If you have preordered Brave New World (CIV V)...

Ok, I misunderstood you. I agree they most probably don't have much idea what the games are like, but I'm sure they'd be intimately familiar with which ones are selling. I don't think civ4 vanilla would be moving much these days.

I don't see how it isn't possible for a good marketer to be able to keep track of what appears to be maybe 20-25 active products (sometimes those cross multiple platforms). These guys aren't actively marketing (in large part) games from '07 and '08. Or even '11. It's their job to know their product so they can sell it effectively.

Additionally, my guess is that certain sub-departments handle certain games. I bet each marketer is only responsible for a handful of games a piece. That would be how I've seen it in the past. But I'm equally ignorant to how 2K's marketing department works. They could be a disorganized mess with a horrible CMO, awful hiring, and incompetent monkeys for employees. I doubt it, but anything is possible.

And every marketing department I've ever seen would be hiring applicants who have experience in this industry. Or at least something very similar where the learning curve isn't steep.

Treating it for profit is another animal entirely. That's their job as well. You can't fault a company for wanting to make money. Now treating their customers horribly is different topic, but the marketing department's job (usually) isn't customer service oriented.

Regardless of why they made the mistake, I don't believe it's accurate to blame a company's marketing department for not knowing their product. Unless 2K is just entirely inept, I'd be shocked if that were the case.

But hey, think what you want. We've all got opinions.