[nearmiss]

777 is still a startup company.

They can do as they wish, but before it is over they will probably go over to the Pacific theatre. They will have no choice. They will have no big government or UbiSoft to front money to them.

If they stay with BOS, they will probably have to relocate or outsource large parts of their project to Russia. There they can hire programmers for 1/10 the wages in America. This makes it a great deal easier to acquire investors when the cost of development is low. The only problem "at this time", there are just "more" qualified people for game programming in America at ten times the wage. Maybe, they could outsource the graphic products, aircraft,vehicles,maps, etc. and have the actual flight and damage programming done in the US. The internet could make that viable way to do things, if the carefully planned things and communicated well. We are all familiar with Skype. You can send files, pictures, back and forth instantly from all over the world. This is greatly facilitated with broadband connections in the respective countries.

You can't perfect a product like COD, when you don't have the human resources that can do the work. We are experiencing that...right now, aren't we? Oleg ran out of the right kind of help as well after releasing IL2, that is why all we ever got until PF was graphic improvements. It was easy to hire people to draw pictures than program.

Luthier put alot of pazzazz into the old IL2 with Carrier Ops and a new cadre of aircraft. Yet, no other changes in the IL2 application,except Carrier Ops. I'm not ignoring the maps, but the best maps for PF came later when 3rd parties started pumping out map mods.

The 3rd party mods are preserving the IL2 as a viable air combat sim even by today's standards of graphic excellence. LOL

I realize this being an international forums there will be many dissenting voices to a Pacific theatre. Everyone wants his own country represented and in most cases has a strong motivation to see his own country's history shared in an air combat sim.

Sharp investors know to go with known successful projects or they get zip, nada or nothing in return. The gamer business is almost a boom or bust.