[StarTrekMike]

I made a topic about this a while ago, I think it still is showing true as I learn more about SHO.

Microsoft flight is a great example of what is happening here, they decided that the primary audience was not going to be the FSX or FS2004 crowd anymore, they even openly stated that the game was simply not made for them and it left a lot of long time players out in the cold as they had been waiting for a new version for a long time.

When Flight came out, it was a massive failure, they wanted the casual gamer crowd to replace the hardcore FSX crowd but ended up with neither in the end, the project was cancelled before it even was out a year.

You see, SHO is no different, they pay lip service to us in the interviews but it does not take much to read between the lines and see that this is not going to be a worthy game to carry the SH franchise torch, it will fail and it will be because they essentially have told us that we don't matter, that we are a dying breed and that we need to adapt or die, whats more, it will fail because the market they are hoping to grab simply does not exist, why would anyone want to casually play a subsim in a browser? I mean, would it really compete with the more addictive and simple fare that is more suitable for that platform?

My problem with Ubi at this point is that it is clear that they are not only ignoring the simulation fanbase that they have helped to create but are actually trying to marginalize us out of the market picture, they have done nothing but half hearted releases for franchises like IL-2 (Cliffs of Dover could have been much better if Ubi did not just push it out the door as a afterthought) and SH 4 and 5 (again, pushed out but not really supported in any real way).

They figure that if they ignore us and pretend that we don't exist that we wont and that they won't need to spend the time making quality products that we expect, the same goes for just about any other major publisher that has done sims in the past.

The good news? Eagle Dynamics and 777 are proving that the market is still there but you need to approach it differently, titles like DCS A-10C are gaining traction because of the level of quality that you can see just by watching a youtube video about it, Rise of flight works because it is actually worth the money they charge for planes.

Those companies understand that we are more than willing to shower them in money if they are willing to put the effort in to deliver a solid product.

Ubisoft will not learn this, they want the path of least resistance and building good sims takes time and money that they could use for garish marketing or yet another Assassins creed game or two.

Sad state of affairs and it is the reason I won't touch SHO, I won't show them that we will just buy anything they throw at us, even if it is "free".