Silent Hunter 5 Announced?

[FIREWALL]

Originally Posted by Sonarman

A little more evidence of SH5 comes our way from the German games site Gamezone.de. If I am reading the translated ""Googledegook" correctly a SH5 trailer has been submitted to the ESRB (European Software Ratings Board) ahead of it's display at the Gamescom convention.

Update--here we can see the actual classification in its listing.

I must be going blind. The only thing from Ubisoft on that listing was "Rabbid Go Home"

[scrapser]

My gut tells me Silent Hunter 5 will be yet another U-Boat sim and an incarnation of Silent Hunter 4 using the same engine and whatever improvements they can manage along with the usual suite of FUBAR's requiring the mods to come to the rescue as much as the code allows. In short, SSDD courtesy of UBISoft.

I was really hoping the developers would focus on the Pacific for a while. We've seen one sim come out in what, 10 years? It's very disappointing.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by scrapser

I was really hoping the developers would focus on the Pacific for a while. We've seen one sim come out in what, 10 years? It's very disappointing.

We have only ourselves* to blame if the Pacific version did not sell well enough to keep it going.

*I know someone's going to say it had bugs or it was released early, all true, but the bottom line is and always has been: how many copies did it sell?

[scrapser]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

We have only ourselves* to blame if the Pacific version did not sell well enough to keep it going.

*I know someone's going to say it had bugs or it was released early, all true, but the bottom line is and always has been: how many copies did it sell?

I wish I could disagree but you are right. I guess there is a larger fan base for German U-Boats than exists for the US Fleet Service. Other factors may have played a part in SH4's acceptance (release date, economy, initial reactions and word-of-mouth, that sort of thing). It just seems counter intuitive that people would be more attracted to sinking merchant ships while evading escorts than they would be sinking high value targets like flat tops and cruisers, PLUS the merchant ships and escort evasion. To me the Pacific theater had much more to offer...some of the greatest naval battles in history, a huge ocean, and some pretty formidable submarines.

But that's just me...I'm weird that way.

[FIREWALL]

It's so obvious what SH5 is going to be about it jumps out at you.

It's been in front of everyone since SH4 was released.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

We have only ourselves* to blame if the Pacific version did not sell well enough to keep it going.

*I know someone's going to say it had bugs or it was released early, all true, but the bottom line is and always has been: how many copies did it sell?

Very true...hence the commercial decision surrounding SH5.

Let us hope there will be a PTO addon.....I certainly hope so.

[scrapser]

I do hope when the interviews with the developers start to come out they have the presence of mind to ask, "Why another U-boat sim?" There's something to be said for the correlation of U-boat sims/number of fans to Fleet boat sims/number of fans. Obviously if all you pump out are U-boat sims you will, over time, train the consumer base to expect and purchase U-boat sims. If you want to move them to something different there will almost certainly be a drop in sales during the transition period. This is just common sense.

Here's another observation. SH3 was essentially the first sub simulation to be released with today's advanced graphics, sound, and PC processing power. It made a big splash. SH4 did not benefit from the same circumstances when it was released and (as Neal predicted) had enough issues to warrant a contrast and compare with SH3. SH4 was put in a bad position because it needed to outshine SH3 in order to come across as something innovative and exciting but was hobbled from the get go.

Personally I think they should give the Pacific theater another chance. One sim release in 10 years is not indicative of a pattern.

[Jimbuna]

I really don't think it's about 'training' or 'conditioning' the user into any preference.

The simple fact is the U-boat war has more appeal and pulling power than that of the PTO.

Historical sales figures prove that, hence the commercial/business decision for SH5 (yet to be verified.

As for the playable state of both SH3 and SH4 upon release, I would say they were roughly the same and both in need of patches and modifications.

I predict there will eventually be a PTO addon, similar to what happened with SH4 but in reverse order.

I'll certainly buy them both....but that's simply because I like sub sims, regardless of the nation and theatre of operations.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The simple fact is the U-boat war has more appeal and pulling power than that of the PTO.

Sim games sell better in Europe. Europe overwhelmingly prefers the U-boat war. QED.

[scrapser]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I really don't think it's about 'training' or 'conditioning' the user into any preference.

The simple fact is the U-boat war has more appeal and pulling power than that of the PTO.

Historical sales figures prove that, hence the commercial/business decision for SH5 (yet to be verified.

As for the playable state of both SH3 and SH4 upon release, I would say they were roughly the same and both in need of patches and modifications.

I predict there will eventually be a PTO addon, similar to what happened with SH4 but in reverse order.

I'll certainly buy them both....but that's simply because I like sub sims, regardless of the nation and theatre of operations.

Fair enough but I still contend SH3 benefited from being the first submarine simulation to be released in today's state of technology. A benefit that had nothing to do with it being a U-boat sim per se.

I will also buy SH5 and hope for a PTO add-on. I think by now the developers know there's an interest in both theaters. If SH5 is a honed version of SH4 code, they should be able to produce the add-on easily as they already have most of the code in SH4. At least that's how it would appear on the surface.

[FIREWALL]

Some interesting statements made on Softpedia about SH3 & SH4 by Lead Game Designers.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Softp...III-2142.shtml


Discussing SH3: Softpedia News: Aside from patches, do you also have an add-on in progress?

Cristian: This thing is still being discussed. It takes time to develop it. For the time being we are focusing on the patches, but yes, there will also be an add-on.

Softpedia News: In this very moment, what project is Silent Hunter's team involved in?

Cristian: I want to tell you that as soon as we finish the work on the 1.3 patch, we should start working on the add-on, but I cannot give you more details about it.


Something that never happened

Softpedia News: Coming back to Silent Hunter III, did you consider the suggestions of the naval simulator enthusiasts

Cristian: Especially the person in charge of SubSim site, who is the mentor of the community formed around that site

Maybe old news but, not for newer members.

[Arclight]

You could argue SH4 was actually the expansion for SH3: more of the same but with updated graphics, some tweaks and different perspective, with the U-boat expansion actually expanding more on SH3 content than SH4 content.

What caught my eye:

Softpedia News: Are we to understand you are planning other games based on the same engine?

Tiberius: Just as Silent Hunter IV is still under question, so is every project related to naval simulation. This concept has been questioned many times. Though some suggestions were rather interesting, any future decision depends on the success of the initial title.

Cristian: If the results are confirmed by the sales figures, then...

If this new game is indeed "all new code" (ie new engine), it seems likely more games, presumably naval games given the nature of the engine, will be developed. I seriously doubt they would cobble together a new engine just for a single Silent Hunter game.

The future for naval games seems bright imho.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Arclight

The future for naval games seems bright imho.

Let us hope and pray you are right

[mapuc]

One thing that could make me very happy. Is a
destroyer command-like-game. Where you on the startscreen can choose wheither you like to play in SHIII or in SHIV.

Markus

[Roads88]

I've been watching this thread for some time. I (and I seem to stand alone) have had enough of German U boats and American fleet boats.

I'm ready for a cold war sim. Something like Red Storm Rising II.

If I want to run the boats in the first paragraph. I all ready have the sims.
I just can't see buying another. It would have to be something that wood really knock my socks off.

Runnig boats from both sides of the cold war would be great.

Think what it would be like taking an old Russian Whiskey out looking for trouble.