I agree that planning any project financially is important if it doesn't want to go bust in the middle, especially if it's big enough and isn't a "one man production". Still, more than often publishers simply reject something that doesn't fit the mass market mentality. Not because it's necessarily years ahead of time, and not because it can't be profitable. They just don't want to go to bigger length to achieve more, if they can profit with less.
A current example - inXile Entertainment (an independent gaming studio now) are still working on their major project Wasteland 2. It's already in beta access for a while, and they plan the release in the end of this summer. They said that what beta has now is only around 50% of the game (i.e. they'll add a lot more still). They took their time developing it and getting feedback and improving things (and they work in parallel on Torment - Tides of Numenera by the way). They said many times, that if their work would be managed by publishers, they'd never be able to develop Wasteland 2 so thoroughly and with their own pace as they do now. I.e. perfection is not something that publishers often appreciate (since it requires more resources). They prefer more projects in less time, than more better projects with more time.
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I agree that planning any project financially is important if it doesn't want to go bust in the middle, especially if it's big enough and isn't a "one man production". Still, more than often publishers simply reject something that doesn't fit the mass market mentality. Not because it's necessarily years ahead of time, and not because it can't be profitable. They just don't want to go to bigger length to achieve more, if they can profit with less.
A current example - inXile Entertainment (an independent gaming studio now) are still working on their major project Wasteland 2. It's already in beta access for a while, and they plan the release in the end of this summer. They said that what beta has now is only around 50% of the game (i.e. they'll add a lot more still). They took their time developing it and getting feedback and improving things (and they work in parallel on Torment - Tides of Numenera by the way). They said many times, that if their work would be managed by publishers, they'd never be able to develop Wasteland 2 so thoroughly and with their own pace as they do now. I.e. perfection is not something that publishers often appreciate (since it requires more resources). They prefer more projects in less time, than more better projects with more time.