You can catch an interview with legendary game creator Will Wright over at The Vancouver Sun. He reflects back on how he came interested with game design as well as gives us an insight on his dislike of focus groups:
When Wright and his small games company, Maxis (which was bought by Electronic Arts), ran the idea of The Sims past a focus group, the response was unanimous: they hated it. Ignoring their input, he put the game on the market, and The Sims went on to set sales records Females bought the games in big numbers. This makes sense, as nearly half of The Sims’s 20-member games team were women.
“That’s when I learned not to trust focus groups,” says Wright. “I’m more suspicious when somebody says, ‘That’s a great idea!’ than when they start pushing back and say, ‘That’s a horrible idea!’, because if they say it’s a horrible idea, then I know it’s unexplored territory.”