The game is never going to sell as well as Halo, Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty. The flight sim genre is a niche genre but the fact the demo was downloaded 1 million times is a good indicator of interest for this niche genre but IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is breaking new ground as a console flight sim.

advertisment is a better idea , more of that

I don't think the name should include a plane's designation at all. Here's a news flash: your average gamer doesn't know what a P-51 is either! Imagine if the first Call of Duty was titled 'M1 Garand'. No one would have a clue was that refered to and it would be a boring forgettable name for those who didn't know the significance of the M1 Garand rifle and it's effect on the ground in WW2. IL-2 Sturmovic is overall a lame name. I LOVE this game but I knew nothing of it because I don't play games on my computer. There must be better advertising for this game if it's going to take off (pardon the pun).

Well put, my thoughts exactly. Il-2 is already well known as a quality brand, and the fact that an il-2 game was coming to consoles was what peaked my interest. Call of Duty made a reputation for itself on PCs before it came to consoles, and that hasn't done too badly.

Precisely. A lot of people seem to forget that fact about Call of Duty. And simply put it (IL2) is a brand new console franchise, there are bound to be people who dont know wtf it is. This is to be expected, every game that doesnt have a huge publicity campiagn is in the same boat. The likes of EA or Activision can afford to do publicty stunts and spend oodles of cash on TV slots and paper advertising.

However these dont sell games, they just pique interest. What sells games is word of mouth, and a quality product. IL2 has the quality, and is now getting the word of mouth recognition from the 360/PS3 crowd. Add in that its not released yet in some regions and the current level projected sales are actually not to bad at all.

If I saw "Spitfire: birds of prey" I would assume it was a tacky, cheaply made poor flight simmy game. I probably wouldn't look at the back of the box. I had never heard of Il-2 before this game was advertised. So it drew me in.

the problem is you are viewing it from a hardcore PC flight sim perspective, so are your buddies.

this is not a PC game. this is a console game. sales so far aren't very good, there's few people online and the forums over on xbox.com are half empty. not a good sign.

now obviously this game is out so its too late to change things like the name but the devs & publishers will be considering a sequel and a name change should be the thing to look at.

now I know lot of hardcore PC followers loath mass market games and the dumbing-down they inevitably cause so I can see why you wouldnt want to appeal to the mass market. But this game has the arcade mode to appeal to those.

I'm pretty sure if you conducted some basic research and asked which videogame would you rather buy based on name alone.

Spitfire and Mustang would be far ahead of Sturmovik. with the exception of Russia where the developers come from.

If you want online to be empty then fair enough but I dont.

this is my last post on the topic. ive said all that needs to be said.

I wouldn't want a game called Spitfire. Too cheesy

How would anybody know it is the sequel if the name is different?

And... Now you have something more to say.

You know making presumptions is dangerous. You assumption is that I came with the Sim crowd. Sorry to burst your bubble but ive never played the PC game, BoP is my first foray in to the game. I play Arcade mode, I dont like sim in this game.

So right there your argument falls flat. I am a completely new customer to 1C and the IL2 team. I was drawn to the game because of the demo. My pals and I saw the demo on LIVE! and downloaded it to try it, since we all like arcade flight games like Ace Combat. The name had absolutely no effect on me, I would buy a game with the most idiotic of titles if its actually a damn good game to play.

In short the entire premis of your argument is flawed.