[HKLE]

Hi folks

Just some comments on the general subject:

DRM killed my preorder before the publication of this game. Although I should not have the problems of our down under colleaques, I do not like the idea of having to pay for less quality and options in comparison to previous games - in the past, the standard for offline games simply was different, as you all know. So - the new concept might serve UBI, but at the time in March I did not see any advantage for us customers.

In the hindsight though, I might decide in a different way, if the quality of the product would have been ok.

But SH5 seems even to be worse or equal to SH2 in terms of gameplay (and this is the long time motivation factor for such a game - nothing is more boring than all the eyecandy after a few hours - with just a few freighter types and always the same dialoques with crew ...). Concerning the setup of options, I cannot choose different U-boat types (well - for the so called "role playing" concept of this game, one U-boat type may be enough), but what really is a show stopper for me, is the scripted and uniform campaign "system" - start only in 39, arcade style (and totally unrealistic) mission targets, no other options allowed.

This is something I vehemently argued against already back in the development stages of SH3 - at the time with success - so SH3 still is THE game for me (I do not mind the missing eye candy, if the game itself is ok).


UBI had other ideas with this game though. First - short playabilty seems to create better opportunities for addons (more U-boat types, another campaign, maybe another theater (again), missing items such more freighter types and so on). The - new type of - customer, UBI has in mind, seems to be of the short attention type - therefore the arcade approach. They can be milked better than the old crowd - get the 50 bucks fast and forget about it.

Apparently, the marketing concept was to get new customers while the old customer base certainly would buy EVERY new game, whatever quality it might be.

And I - as old customer - almost fell for this candy myself.

Another question for me is, why UBI obviously rushed this game to the market, when it was far from being complete. The main reason in my opinion was, that UBI wanted to test the new DRM scheme on a comparably small customer base - because it does not hurt so much, if something goes wrong.

So - the DRM discussion itself prevented me from buying a game, which I would have forgotten within a few months anyway - mainly because of poor gameplay and only a few rather boring options. (I still play SH3 and 4 a lot)

The campaign system - important as core to longer playabilty - is solidly in the hands of UBI and their uncertain promises. If the game does not create the ROI planned, bad luck for the existing customers. No further development. Even no promises to do so.

One of the main open items for UBI is the question, if this massive customer deception and the accompanying image loss does not fall back on future sales. I read an article, that at least at the moment, they had a very good sales success in markets, where there is traditionally a high piracy rate - like Russia. (I wonder, why Russian companies like 1C can live without such a DRM scheme ?). But this is now - and then ? I doubt, that the customers do not learn from such a lesson themselves.

Thanks to the DRM announcement, I did not spend my share on this massive customer betrayal. My personal conclusion of this lesson is, that I shall generally wait for some time, before buying a new game - no matter which publisher - and let the early buyer crowd have it.