Ever notice how genesis vendors from DAZ always show up in any thread that discusses any figure OTHER than genesis.  We got it - you think genesis is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that yes, other figures could be a threat to your income stream if the creators ever got their act together.  I would think that they would be more concerned about how DAZ is splitting the genesis market with the gen2 female.

 

Getting back to Dawn...

Hivewire screwed the pooch by not having the morph sets ready to go on day one.  Just like the folks that did Michelle.  And the folks that did Antonia.  And SM with Rex and Roxie. And, well, you get the idea. 

Being former DAZ employees, they have also taken the same lacksidasical approach to the release of their male figure, Dusk.

I was around for the V4 launch - That launch was successful for the following reasons:

1.  Morph sets (V4++) were available on launch.

2.  If you knew how to make a V3 figure, you could make a V4 figure.  There was no requirement for a vendor to learn anything new, just dealing with the abortion that is V4's UV layout.  This is important, because most (not all) vendors, by and large, are very, very resistant to any requirement to move away from a Poser 4 production flow.  This is why we are still dealing with bs like material .pz2s in 2013, when that hack was dropped a decade ago. 

3.  The quality difference between V3 and V4 was very obvious.  Any figure coming out today isn't compared to V4 at launch, it is compared to V4 with all of the 3rd party fixes, which other figures that were contemporary to V4, such as the G2 figures, never got.

4.  The content sold at launch was pretty much sold as a loss leader.  I have gone back and looked at what I bought during the initial launch, and the prices were rediculously low.  A lot of $19.95 outfits went for under $5.00, which helped build up the V4 ecosystem.

We will never see another character launch like V4.  Now look at what has happened in the Poser ecosystem since the release of V4.....

1.  DAZ told the Poser community that they didn't love their money anymore, which extended the lifespan of the Gen4 figures. 

2.  DAZ's unwillingness (or more likely, their programming incompetence - can you tell that I have bought all their software at some point.) to make the golum run smoothly in Poser has retarded it's acceptance in the Poserverse.  V4 vendors continued to saturate the market.

3.  Clothing conversion software came of age.  At the launch of V4, PhilC was just getting started with Wardrobe Wizard and the Clothing Tailor sold at DAZ was (and is) a p.o.s.  Fast forward 7 years - not only has WW gotten better, it has been joined by Xdresser and the release of Morphing Clothes; as a final coup d'état, the fitting room has been added to Poser 2014, which means that V4's wardrobe (minus shoes) is available for whatever character you decide to use. 

This has a negative effect for vendors - why should I buy a $14.95 outfit for Dawn, when I can take a V4 outfit I already own into the fitting room and 90 seconds later, that outfit is native for Dawn.  It certainly isn't perfect, but browse the galleries sometimes - the enduser isn't looking for perfection (regardless of what some forum members believe), they are looking for "good enough", especially when you consider how cheap the Poser/DS user base is.

3.  V4 content harvesting is going to another level with the release of Texture Transformer.  Now I can repurpose V4 texture content to Dawn (and soon, other figures). 

This has a negative effect for vendors - Why on earth should I buy a dial-spun character? - I can spin a dial, slap a previously purchased V4 skin on Dawn, have her slide into one of V4's outfits and away I go.

If vendors expect me to buy their characters and clothing, they are going to have to seriously up their game.