The last straw

[TDK1044]

For me, the online DRM issue with Silent Hunter V was the last straw.

For years, I, like many here, have strongly supported the Silent Hunter franchise because Ubisoft was the only Publisher making a sub sim and you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you.

Even though Dan has always put on his PR hat and stated that we (Devs) and Ubisoft are the same thing, I have always disagreed with him regarding that premise. Ubisoft is a publisher based in France, and it has production development studios in various countries, including Romania.

The fact of the matter is that the Romanian Devs are a great group of people who have a very strong work ethic, and who have gone above and beyond for this franchise time after time. Huge thanks for that, Dan.

Ubisoft the Publisher on the other hand is a publisher that was forced to admit publically in 2009 that they were guilty of pushing unfinished games onto the market. They promised to do better.

Let's call it like it is; Ubisoft continued to make the Silent Hunter series for one reason only....because it made money for them. It was certainly not a top earner by any means, but it was profitable.

When Silent Hunter III was released, it had great potential to become a really good sub sim, but is was one hell of a buggy mess when they released it. It needed significant patching in the initial nine months after release to get it to where it should have been on its release date. Then we heard that a Pacific based version of the series was in development. Great we thought. Ubisoft must have learned some lessons from Silent Hunter III. Sure they did. They learned that you can throw unfinished games onto the market and get away with it. And so, along came Silent Hunter IV....a game that has less than 12 months development time. So, for $100 and a shot at the wide screen TV, can anyone guess what happened with Silent Hunter IV? You are correct. It too was a buggy mess and it too required nine months of significant patching.

Once Silent Hunter IV was patched to 1.5, we were told that Silent Hunter V was in development. This would be a brand new game with brand new code, and it would take us back to the Atlantic for the U Boat war. My initial reaction on hearing the news was "please don't let it be released until 2011". If it's released in March of 2010 it will surely be another train wreck requiring significant patching after release.

Over the last couple of days, I've seen German Reviewers of Silent Hunter V complaining that their review copy of the game is full of bugs and glitches, and stating that the game crashes a lot. And these people are supposed to be promoting sales of the game.

Folks, I have supported this franchise since 2005. I've supported the Devs and tolerated an arrogant publisher throwing unfinished games onto the market. But enough is enough. There comes a time when you have to tell the school yard bully that you won't give him your lunch money any more.

The thought of having to spend another nine months patching this game, and having to log onto Ubisoft servers in order to play the game means that this is where I get off. If they ever offer a patch that enables me to play the game without having to rely on a totally unreliable company then I'll buy it, because by that time it will be patched to 1.4 anyway.

This post is not intended to inspire any ranting, but it's high time that Ubisoft was called out. I really hope that the game is successful despite everything I've stated in this post. I just won't be wasting my money on it if I have to use Ubisoft servers in order to play it.