New community manager in ubisoft forums

[Seeadler]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

How hard is it to say a patch is forthcoming, but no definate release date.

If they say so, Ubisoft would have been under pressure to develop a new patch, but with complete silence, they must not even think about a new patch.

Yesterday the German news magazine "Der Spiegel" did an interview with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Guillemot makes it again quite clear, the new Ubisoft marketing strategy will be the Ubisoft-Launcher, massive multiplayer online games and new game concepts for the new motion sensors.

[longam]

I'll get back with you on that.
I'll get back with you on that.
I'll get back with you on that.
I'll get back with you on that.
I'll get back with you on that.

[janh]

Originally Posted by Seeadler

IYesterday the German news magazine "Der Spiegel" did an interview with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. Guillemot makes it again quite clear, the new Ubisoft marketing strategy will be the Ubisoft-Launcher, massive multiplayer online games and new game concepts for the new motion sensors.

Thanks for the link! That sounds like Ubisoft is really heading away from PC platform games, at least the single player ones. I don't think there is much to expect from them in the future anymore, but maybe they will sell the Silent Hunter label to one of the smaller developers that already focuses on highly detailed realistic simulations and strategy games. There's quite a few of those successful studios right now. (The market can't possible be that small? What is the definition of "small" or "niche" for people that claim simulations and strategy to be a niche? Anything that doesn't sell 1M units on the release date is niche? -- Just some spontaneous thoughts. There is nothing you can't do if you change definitions....)

EDIT: As a side note, in the interview YG says himself that they were disappointed that their OSP-DRM didn't work well in the beginning and it lead to
the server outages. Nice, so much about DDOS attacks.

[Frumpkis]

Originally Posted by janh

Thanks for the link! That sounds like Ubisoft is really heading away from PC platform games, at least the single player ones. I don't think there is much to expect from them in the future anymore, but maybe they will sell the Silent Hunter label to one of the smaller developers that already focuses on highly detailed realistic simulations and strategy games.

I think that might be the worst of all possible outcomes, for several reasons:

The code base is buggy -- it still has problems that were never fixed in SH4 and were patched up with chewing gum and duct tape by modders. An independent dev starting from scratch would have a better chance of giving the subsim community what we're looking for. Maybe even a cross-platform sim that would work on Windows/Mac/Linyx? That's how X-Plane works. They even have a stripped-down app for iPhones, which seems silly, but it brings in lots of cash to fund development of the PC sim versions.

Also, any money paid for a license from Ubi would be money that can't go to more art development and programmer man-hours. That's one reason why Bioware bailed out of the D&D franchise and created their own IP for Dragon Age.

Finally, for better or worse, the "Silent Hunter" name has a big footprint in the market. It needs to go away, to leave room for new projects that can develop their own franchise in this area... the way the LockOn air combat crew did after Microprose and the "Jane's" series disappeared. Actually there is a new "Jane's" game coming out, but it looks like a console-type action shooter, nothing like the original combat flight sims. That's the kind of thing that can happen when franchise names are sold, unfortunately.

Anyway, I'm ready for a completely fresh look at this type of sim, from a developer whose heart is 100% into it, and backed by a financial side of the company that won't pull the plug, before the game is actually ready for release.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Frumpkis

I'm ready for a completely fresh look at this type of sim, from a developer whose heart is 100% into it

Now that would be really cool.

Originally Posted by Frumpkis

and backed by a financial side of the company

But here is the problem.