What follows are my initial thoughts, having concentrated on what Steve posted (and what he did not):
1. Battlefront's brand (read CM x 1) brought them a great many sales of CMSF in the first days of its release. After that--my guess is that sales tanked due to the legend of problems and deficiencies, all of which have been discussed in great detail on these boards and on many others.
2. Battlefront is two years behind in its business plan. It is a year behind what it expected to put out after CMSF was released.
3. The game engine will not essentially change. So the CM x 1 fans who prefer WEGO and large games will probably not see much improvement in these areas beyond the current state of CMSF.
4. Creating the various terrain and weather involved in the summer and fall of 1944 will be a major undertaking from what we have seen in CMSF. So I don't expect to see much new in Normandy except some yet unspecified changes in QB's.
5. Once we move away from each Title Release, there will be a further and continuing fracturing of the gaming community. Battlefront agrees that each person will own a differing array (if any) of modules for each title game.
6. In the CM x 2 WW2 world, the first Family developed will essentially, as a package, cover the same subject matter as CMBO. The second Family is unknown, but will remain on the "Western" Front. My guess is a period of the war in Italy. The third family will turn to the Eastern Front late in the war and start with Bagration. The five year plan does not include any PTO games.
7. My magic 8 ball tells me to expect to see the release of Normandy in late 2009. An optimistic forecast for the release of the following WW2 title games is 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 years after the one before it. This assumes no major problems with the Title games and the third party modules that requires Charles to pull away from what he is slated to do.
8. I and most others are glad to hear that each Title and module is supposed to have a demo--hopefully issued contemporaneously or before the release of the title/module to which it pertains. Like most others in the CM x 1 community, Battlefront will not get my money until I can play the demo. If the demo doesn't work properly or fails to engage my interest, there will be no sale.
9. My current level of interest in the WW 2 CM x 2 is higher than for the Marines, which I don't plan to buy, but much lower than it was for each of the CM x 1 titles.
10. I hope the Cm x 2 are great games of the type I enjoy playing. However, after the CMSF release debacle, I am more than a little skeptical and cautious. I was born in Missouri and they will have to show me before I spend another nickle.