[janh]

Hmmh, I have seen lots of games succeed and others fail badly in my gaming history. For many reasons, but the one most typical appears to me to be companies/developers not listening to the wishes of customers, or even having their own idea of what "customer have to want".

Think of Microprose, the great simulation company. Or Dynamix. Sad that they are gone, but unlike many here in the forum seem to believe, with their departure the genere remained alive and new companies quickly filled their spots.

I have a feeling that with SHV Ubi as a publisher will suffer such a setback. As already 81% of their sales are console arcade games, it is likely that they will push even more in that direction in future. If the revenues from PC games sales further decline, which I really wouldn't be at all surprised by given what the past has shown, they might sell that branch and concentrate on console markets. Unfortunately Ubi is a large pulisher and needs to pursue earnings harsher than small niche companies like Matrix, which focus on their customers and the product rather than dividends.

The case of SH and the SH developer studio already reminds me of Operation Flashpoint. Two sequels, Armed Assault (1+2) and OFP: Dragon Rising, officially were published. The latter from Codemasters, the UK publisher of the original, whereas the first are from Bohemia Interactive, the developer studio of the original. Clearly, they split up and one of them listened to its customers and came out with two successful sequels. Significant new features beyond just eye-candy were added, and nothing important from the original was left out. The Codemaster's sequel, however, turned into an arcade type low-level simulation, and as far as I am aware sales have been disappointing at best. The knew better than the customers what the latter were supposed to look for -- never a good thing. Maybe they already blamed it on piracy, but I would simply say their product missed customers wishes and did not stand up to the Arma competition, although they made a lot of wind about their sequel beforehand.

Now, who would be surprised if the SH developers at some point after SHV split from Ubi and find a new publisher? Maybe small studios like Matrix or Akella might be interested to get a de-facto monopoly on naval warfare simulations? That might also take a few years, like for OFP, but if that in the end results in a better product-- great, I can wait, enough other hobbies, movies, and games out there to bridge a few years. A new pair of new speedskates would be due, I recall.

I really don't worry about the future of submarine sims. I have seen a lot coming and going, and I will surely see more going, and new coming. Perhaps sooner than even I think?