Chance of an Expansion?

[elanaiba]

One other thing to note about Pintea is that he's no longer an employee of Ubi... so he's here on his own accord, in his own free time.

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

That's what a lot of us on SubSim have been trying to tell people for a long time; the Devs are good guys. Silent Hunter 5 has problems, but they are still here helping the modders and supplying answers to the community at large despite the fact that they are in no way required to do so. These people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be. We ask that you please consider that before going after them in the future.

Sorry, but where is the section of subsim where devs help those who wanna mod? I just can't find the place.

And regarding the "These people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be." ... interesting that Ubi is one of the few or even the only game company where the devs dont talk with the fans. Even Blizzard who has millions and millions of customers have a dev team that answer and have a dialog with the community. Every time we put a question directed to them, they just vanish.

Sorry but I dont feel the same. The devs are not active in any way here, except Elanaiba who in very rare occasions post half answers.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by Magnum

Sorry, but where is the section of subsim where devs help those who wanna mod? I just can't find the place.

Yes, it is called the user Private Messaging feature. On SubSim.com it is accessed from the individual user's CP located in the upper left of the screen.

As for the rest, the Silent Hunter series is not World of Warcraft. The series does not have ongoing development. As for 'vanishing' and not being active, just because they are not talking to you does not mean that the wheels are not turning.

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

That's what a lot of us on SubSim have been trying to tell people for a long time; the Devs are good guys. Silent Hunter 5 has problems, but they are still here helping the modders and supplying answers to the community at large despite the fact that they are in no way required to do so. These people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be. We ask that you please consider that before going after them in the future.

Aye
If you ask me, the devs are the greatest people there are. They really care for the game. Unlike their bosses over at Ubi

[scrapser]

I didn't buy SH5 and probably never will. I did like SH3 and to a lesser extent...SH4 (mainly because it takes place in my personal favorite theater but didn't really improve over SH3...in short a disappointment of sorts).

I work as a systems analyst/applications developer for "in house" custom software applications of the business variety. My user base is anywhere from a handfull to a few hundred people. The software I use is of the RAD (rapid application development) variety.

You would think in this tiny, microscopic world I work in (compared to the entertainment market) that my programming life would get boring real fast. I have been working on bugs in many of the programs for nearly 10 years and they still show up on a fairly regular basis...sometimes because the data structure changes and sometimes because enhancements break things that were previously working...and sometimes they reveal themselves due to extremely rare combinations of events that show them to have been dormant, waiting for the right circumstances to raise their head.

If this is what I experience, just imagine what the DEVS experienced who built the SH series.

I appreciate their efforts and those of the modding community and they have my respect.

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

Yes, it is called the user Private Messaging feature. On SubSim.com it is accessed from the individual user's CP located in the upper left of the screen.

...

Mine dont work. Asked Neal to be so kind and change my username, got no response at all. So this PM system maybe is restricted by access level. Anyway, my point is that I see no serious reason why all the talk is behind the curtains and the forum is kept only for general talks. These informations should be public as a reference for everybody who seek knowledge. Is the main reason why people come to subsim and not on ubi's forum which is completely useless.

Also I see not harm in the knowledge they can share, nobody will ask about how to break the drm crap and other illegal stuff. All we need is a public share of knowledge and know-how about tools that can help moders to improve/mod the game.Why is this something that must be kept behind the curtains? In the end, this is what will keep the sell charts alive... better the game will be, more and more will buy it.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Magnum

Mine dont work. Asked Neal to be so kind and change my username, got no response at all. So this PM system maybe is restricted by access level.

No, that's not it. I've sometimes waited weeks before getting a response, and sometimes had to PM Neal several times. He happens to be extremely busy most of the time. For a name change you might also try email: subsim@subsim.com

[janh]

Originally Posted by Magnum

All we need is a public share of knowledge and know-how about tools that can help moders to improve/mod the game.Why is this something that must be kept behind the curtains? In the end, this is what will keep the sell charts alive... better the game will be, more and more will buy it.

I agree with the last part. What comes to my mind is the "wiki" site that a few well-selling games with big fan base have, for example the series Operation Flashpoint/Armed Assault/ARMA2 (try google for your own impression). Their modding wiki is quite exhaustive, and this is to my knowledge the most flexible modding engine in any simulation. It has even been augmented by sites from other groups within the huge fan base, such as Dev-Heaven.

I think an exhaustive wiki site that describe all the features, aspects and details of modding SHIII, IV, V would surely be a lot of work, and might only work out with the help of the many excellent modders present here. But it would be a big bonus for the community, and possibility also a selling factor that would enhance the lifetime of the title. Though with the future of SH being unsure, it may well be too late for such a project.

[DeadlyWolf]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Personally, i think SH5 will be the last submarine simulation released for many years to come. Their just isn't a big enough market for it this day and age.

Are you kidding??
SH5 could have sold tons of copies if not for the retarded decision-making by Ubisoft, both in the drm, the shameful state in which the game was released, and the total lack of support afterwards.
IMO all the people here that loved SH3\GWX should not buy a Ubisoft game ever again.

I've recently come across this, regarding the incredibly healthy state of pc gaming even within the big companies. Look, at Ubisoft (they even list the revenue in % and not in $)

The PC gaming week made me think about something... it's the whole "PC gaming is dead" debate.

People basicly throw this claim into a discussion but hardly have any evidence to back up their claim besides "there are no games for PC", "there is no money in PC gaming because of piracy" or some old NPD sales report. So i figured there must be a way to bring some actual facts to this discussion.

These facts can be easily obtained, trough the annual finnancial reports by publishers. So i did look up some reports and the results are rather suprising. That's why i'm gonna share them with you people here:
(All $ numbers are MILLIONS)

Electronics Arts

Link to the report: [files.shareholder.com]

Important information is on page 184 of the adobe document.

Net revenue by platform

Xbox360 - $868
PS3 - $771
Wii - $570
PC - $687

As you can see the PC made even more net revenue then the Wii did. It's within shooting range of the PS3.

Activision Blizzard

Link to the report: [files.shareholder.com]

Important information is on page 27 of the adobe document.

Net revenue by platform

Xbox360 - $857
PS3 - $584
Wii - $584
PC - $1.412

It should be noted that this is the Report of 2009, all other publisher reports are from 2010, the one for activision 2010 isn't released yet afaik. So it doesn't include Starcraft 2, but it does include Modern Warfare 2. As you can see WoW is hard at work. The money generated by WoW alone dwarfs any other platform by far.

Also MW2 had a huge impact on the console net revenue, boosting it considerably. For comparisson here are the 2008 numbers that don't include MW2:

Xbox360 - $362
PS3 - $241
Wii - $407
PC - $1.251

Without a mega release like MW2 the WoW/PC revenue alone surpasses that of ALL consoles combined.

Take Two Interactive

Link to the report:
[phx.corporate-ir.net]

Important information is on page 23 of the adobe document.

Net revenue by platform

Xbox360 - $171
PS3 - $155
Wii - $5
PC - $10

That's Red Dead Redemption hard at work, which didn't get a PC release.
The PC once again generated more net revenue then the Wii did.
Without such a mega seller the platforms are way closer to each other. For comparisson reasons here are the numbers from 2009 where no huge console exclusive title like RDR got released.

Xbox360 - $30
PS3 - $11
Wii - $15
PC - $13

As you can see, without a huge console exclusive getting released the PC holds up pretty well. Who knows how the numbers for 2010 would have looked if they actually released RDR for the PC too...

Ubisoft

Link to the report:
[www.ubisoftgroup.com]

Important information is on page 16 of the adobe document.

Sales by platform in %.
(sadly there is no net revenue in $ values)

Xbox360 - 22%
PS3 - 23%
Wii - 26%
PC - 8%

Okay doesn't look that great over at Ubisoft. But the question is, why? Hasn't Ubisoft been the one who invented their awesome new DRM to combat piracy? Doesn't look like it worked that well... to the contrary i think it actually backfired. Also they make the majority of their money trugh Wii casual titles, so it could also be a problem with their overall software lineup.

Another Publisher i wanted to add had been Bethesda Softworks (ZeniMax Media Inc.). But sadly i couldn't find any annual finanical reports from them. If you find them feel free to share them.

But it's not far stretched to assume that the PC side of things don't look that bad at ZeniMax either. Considering that that Bethesda has a tradition in strong PC games, they also have Arkane studios, Splash Damage and the newly aquired id Software which traditionaly are also very strong in the PC sector.

So here you have it, these are actual facts about the market situation. And they clearly show there is TONS of money to be made on the PC. It's the task of publishers/developers to tab into that potential and actually make that money.

And before anybody brings this up: I'm well aware that EA has The Sims, Acti/Blizzard has WoW which are big hitters. But as the examples of MW2/RDR show that the console market also depends very heavily on a few very big franchises beeing sold. So i don't see that as an valid counter-point.

Thanks for reading (if you got this far) feel free to discuss and feel free to link to this comment the next time some troll comes along going "there is no money in PC gaming herp derp".

You can find the article here: http://kotaku.com/5677764/

Personally, I can only hope Ubisoft to go bankrupt and sell his intellectual properties to others.

PS: uhm the quote above was way too old , consider it as a mere inspiration for the post ^^

[janh]

Originally Posted by DeadlyWolf

PS: uhm the quote above was way too old , consider it as a mere inspiration for the post ^^

Those are 2009-10 numbers, so quite up to date. I would also expect a correlation between Ubi's decline in PC sales and it's pioneering role in ever worse DRM solutions. But so many other factors, from actual product quality (or buggy 1st releases and related bad press), decline of the customer group of "complex sim/strategy" fans and growing group of "casual" gamers (with little interest to read through thick manuals/learn complex interfaces/games), and the companies shift to "cheaper, simpler" console games play into that as well.

Any conclusion on that would, however, be as unsupported as statements like "the PC market will die". Maybe the PC market will see a decline for simple titles without higher complexity, which can be realized on a console without keyboard etc., or appeal more to casual gamers. I doubt anybody looked at that in detail. But I would expect that for complex simulations, or games with complex backgrounds/rules/physics etc, the PC will always be the platform of choice. Maybe with the number of customers for this market declining, we will see less of those titles in the future, but hopefully more quality. And maybe some "garage-company" now and then will throw in a big surprise, just as it was in the past 20 years.

[DeadlyWolf]

Janh I meant the quoting of Decimus.

Anyway I think you are far too pessimist in regards to the "commercial appeailing" of simulators. I mean, take a look only at the *subscribed* people on subsim, almost sixty thousand. Is really anything else to say?

SH3, thanks to its incredible community of modders, had maybe the larger group of followers a simulator ever had. And look at how those ****ing retards take advantage of it. I sincerely hope all of them will lose their job as soon as possible.

[Shiplord]

Originally Posted by DeadlyWolf

Anyway I think you are far too pessimist in regards to the "commercial appeailing" of simulators. I mean, take a look only at the *subscribed* people on subsim, almost sixty thousand. Is really anything else to say?

Even if every 60.000 would buy that product, a publisher nowadays not nearly reached the break-even point with these sales, so that his investment in the development pays off.

[Pablo]

Well,

Over 5.6 million copies of Call of Duty: Black Ops were purchased on the first day, and Activision brought in $360 million. (http://popwatch.ew.com/2010/11/11/ca...d-360-million/).

Anyone care to guess how many units of Silent Hunter V have been sold at any price since its release, and how that compares to CoD:BO? It's not even close.

If the numbers were closer, you might see an expansion. As it is, probably not.....

Pablo

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

That's what a lot of us on SubSim have been trying to tell people for a long time; the Devs are good guys. Silent Hunter 5 has problems, but they are still here helping the modders and supplying answers to the community at large despite the fact that they are in no way required to do so. These people are here because they want to be, not because they have to be. We ask that you please consider that before going after them in the future.

Yeah that

[col_Kurtz]

Originally Posted by Grayghost59

If we the customers contact them by e-mail, snail mail and by phone, that should show them that profit is in this market. Money always talks louder.

Sorry