[JU_88]

You gotta remember hardcore gamers are a minority now.
Naval sims and sims in general, require alot of time an patiance that most people just aren't willing to invest into a game. Hell the majority of casual gamers wont even complete Half life 2 or Call of duty, both of which take about 3-to-7 hours.

I was very nearly one the of the people you mentioned, I had ZERO interest in submarines prior to purchasing SH3, when i saw it I though I'd take a chance and try something different, but really had the expectation I would get bored/frustrated and regret the purchase.....
..... two months later it was pactically my religeon and I also owned Das Boot and Iron coffins. My flat mate at the time who liked story driven games with character development- joked that I bought the book and the movie to compensate for what was missing in SH3 -in a funny kind of way I guess he was right, But to me I was just feeding my new found obsession.
By the way, if a non Uboat enthusiast ever asks you what type of U-boat is the one in Das boot, just answer with 'I dont know' I answered with 'type 7c' and got called sad git as a result LMAO!

That said, even now my sim collection only consists of SH3 & 4 and IL2 complete edition.
I love them to pieces but they alone satisfy my sim needs, the rest of my games are action adventure, FPS, survival horror and RTS. I like the odd racing game too.