UBI....the paradox
 

As has been mentioned UBI certainly seems to have blown it with the whole DRM debacle (the online only aspect certainly didn't help either).

Having said that, as much as that company makes most of us cringe these days it is still the same company that gave us IL2 (my personal favourite flightsim), Splinter Cell and Far Cry. I think they were involved in the Rainbow Six series also although THAT franchise IMHO thundered in after Rogue Spear as it attempted to cash in with the console crowd (I get nauseous thinking about Rainbow Six: Lockdown). It went from an intelligent, tactical shooter to the electronic equivalent of whack-a-mole!!! SHUDDER!!!!:nope:

It should be noted that most of these games are pre-DRM and pre-SH5 so what happened? Greed? Incompetence? Both?:hmmm:

You do know there aren't AAA titles only, do you? Do you have ANY idea of the market simulators have, in comparison to other genres?
And you do read "only" beside the subsim subscribers number, indicating the possible buyers are much more than that, do you? :-?

And it's also curious reading tomoose quote the most successful series of this company, and then think how in one way or another they succeeded to ruin every single one of them.

I'm sure we will see any more games like Silent Hunter. Maybe it will be not produced by Ubisoft, but it certainly appears.

Look for Akella which their PT-Boats, or Square Enix with their Battlestations series. These are really good games, which already lacks enough to be ideal. And of course Ubisoft with their 'almost perfect' Silent Hunter series.
The only question is why Ubisoft "shots to its leg" and released a product that goes backwards in development. I would prefer the new SH4 with better graphics and a dynamic campaign for the Americans and Germans.
Maybe they plan it as add-on but they hold it for a small sale.

Now, Ubisoft or someone else will release a similar product in future. Maybe it will be 'DD: Knights of the Sea" or reactivated 'Battlestations: crash dive' In fact Ubisoft has ready game to next re-release, opened game with multiplayer and mission editor so Ubi at the best position. But this is close market is only one free chair for winner.
And the winner takes all.

.."every single one of them"
 

Deadlywolf; I don't think IL2 is ruined at all. It's an excellent product and still going strong although I think that is thanks to the outstanding support from Oleg Maddox and certainly NOT from UBI. That seems to be the exception unfortunately. I can't speak to FC2 as I haven't played it but the buzz surrounding it didn't seem to last long. The original Far Cry was a definitely a decent game. The less said about R6 the better.

The one area IMHO that UBI should have had the devs correct in almost all of these titles is the online play. With the exception of IL2 I found that even trying to get online with almost all the titles was a royal PITA!! Talk about not being user-friendly or intuitive!!! Sheesh!:-?

UBI rhymes with "If only...." LOL:D

Ubisoft reports today their fisrt half 2010-11 results:

http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/gallery_.../1042/2350.pdf

Yves Guillemot (Ubisoft CEO) stated:

"Ubisoft is now armed with a balance sheet that is better adapted to the requirements of the industry and we have a solid financial position as well as €280 million committed credit facilities. We are continuing to overhaul our studios roles, operations and structures in order to meet the new challenges in our industry and are focused on offering highly innovative and creative products, as well as on enhancing quality levels, releasing new iterations of our major franchises on a more regular basis, providing gamers with an ever-richer online experience and attracting a constantly growing number of casual gamers. The outstanding efforts of Ubisoft’s teams in these areas will enable us to fully leverage the numerous opportunities coming up in the High Definition, Casual and Online segments."

I would prefer Medium Definition, Deep and Home Alone (offline) Segments. Boy, UBI certainly tossed me out of the window! :D

Anyway, there is always chess ...:hmmm:

.

Hmmmm maybe.

Anyway the only things that nowadays the industry is able to simulate it is you pretending to make exercise in front of you screen with your Wii, which personally I consider an aberration.

@ Seeadler :