Feuer, I fail to understand your argument. There is no need for reputation to start a business, but for sure it is needed to keep it floating.
Bottom line, I fire Ubi and I will never buy another SH version under their logo. Same mistakes again and again, nothing learned nor improved all these years. So in my opinion, they have to let it go. Maybe focus on AC series or whatever they can do best, but obviously, SH is not their strong point. Just to be grateful because is the only company that develop a sub sim.. is not a valid argument.
So maybe we should start talkin what we would like to see in SH6 or some similar sub sim. Maybe some indie development team/company is already thinking to take over the SH series and their best source for a wish list is subsim.com. To be honest, I can't think to anything else than fixing the bugs in SH5.. but I think there is some stuff that we all would like to have and see in SH and these are things that was not finished in SH5:
A living crew.
We like to hunt and sink ships, but we also love and feel for out boat. And the crew is the core and the heart of the ship. This is not a plane sim where you are all alone with your machine, is not a FPS where you fight you war all alone against the retarded enemy, is a living thing where you have under your command not only some cold machines but a crew. A crew with family left home, with dreams and hopes, with strength and weakness and so on. So beside the machine, you have to take care of the 52 men aboard, promote them or why not.. even shoot them if they disobey your orders.
Achievements.
This is maybe the most important thing. Is maybe the basic of the human kind, to achieve things... game or not. The whole campaigns should be based on achievements, but realistic ones. Sinking a battleship surrounded with heavy escorts is not a realistic one, is just lame. But surviving a heavy guarded convoy attack, yeah.. that something to cheer up and having a medal for it, is a very nice reward. Going in Scapa and own a battleship.. now that's something truly heroic and when you return to base.. well, you can expect Donitz himself waiting for you, free beer and chicks for the crew, loads of whiskey for you
And there is more. But sadly in SH series we are too busy to discuss about the bugs and how to fix it rather than discuss improvements. So that's why Ubi will have to close the SH series. They suck and are not capable to bring on the market a finished SH sim game. So I wish them luck in developing the AC series, the most pirated game ever.