Personally, i have the distinct impression submarine sim's are a generational thing. A small corner of a nitch market. The games industry isn't a public service, they're there to make big bucks. Walk into any store that still sells PC games, and it isn't hard to see what type of games move past the cash register.
There was a time when there were a few sub sims to choose from.... way back in the AOD, SH1 days, and the couple of "me too" clones they inspired. But the way things are now, ill wager that if no more submarine sims were ever made again, the only group (a small group in the big scheme of things) who would notice is the subsim.com community. The majority of game players and makers would not notice, nor would care.
In this respect, SH5 had the right idea to get a little (or alot) more RPGish. SH5 NEEDED to draw more people to the genre to draw interest to the genre in order to keep it alive. If it weren't released with so many bugs, an saddled with the DRM, it may have succeeded. But it didn't.
I for one, do not expect to see ANY more sub sim's for a VERY long time. Maybe even never again.
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