Well yeah, they're obviously asking for feedback on how they can maximise how they spend money on marketing and trying to improve their "market impact" (for lack of a better word), which I don't see as a negative thing for them to do.
On its own, sure it's a normal thing to do.
But when you combine it with their tendency to rush out games, it comes across as more like the average AAA studio where it's all about making quick money not good products.
Even so, going after Major IPs would obviously make Owlcat more known and bring in more people to play their games, which is what you seemed to imply they were doing.
Then I must be more concise with my words.
*Ahem*
Given that the survey will only be seen by those that have an active interest in the company, either through being fans of their games, the genre or having an heard about them from such people, the survey is directed towards current consumers. When looking at popularity of things via the survey, this is indicative of looking for what is popular among their existing playerbase. So what they are looking to do, is capitalize on whatever is the most popular IP among their current playerbase to maximize their profits by ensuring that existing customers are inticed into purchasing their newest title, with the idea that they wish to simply use a popular IP to sell their next title as opposed to making something stand alone good enough to please their playerbase.
Whether or not such an IP has popularity outside of their existing playerbase is irrelevant as such interest will not be reflected in the survey because of the aforementioned reasoning that people who are not existing customers will not see the survey in the first place.
Well, you didn't seem to consider it to be a cash grab when you put BG3 with Elden Ring (Unless you consider ER to be one too) as only attempting to capture a wider audience without pure profit in mind.
Would you mind showing me where I stated that?
You're inventing implications from things not stated.
All I said about BG3 and ER is that they were explicitly taking on changes to attract a wider audience. I said nothing about not considering them cash grabs.
If you really must know my thoughts on these games:
BG3 comes across as a cash grab. The devs clearly don't have a vested interest in the D&D ruleset and their actual use of the setting leaves a lot to be desired (Especially when it comes to Balduran himself...) they seemingly only wanted to use the wider popularity of the BG IP to hit it big.
ER is somewhat different. Since a lot of its appeal to a wider audience comes from the natural evolution of the series. The move from linear dungeons to open world allowed them to create an experience that more people find enjoyable without necessarily alienating existing fans of the punishing gameplay. It sort of feels more like they capitalized on the evolution of the game as an opportunity to attract a wider audience than them specifically making the game for the purpose of hitting a wider audience.
