Storm of War's Life Span? Have Your Guess!

[Flanker35M]

S!

IL-2 won't die when SoW is out, there are patches still to come for it, with new content, bug fixes etc. So before SoW reaches the maturity and amount of content IL-2 has now, will take a couple of years minimum. Remember that the process of creating new planes and such for SoW is a slower process than in IL-2..if your read Oleg's interviews Until then IL-2 will still be a strong sim alongside with SoW.

If SoW will get regular updates and new content, it will for sure live for 10 years as there will be nothing to challenge it anytime soon. So we will basically have a few sims to play: RoF, SoW and IL-2 from WW1/2, DCS-series and Falcon for more modern stuff..and that is a lot during these days when sim industry is not the most popular.

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Chivas

I don't think we can expect a new flight sim every 5 to 10 years. There hasn't been a new flight sim for the last ten years that could replace the IL-2 series. There are still no new flight sim developers on the horizon that are doing a WW2 sim. Therefore I believe the SOW series will dominate the WW2 combat flight sim market for atleast another 10 to 15 years and probably longer.

The ROF developers could come out with a WW2 combat flight sim in say 5 to 7 years, but currently they are way to busy completeing and improving their WW1 project.

WWII Sims are a niche, Imho is there room for only company.
I did, in my previous post, count SOW add ons as "new flight sims".
And we can expect a lot of add ons, every WWII Theater plus Korea, Vietnam, Gulf Wars, etcpp.

That is, of course, only if SOW doens't flop(economically).
If that happens we're screwed for at least 10-15yrs., till another company tries it with new a approach.

IL-2 won't die when SoW is out, there are patches still to come for it, with new content, bug fixes etc. So before SoW reaches the maturity and amount of content IL-2 has now, will take a couple of years minimum. Remember that the process of creating new planes and such for SoW is a slower process than in IL-2..if your read Oleg's interviews Until then IL-2 will still be a strong sim alongside with SoW.

Sorry, I don't think so. Expect patches only till the release of SOW - once it's out I really don't expect any further patches. I'd be idiotic too - why should the modders spend their time with an obsolete game, while they could mod SOW?

The IL2 servers will be deserted.
And if there's no online community, a game is clinically dead.

[Flanker35M]

S!

I see your point Swiss, but there is ONLY one scenario/map in SoW when released. It will grow old if nothing new is added as BoB has been done over and over again over the years. SoW is said to expand to Mediterranean etc. but do not expect that within months as after release there will for sure be patches fixing bugs etc. before anything new is added. And building these new scenarios is not just copy/paste exactly

Sure IL-2 community content creators will switch to SoW to make skins etc. but that alone does not desert IL-2 nor kill it. Not all sim nuts are lemmings and tube visioned

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

S!
It will grow old if nothing new is added as BoB has been done over and over again over the years.

We've seen that happen with IL2 too...

SoW is said to expand to Mediterranean etc.

If remember correctly, Luthier mentioned something about a Korean map in development.

but do not expect that within months as after release there will for sure be patches fixing bugs etc. before anything new is added. And building these new scenarios is not just copy/paste exactly

How long do you think it will take you to handle the new flight model?

but that alone does not desert IL-2 nor kill it.

Wanna bet?

[Flanker35M]

S!

Sure we have seen it, but IL-2 has now more maps, planes and missions than SoW will have at release. Every single game grows old after a time So agreed fully.

Luthier's Korea map/planes was put aside while they finish SoW, so there is no information when it will come. At least if I read the interviews right.

The problem is not the FM, but the increased amount of work creating a new flyable to SoW. If I recall right Oleg mentioned that up to 6 months creating a new plane to be integrated to the game. All this because of the higher fidelity of SoW engine. And we were those asking for it..and Oleg responded. His words years ago were something like: I can make a high fidelity sim, but do not expect it to be like IL-2..but more complex in every way.

I buy a beer for ya if you show up in Lapland But I bet HyperLobby won't be empty after SoW is out

[Friendly_flyer]

I'm with the 10-15 year estimate too. Making the sim more open as Oleg has stated will in my mind help Oleg & Co stay in business longer, and I think this sim will live as long as Oleg feels like keeping it alive.

[Chivas]

I agree IL-2 will live a very long life but with only a small community. Most the combat flight sim community will move on to the much more emersive experience of SOW. There will be enough content in BOB SOW to keep us busy for at-least two years until further content starts appearing.

Much of it depends on how complete SOW BOB is on release. We could see constant feature updates if these features didn't make the initial release.

It will be a considerable amount of work to build future theaters of operations, but no where near the work required in the initial release, as the game engine is built, and working. I'm confident that we will see a minimum of 15 years of new content if piracy doesn't make the product unprofitable.

[Dano]

Originally Posted by swiss

1st:
IL2 will be dead after the SOW release.

Usage may drop off but it'll be far from dead, I'd suspect many will continue playing due to performance issues and content.

[swiss]

I think most ppl are ready to buy a new system or at least a new gpu for the game.

look at all the threads asking for sys req. - why is that?

But, yes - a small(!) die hard il2 group may keep playing it.

[KnightFandragon]

5-10 Years or until Oleg dies of old age or abandons the game then hands it off to another developer who changes it and screws it all up....