The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous

The Action-Packed Gaming Company, based on the success of the previous season’s video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character who is also a martial arts master. The new game had improved 3-D graphics, enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters. However, marketing surveys showed that teenagers were uninterested in this new game, and the game sold very poorly.

The passage implies that an explanation for the failure of the new game is based on doubt regarding which of the following assumptions?

A) Teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games’ main characters.

B) Buyers of video games prefer to purchase games based on popular movies.

C) The Fist of Awe series of movies was extremely popular with teenagers who regularly purchase video games.

D) Technological improvement from one video game to the next does not guarantee a corresponding increase in sales.

E) The successful video game may have benefited from advertising associated with the Fist of Awe movies, a benefit the failed video game did not have.

Read the question stem first: The passage implies that an explanation for the failure of the new game is based on doubt regarding which of the following assumptions?
double take... what!!!
Now break it down
The passage implies that - According to the passage
an explanation for the failure of the new game is based on - The passage has explained that a game failed. The reason is based on...
doubt regarding which of the following assumptions - Which of the assumptions fell through... failed to realize...

Ok, put it all together. The passage says that the new game failed. The reason is that an assumption (probably made by the game makers) did not realize. What is that assumption?

So we are looking for [highlight]an assumption[/highlight] that fell through and led to the failure of the game.

Now, we break down the stimulus:
[highlight]The Action-Packed Gaming Company[/highlight], based on the success of the previous season’s video game featuring the character Sam Li, of the popular Fist of Awe series of martial arts movies, [highlight]developed for the current season a similar martial arts game featuring a new character[/highlight] who is also a martial arts master.
Gist - APGC developed a martial arts game featuring a new character. This game was based on success of previous season's game featuring popular Sam Li.

[highlight]The new game had improved 3-D graphics,[/highlight] enhanced multiplayer capability, and dozens of new martial arts moves developed by real-life masters.
However, marketing surveys showed that teenagers were uninterested in this new game, and the game sold very poorly.

Right! So they made the game under some assumptions and one of them failed to realize. We are looking for that assumption.


A) Teenagers make purchasing decisions based on the technological merits of video games, not the name recognition of the games’ main characters.
The game makers did assume this. They chose a new character for their game as opposed to Sam Li who was already very popular. And they made this game technologically advanced because they assumed that teenagers will appreciate it. But apparently, this assumption failed since teenagers were not interested in this game.

B) Buyers of video games prefer to purchase games based on popular movies. - They did not assume this while making their new game. It was not based on popular movie character.

C) The Fist of Awe series of movies was extremely popular with teenagers who regularly purchase video games. - This was not an assumption they made while making this year's game. It is irrelevant to our discussion of the failure of this year's game.

D) Technological improvement from one video game to the next does not guarantee a corresponding increase in sales. - The game makers did not assume this. They made it technologically advanced probably because they actually believed that technological improvement DOES bring in greater success.

E) The successful video game may have benefited from advertising associated with the Fist of Awe movies, a benefit the failed video game did not have. - Again not an assumption the new game makers had in mind that failed them.

Answer (A).