It's wild profits undermine my point slightly, granted, but games like duke nukem forever suffered hugely from When It's Ready, poor expectation management, and final products ultimately not living upto the hype.
Duke Nukem wasn't a case of crunch though, it was a case of severe mismanagement and lack of any real direction. Crunch would not have saved it. The vast majority of titles given a delay of two weeks or even a month or two in extreme cases would not undermine sales.
