Sales of SH 5
 

Sales of SH 5

Who can say?.:hmmm:
Silent Hunter 5 has made a new sales record (because the copy protection)
or Ubisoft has made or a collapse in sales (Swastika image in the readme

Well, no one can. Though the indications for online sales are pretty terrible. It didn't last in Steam's top 10 for more than a week, and even then it was beaten out by Counter-Strike: Source. Similarly, I never saw it crack Direct2Drive's top 10. Direct2Drive's user ratings are abysmal, and it's impossible to buy it off of Steam without noticing the Metacritic rating of 60 staring you in the face. And of course Amazon user reviews are terrible as well.

It'll be a long while before we know officially, but I'd hazard a guess that it tanked.

Anyone got some reliable data?

I've a hunch that software like this one have stronger sales in EU markets. At any rate, I wouldn't be surprised if, by this point, it sold less than SH3 or SH4

The problem is that the financial suits of ubisoft will blame the poor sales on a lack of market for subsims now.
Thinking that, what the people really want is more rabbid rabbits and the evolution of motion controllers.
Instead of the drm issue and the fact that it got terrible reviews.
Sad isn't it but I think this is the last silent hunter we will see.

Not really, but there are indicators. I.e. Silent Hunter 5 already dropped out of the Top 100 bestseller charts at amazon here in Germany. The Price dropped from € 44,50 to € 35,90 within 4 weeks and the customer reviews at amazon are frankly a disaster.

Next to this, UBISOFT did not release a second patch fixing major or even minor bugs within the last 4 weeks and the fact that there is NO official statement about the release of a second patch or about availiability of DLC at Uplay feed the rumors at this end.

But all conclusions would be pure speculation, of course......

I know a guy who works in the pc department of a major electronics chain store here in Germany, Saturn, which is quite big. Last week he told me that SH5 lies like lead on their shelves. they had a good start on the first 2 days, then suddenly customers stayed away. He said that sales go bad in another Saturn store, too, and also in the one Media market we have here (Saturn and Media belong to the same corporation).

At German Amazon, price already dropped by 30% a longer time ago now, I think already in the second week.

Guys,

The best thing that could happen is that SH5 sales are such a huge nightmare that Ubisoft decide not to continue with the franchise.

My view is that Ubisoft has had too many chances to get it right, and that they keep getting it so wrong is an indication that they could not really care less about SH franchise.

I hope and pray that they have a tantrum over sales and say they wont produce another.

There are plenty of excellent smaller developers who could produce as good or better as any SH title ever released.

Ubisoft are not the only game in town, and a decent sub simulator has a guaranteed 200,000 sales plus worldwide which is more than enough for a strong 2 year dev process, and still a large profit margin thereafter.

We have such absolutely talented people here that we could do our own game, and have EVERYONE contribute (like a real crew:up:). Just my opinion.:arrgh!:If the SH3 game engine (and everything regarding SH3) would be freeware and usable to everyone it would be so awesome.

I probably never going to buy it even if it hadn't come with the stupid DRM. Another flop. Not going to burn my money in that. Not worth playing imo.

Torpedo los! and it was sunk!:arrgh!:

The SH modders are great but a proper *finnished* submarine simulator with SH5 graphics would need commercial ambitions.

Artists and developers need to be paid for their work, so they arent worried about paying rent cheques etc...The job needs to be done professionally. But with a $10million (conservativley) market per release that should not be a problem for a smller developer that isnt more concerned about their big populist titles. This is the problem with UBI and SH. For Ubi, SH is a minor title.

I think maybe that is a little harsh. Agreed there are other companies out there capable of making an improved version of SH but none seem to be too enthusiastic about doing so. A new game would require an entirely new engine as UBI are unlikely to want to release theirs, so whereas a SHVI could be done relatively cheaply, a new developer would have to spend big bucks devloping a new engine.

I also feel that UBI have shot themselves in the foot here. Like a previous poster said, no info about a patch is imminent. Perhaps if they had held their hands up and said the game is bugged but we are working to resolve these issues, more people may well have bought it.

The end of Silent Hunter, I really hope not!!! The whole series has been bugged to some extent but with the modders on here and patches from UBI, they have all become amazing games and the genre leaders

SH franchise has been the submarine sim leader because there is no-one else doing commercial subsims since early 2000. Look at all the subsims in the 80s/90s. Its a popular genre and Ubisoft have had it all to themselves for almost a decade now.

Personally i see Ubisoft as a hindrance to the future of the subsim market. By releasing a new title every 2/3 years they are sort of stifling the potential of a competitive title. Especially because sales figures for SH5 could indicate to some that no-one wants to play a subsim, when actually there is a large dedicated market worth millions of dollars but Ubi's incompetence has made it look unprofitable.

Their CEo has a habit of using the most outragoeus justifications for why a certain title did not sell well.

I'd much prefer a subsim title being in the hands of a smaller dedicated developer.

Ok, if I understand:

- If a company release a really good and sharp product, a competitor won't dare trying.

- If a company release an unfinished and buggy product, a competitor won't dare neither...

Which competitor ?

I am quite certain that the major problem is the lack of business competition. I believe Ubisoft was able to get a bit lazy about SH, because players do not have any games to go to as an alternative.

From a marketing point of view, this leads to the conclusion that SH5 is not more than a second class cash cow, in a dying genre.

As a long time flight simulator enthusiast, I would even say that simulations themselves are a dying genre. Even Microsoft closed the aces studios, which were responsible for nearly every MSFS of the last two decades (which is not really the end of the world, because the MSFS series has a product life cycle of about 5-10 years). That is mainly because playing habits of the masses change from enthusiasts (as known from the early amiga and commodore days) to casual console gamers. In order to persist, it is crucial for a studio to have mega-selling titles like Assassin's Creed for the kiddie gaming generation, which likes to play GTA and stuff like that. Sims like SH5 are not an obligation, but more like an accessory and a question of image. And sure as hell Ubisoft is not coming out of this mess near zero, but with a big fat red minus at the end of the day. And this estimation does not even consider the negative effects on Ubisoft's image as a publisher in whole.

Silent Hunter was, unfortunately, one big fail. It was a communication fail in the first place. It is simply impossible to create a product which has such a high-involvement character as SH5 without asking or talking to the community. And chances are, that this will be the end of a whole genre, unless some studio (or even Ubisoft) is brave enough to do better (which is easy), or the community continues to maintain and mod the sh* out of this game and keep it alive, to prove that there still IS a market for sub sims. Without wanting to meet the trouble halfway, I am not really confident about the will of Ubisoft to keep trying to ride a dead horse.

IF (!) this game is dying in the arms of ubisoft, we can only hope that it will be given away at some point in time to a studio that dares to pay a license and continue the beloved stuff in the means of the community.

I agree to Méo that this is kind of a dilemma :damn:

@christian: the potential one ;)