SH5 will flop because the simulation has been diluted in an effort to chase a larger market.
There are a lot of people - gamers - who will look at a subsim (or any sim) and think "BORING!". They're not bad people, they're not stupid either, they just have different taste. And they make up the vast, vast majority of the gaming market. Ubisoft is desperate to give this series a broader appeal, and is prepared to lower the quality of the simulation to do that. But it won't work.

Does anybody think that the average Modern Warfare or Halo player (both good games) will look at Silent Hunter 5 and think "Oh gee wow special abiities this is just what I've been waiting for!"? The answer is no. They will not.
These new "features" won't draw in a non-subsimming crowd, because these people are not interested in submarine simulations. That's it. And by futilely pandering to this market, Ubisoft have damaged the series' credibility with their core market of simulationists.

I don't think I've ever seen such a botched attempt to market a game before.
Well, maybe Daikatana...

Unfortunately, I feel that we are somehow in the position of a young gal who was just being cheated by his fiancee before the step to the altar. We cannot do something about it, the same way she can't, we'll just have to accept it. And my personal way of accepting that will be just not buying the game, just sticking to the old fashioned SH3+GWX and hope that someday GWX4 will be alive and I can play SH4/GWX4 as well.

Yeah, good point. I remember after seeing the first trailer, I posted something like "I hope the game will be better than the trailer". Something just felt...wrong somehow.

And not to speak about the latest glitch from this long series of disappointments ... that so called "sh5 pdf campaign overview" that was leaked a couple of days ago ... totally unprofessional stuff. There's a translation of that act. It looks like: "OK, you are demanding more info about the game, you are hungry, here's some ... s*!@, eat it while it's still hot!"

Marketing Train Wreck?
 

Since the announcement that SHV was in the works, Ubi marketing was mostly quiet (a good thing).

The first trailer was sort of bleah, but not enough to discourage people from buying.

Then came the BIG IMPACT statement. DRM/OSP infected game. This derailed the whole project and alienated the SH series main client support base.

Then, meet the crew came out, a badly written mish mash copied from some fantasy script.

I wonder what Ubi's marketing team will come up with next.

Their effort, so far, has been to speed up the pace of a train off the rails.

Toot, toot!

Stand back, train wreck in progress.

Moo.

Totally wrong. What's obvious to me is that a lot of you newbies to Subsim love to criticise the devs, and say they don't care, and insult their hard work, without even knowing squat about them. I direcly blame Ubi for the big stuff and its consequences. I'm sure that, if all the current SH5 team was an indie team, we wouldn't be having lots of these discussions.

Cheers :rock:

I don't know what to think anymore:hmmm: Thank God at the moment I don't have a system that'll run the game that great, so it takes the pressure off me alittle. Although I firmly believe that eyecandy is a large part of any sim, it dose not compensate for lack of realism and an arcade "feel" to the game. If all the negative interpretations and observations thus far pan out to be true, this is not a sim anymore, plain and simple!

I don't think it's a matter of "careing", it's a matter of $$$$! Let's face it. I can't remember an employer I ever worked for that cared for his workers more than his bottom line. If you know of one, give me his number please!

So a friend gave me a phone call yesterday.

I told him about SH5. About this new innovative game.

I told about my new upcoming crew.

I told him that Benno likes to cry under pressure and torpedo (fisting) guy Faust guy is mocking him.

Then i told that i can make everything better by ordering chef for some more coffee. :yeah:

I did not wonder that he was a somewhat .... confused :hmmm:

With no intention to offend, I wonder if you are playing SH3 on "easy" or on "moderate" level ... Because you can fully understand all these frustrations that are emerging from the way SH5 will look and will feel only if you are playing on "realistic" level and beyond (with no map contacts update) ... Isn't that obvious that the game will be less sim and more arcade than SH3?

Ah, teamork :D

There is a book about Epic failures, very funny.

With no intention to offend, I wonder if you are playing SH3 on "easy" or on "moderate" level ... Because you can fully understand all these frustrations that are emerging from the way SH5 will look and will feel only if you are playing on "realistic" level and beyond (with no map contacts update) ... Isn't that obvious that the game will be less sim and more arcade than SH3?

Two points I like to make. Firstly, I think that attacking the developers because they happen to work for Ubisoft is out of order, rude and unfair. However, It is also inaccurate to lay the blame for design decisions soley at the door of the Ubisoft executives. There is a growing air of - I dont even know what you call it, protectionism? - towards the devs. Basically I dont believe they are untouchable, as seems to be suggested by various threads and posts I've seen. They are big boys and girls and I for one would like to see detailed and reasonable answers to why certain decisions were made in the development of the game. Constructive critisism can only help to make this game better. Now, As I said, lets not attack them just because they are the more presentable face of a vast and godless corporation but lets also not pretend they were making the worlds greatest and most hardcore world war two simulator before the evil suits dropped in to say 'Hey, this isnt what the kids want! where's the phat lewt at?'

My second point is this: Regardless of what I feel about certain design choices in the game, or the type of anti-piracy measures taken, I think this will be not only the biggest selling edition of the franchise but quite possibly one of the biggest selling sim titles in many, many years. It is far too easy to come to a site like this and belive that it is the whole world. We represent a tiny slice of the market for this game. Good for the devs and good for ubi. Maybe not so good for me but I'm a grown up sometimes and Im sure I'll cope,

I still care about the game. Sure:
- OSP will be crap at first...
- bugs are part of marketing lately (games like Fallout 3 and Mass Effect 2 are raaaare these days)
- probably silly documentation (but I hope to be wrong)
- lots of modding to do...

But I won't resist buying it... no way....I've been waiting for it for tooo long :haha:. Plus, I hope to be the first to review it :woot:

Biggest selling sim title in many years... That doesn't mean much really. It just means that they managed to appeal to a wider crowd, ie the casual gamer, and for a sim, that's not really good news.