The results
All they need is to give the customer what they want and support to back it up. Just because something works for another publisher (Yearly cod releases for example) doesn't mean it will work for you.
Telling the customer what they want instead of giving it really doesn't work. It's not rocket science, it's business 101. As an example all the complaints about suppression, blue tint, etc in BF3 is an example of trying something new that didn't go over so well and could of been addressed better (options to disable the tint as an example).