Their unethical strategy has always been to create hype around it and push pre-orders and ban negative reviews so by the time the game comes out they get all the sales from disappointed people that just wanted a game, and call that a "success", of course when people found out it's shit they're gonna buy it less and less.
What's even better is after so long the community for the game came together to celebrate the 10th anniversary with gorgeous art like the one in the post. Really brought back memories :(