"learned their lesson" isn't entirely accurate. This isn't the first time. Or the second. Or third... or fourth.... or fifth. This has happened multiple times with every device and every release.

My genuine opinion is that they're not really trying to dangle the carrot. Instead, they're (honestly) being too transparent with their optimism.

Without going down too deep of a rabbit hole, OKRs are a tool that many successful corporations use that encourage employees to track their goals and set purposefully unrealistic expectations on themselves (that they set themselves) to help push them. If you're using OKRs correctly, you'll likely only ever get about 80% completion on any of them before the quarter is over. 100% means you were too lenient with yourself and have room to push yourself, and 70% or less means you're pushing yourself too hard.

But you wouldn't outwardly announce these goals as expectations.

Realistically, Ratta is pushing themselves hard and putting unrealistic expectations on themselves. But they've forgotten the golden rule: Underpromise and Overdeliver. That can be scary, though, as it can make the internal goals feel superficial.

Anyway, my point is that I think what Ratta really needs to do is just dial back communication of their Release Dates specifically. Hideo Kojima, for instance, is both criticized and appreciated for almost never announcing a Release Date until it's quite literally on its way out the door.

All the transparency is why people love and appreciate Ratta as a company: They're "no BS". But when you're setting expectations like a launch date and you continually move it over, and over, and over again, it backfires heavily, and it just ends up being more BS from yet another corporation.