Why end in 1943?
 

Apologies if this is historically accurate but why does the campaign end in 1943?
Is it paving the way for DLC?

Who knows, ask ubisoft!!!! Probably a matter of time and budget.

We can only speculate, as we do in so many other areas; like bugs and the lack of uboats.

i like to think that its cos theyve concentrated so much detail/time with the one type of boat and first period of the war, that theyre going to finish off the war with another dedicated effort...........its nearly easter, cant wait for the easter bunny!

also, for simplistic arcade style gameplay, uboats had minimal chance of just getting past biscay or even surviving a convoy attack from '44 onwards, that wont make much of a shoot em up game.

It could simply be that limiting themselves to half the campaign gives them opportunity to make the first half more detailed. Same reason there's only one u-boat to choose from. Indeed, the SH5 campaigns are far more detailed and dynamic than III and 4 ever were. I personally don't mind it... isn't a different question to me than "Why can I only play as a German" or "Why are there only Atlantic campaigns"?

I seem to be the only person in the whole world to think so, though, and some other people have even called it a bug or error, as if it was done accidentally and had to be "fixed".

But yes, if SH5 sells well we'll probably see an x-pack adding the later war years and at least one more u-boat type -- I'm guessing the Type IX.

The rationales given were:

1. Late war tech gets rather complex, hard and/or time-consuming to code. Without the late war tech developments it's fruitless to let the clock run that far.

2. 'Till '43 were the "happy times" that give the player the most enjoyment (read: arcade) gameplay.

DLC is probably the "real" reason, though the reason given was that since the game focuses exclusively on the Type VII boat they ended it right after the "Happy Times". After '43 it's just death and pain for us. :) It supposedly allowed them to focus on all the details and make a wonderful VII sim instead of a WWII sim.

It is susspected (so goos the forum gossing) that the game was releases to soon to add the missing u-boats and rest of the campaign. It is thought that the rest of the campaign (and u-boats) will be added through DLC or addons. Not bad a bad (sorry stoned)idea if done right.

Maybe they're pulling a Maxis -- if they could release an incredibly shallow game and then gradually patch it up with a mountain of x-packs, why can't Ubisoft make a game where you only have one sim and three years, and then build on it, x-pack by x-pack?

First X-Pack will add lots of cool furniture and clothes for your u-boat and crew.
The second will allow you to party in the pub after reaching port.
The third will allow you to cast spells.
The fourth adds the Type II and Type IX.

Etc. etc. etc.

A less known fact is the Kriegsmarine running out of morale boosting "soup" in '43. Though thinking about it, DLC seems to be a more likely explanation, as UPlay is about online distribution.

I think we'd be lucky to see this. Depending on the pricing I'd weigh purchasing such a product. However it seems most of the Subsim community wishes to doom this product to obscurity.

Thanks for the replies.
Does SH4 take me from start to finish of the war?
I do enjoy SH5 but ending the war slot earlier does somehow feel incomplete even if the start was the better years, it's war, there is no better years apart from the winner at the end.

And playing WWII as a German....you won't win.

I suspect '43 was a good cut off point due to restrictions in budget and development time.

I know but shouldn't the SH5 as a sim deal with the pressure of losing the war?

While DLC is probably the most likely, the optimist in me has one intriguing idea:

Has anyone finished the campaign yet?
Reading the story based nature of certain segments of the campaign (like assuming command from the captain and specific missions inserted into it, the thought occurred that there could very well be a Das Boot style 'unwinnable mission' at the end, where you get a cinematic scripted mission that see's your boat and crew die, but not just a 'boom your dead' thing.

Could provide a real twist, something like the post-nuke death scene in Call of Duty 4.