Yes its tough to figure what these publishers will do in the long run. I am thinking that depending on how the SHIV Uboat Addon sells may have some bearing on future offerings. If you can have a couple of devs churn out new content to an already established sim then you can still make money and you are drawing new folks into the genre.
Then again I could be full of "you know what" with this theory. Also, If you are thinking you are going to get all "the bells and whistles", then a $40 price point is unrealistic.
Case in point is Steel Beasts, the title sells for $125.00 this buys you the sim a dongle for copy protection. Rather neat as you can install it on 100 plus PC's but you cannot play unless you get the dongle.
This also buys you endless support and ongoing patches and new content. The only reason the developer can do this is because the program is sold to military organizations world wide in a customized form and sold to the Tread Heads/Armor Grognards as an aside.
I would go with a Steel Beasts type of setup myself, but there has to be a way to sell a ton of units and have a dedicated team that can stick around and that takes bucks!
Anyway, happy hunting!
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