[jason210]

I think it's done well to get this far. I never expected to see an SH5.

This franchise may soon be over, but I don't think it has anything to do with the quality of SH5 or DRM. It's more to do with trends in the gaming market and the economic difficulties that have plagued us for the last 18 months.

One of the most successful and biggest selling franchise's of all ended last year -with the death of Microsoft Flight Simulator. We saw the sacking of the development team and shelving of the product. That was really bad - the simulator had really become a platform for the development of sophisticated models that were like 80% functional flight decks.

But computers are hear to stay and they keep on getting more powerful. For me it all began with the PSION flight simulator in 1984. When I think of all the fun I've had since, I consider myself a fortunate person! We are one lucky generation! We enthusiasts ought to be grateful to have had these experiences of this kind!

Don't under-estimate the markets demand for this kind of entertainment. Soon we'll see a new breed of games combining the best of simulators like Silent Hunter and ARMA, with the best of MMORPGs like WOW and War Hammer. Real physics will replace point and click in these games. It will all be pay to play and it will all be worth it, and one day we'll look back and think about these games wonder what all this fuss and arguing was about. We'll look on SH5 with that same nostalgia we have when we think of when we think about our old ZX Spectrum and Atari and Amiga games.