the
complexity of a Voodoo2. We acknowledge that Feb 20 is an aggressive date, but what we risked wasn't board quality, we primarily risked
a tremendous amount of money to get to market first. We're buying PCB on-shore (instead of the far lower cost options in
Asia); we're getting it turned as fast as possible, paying a huge premium as a result; we're running multiple manufacturing lines
over weekends and holidays; we flew in personnel from Singapore and our Oklahoma test facility to work side-by-side with 3Dfx to
get the testing done, in short, we're doing everything it takes to get the product done.
However, if we find out that there's a problem, we'll grind up every single one of those cards rather than knowingly send out an inferior product. It is impossible to buy back a reputation -- especially with the hardcore performance fanatics like you. I won't risk my future products (and product lines) foolishly.
I do want to ask a sort of rhetorical question: if you knew I *could've* gotten the cards out the door and into your hands starting on the 20th but decided not to because we didn't want to risk the money or work as hard as we've had to, how would you feel about Creative? Isn't it amazing that Diamond changed their release from mid-March to Feb 24th? They probably could've shipped sooner, but likely didn't want to go to the effort -- or take the risks -- needed to accomplish that.
Competition, especially between two strong companies like Diamond and Creative, really works to YOUR benefit. It certainly doesn't work to mine: I'm working Sat, Sun AND Mon to get this thing done! |
