What are you basing that on? They couldn't have told us sooner because they didn't know. It was only a few days before Citizencon (while they were still working on it) that they realized they wouldn't get the remaining problems sorted out in time. Before that they were pretty confident it would be done in time.
This bothers the hell out of me, and is my main criticism of anything to do with Star Citizen. Their project management is spectacularly bad in every aspect. There never should have been a meeting a couple days before citizencon to discuss whether or not the demo would be finished. It should either have been finished long before, or the backers should have been told to dial back their expectations prior to the show.
Good project management is about setting and meeting expectations and communication. CIG is awful at both. Sure, shit happens, and sometimes it's out of your control, but when you're missing every deadline and not informing your client that the deadlines will be missed, the project is being mismanaged.
If you have any inkling that the project won't meet a deadline, then you let your client know early. If I have a deadline of December 1st and on November 1st I realize my team is slightly behind schedule, I tell the client that we're behind on November 1st. The client won't be happy about it, and neither will I, but at that point I just need to communicate that something is amiss and that the expectation of having their project complete one month from now is in jeopardy. They have a right to know about it, because it's their money and their project.
Sliding past a deadline without telling anyone is the biggest sin I can think of in terms of project management. If I did it in my work, my clients would be apoplectic, and they'd be 100% right to discontinue our contract.
It's your money and your project, so why aren't you demanding to be treated as such? Some people have tens of thousands of dollars invested and are content to let CIG do whatever they want with no oversight.
