As far as whether we're slow or not, depends what you define as slow. When the eShop was "new" to 3DS we released VVVVVV, Cave Story (eShop), NightSky and Ikachan in the span of a little over a year. Last year we focused on development and building out the engine to support true multi-platform releases in the future with a good framework.
We could announce games at the last-second and release, but then we'd be called out for not announcing them with enough time. How would you suggest we proceed? What would you do differently?
Sure, everything is relative to perspective. That's totally fair. I don't think the choice for announcing releases is limited to "years before a game is ready to be released" and "the month before it is out" though.
I certainly don't want to come off as telling you how to do your job, especially without knowing all the factors which go into it, but as a fan observing the perception problem here, I would say it's probably a better idea to announce stuff when there is a certain level of progress on the development end which indicates a firm timeline can be made for the release window.
In the case of Guxt and Legend of Raven, I think you can see why it probably wasn't a great idea to get people excited when plans could change completely so quickly. Tweeting that Guxt had received a ESRB rating is basically telling fans that "it's dropping soon". Why do that if there was no intention of releasing that version at all? In the case of Raven, wouldn't it have made more sense to announce it when everyone was actually sure which platform(s) it would be released on? Announcing something for the 3DS only to cancel it a year later and announce it has moved to the Vita is pretty bad form. Setting up expectations and not delivering disappoints people who pay attention to announcements and are excited for what was promised.
To contrast the negative parts, I would say that the handling of Binding of Isaac Rebirth has been exemplary. The creator updates fans on progress from time to time, there is always something interesting and exciting shared about the development which reassures the people looking forward to it, and keeps them excited. Even though the game still has no release date, the PR cycle has been well handled. Granted, it's not always possible to have the developer or creator of a game to be that involved in the promotional process, but in those cases, it would definitely be better to not over-promise, and to announce stuff before anything is actually set in stone.
Those are just some of my honest thoughts, and I hope you don't take any of it the wrong way. I think almost everyone here would love to see the games Nicalis releases to succeed and not be plagued by bad press or various problems (delays, platform changes, bugs, etc) which aren't the fault of the design of the games themselves - which are often critically acclaimed and well loved.
Hopefully the infrastructure investments made on the engine and framework work out, and the upcoming releases are much smoother sailing. I think if a year or two from now, this thread topic is totally obsolete and no longer reflects how anyone sees Nicalis, that would be a win-win for everyone. The people looking forward to the games, the company itself, and all developers you work with. Best of luck!
