The reason QL with their shady business model got the contract, and will get future contracts despite the outcome and abysmal performance is precisely so that they can shoulder the blame when shit really hits the fan with a failed launch. Companies and individuals always respond to incentives. <br><br>Bear in mind that most games (hell, most software) is released in a terrible state. The management not only knows this, they plan for it, it is part of the business model. This is a catastrophic business model but sadly most of the times they get away with it by sheer luck meaning that the few competent people in the company, that care deeply about the technology or the product, that are not executives, somehow manage to avoid the most catastrophic failure modes but the execs have no idea how that happened. They, in their idiocy, think that their process is good. That is why next time they cut even more corners. This is how we end up with burnout and all kinds of problems. <br><br>Developers are really naïve in this sense, instead of trying to save poorly managed projects, they should help them fail! But alas, it is not in our nature, we care too much, and those assholes can easily see this passion and exploit it without understanding anything about it or having any themselves.<br><br>Therefore when a total shit show occurs, they have some third party to blame as it is the case here. It's a very good piece of misdirection. The third party's management also knows this and bank on it by doing a shitty job since they know that is not the main reason that they got the contract.