Release Date Found

[addman]

I have a feeling that the game is all but finished BUT there might be some issues with the publisher OR even a lack of such. You see, a lot has changed in the interactive entertainment industry the last 5 years. Games are becoming more and more accessible and both cheaper/costly to buy/develop. Big budget online shooters and small budget independent games on mobile platforms are the name of the game these days. It's all about reaching as many people as possible. Back in the day, flight simulators were common on MANY PC gamers harddrives not just the hardcore simmers, that's not the case anymore.

Now let's say you are a publisher, would you bet your money on something relatively un-accessible and niché like SoW that's been in development for ages OR put your chips on an online-based shooter that has much lower R&D costs (fictional guns doesn't require a lot of research) coupled with easy accessibility, tons of micro-transaction DLC content to follow and a development time of MAX 3 years?

I love speculating and my speculation is A: Oleg and team have signed a deal with a publisher but there are major disagreements or B: They have no publisher at the moment.

I think the lack of a release date might support this theory to a degree since many game developers with signed publishers give out a release date sometimes even up to 3 years before it's released.

As mentioned above, love speculating but also that's all it is, speculations

[swiss]

Originally Posted by addman

I love speculating and my speculation is A: Oleg and team have signed a deal with a publisher but there are major disagreements or B: They have no publisher at the moment.

Oleg confirmed they have a publisher, so it's A.
Now, if you change disagreement to major software bugs, you should be spot on.

[Splitter]

Anything said is pure speculation. It might be that only Oleg has a decent idea of the release date. February sounds too soon, there is no dedicated website for the game that I have seen. Late 2011 sounds too late given that SoW development is a resource and money drain on someone.

We saw a rather "flyable" version of SoW at the Russian show. That says that most of the programming is done and they are optimizing and doing finishing touches (which will continue through release anyway). My PURE guess is mid 2011.

The present "delays" probably do have a lot to do with the publisher. They have their own priorities too.

My question is, "why have a publisher". At least a big name publisher? Since this is a niche game, a small publisher may be a much better option in that it will take less of the profit away from Oleg. Or they could self publish or create their own little company to do it and keep a much larger percentage of the profit.

Plus, look at the console and hand held apps market. I know that another flight sim is making most of its' profits off of hand held apps. And that developer has also announced a delay in their new release. I could see SoW having some sort of handheld app released in conjunction with or shortly after the PC game is released.

Lots of stuff comes up at the end, after development is mostly done. I've been through it on a specialized bit of software and this time is the most tense and anxious.

I could also see a number of pre-release reviews getting published. when we see those along with a web site, we'll be close.....I think. But what do any of us know? lol

So let's hope the optimists are right!

Splitter

[addman]

Originally Posted by Splitter

So let's hope the optimists are right!

+1

[Coen020]

Originally Posted by Splitter

Anything said is pure speculation. It might be that only Oleg has a decent idea of the release date. February sounds too soon, there is no dedicated website for the game that I have seen. Late 2011 sounds too late given that SoW development is a resource and money drain on someone.
Splitter

I'm not quite sure about this, but Wings of Prey/Birds of Prey was build on the IL-2 engine right? Which is build by Oleg and team, so maybe they get some of the profits from WOP/BOP?

that could explain some of the reason why they can keep working on this sim so long without going bankrupt or anything.

OR they are being funded by the russian goverment, lol BOB being the SUPER SECRET PROJECT X or something it's the cold war all over again.