It has garnered us a few more BoB recruits for sure. But interest peaked a few weeks after launch and just judging by Simhq traffic has halved in recent months as players fall away through frustration at unfixed issues (naff AI, broken radio commands, poor fps), plus, i suspect, the lack of US kites and theatres.
IL2 was a weirdo Russian niche sim until Just Flight opened it up to the world with the Battle Over Europe add on, which also added a dynamic campaign. The cash started to flow, Oleg saw the light and released the USAF heavy Aces Expansion pack. Then Pacific Fighters brought US simmers in droves.
While I am not complaining, as a BoB nut, I never understood why 1C would launch with the rather restricted BoB theatre, rather than going for the mass appeal potential of later war Europe where you can sell to the sentiment and preferences of flyers from Germany (FWs, Bf109G/K/210s or 262s), Russia (lend lease P39s, Yaks and IL2 redux), UK (Tempests, Mosquitos, Spit Vs, IXs and Lancasters), USA (B17s, P47s and P51s), and Italy in the Med (Reggianes and Macchis). You want to fly off carriers? Throw in a Malta map and the Ark Royal. Monty vs Rommel? Just include a desert map. It's so easy with late war Europe to include something for almost everyone.
How much time and effort did 1C lavish on the flyable Italian machines in Cliffs of Dover for the handful of simmers who fly them? I'd love to know how many units CoD has sold by featuring the 1940 Reggia Aeronautica vs what they could have sold in US and elsewhere with a few B26s, Mustangs or Jugs in their sim. I'm
not saying US simmers are so narrowminded they only want to fly US machines (Buddye and Stickman are proof of that), but why narrow your audience to US simmers interested in UK and Axis types, when picking another theatre would open up the audience to the thousands of US simmers who do want to fly US machines as well? I'm Australian and IL2 really became a passion for me when I could fly RAAF Kittyhawks and Beaufighters over the Owen Stanley ranges in the battle for New Guinea campaign.
And if not late European theatre, then why not something like Korea, which hasn't been done since Mig Alley or Korean Combat Ace for CFS3. Korea gives you US Sabres, Panthers, B29s, Skyraiders, Banshees, F80s, Corsairs and UK Fleet Air Arm Fireflies, Seafires and Furies. Many think the PLAAF only fielded Mig15s but they also flew Soviet supplied Tu2s, La9s, Yak9s and IL10s. Korea would have been a much better choice for a theatre to kick off the next generation of IL2.
But what do I know? Obviously the best business model is to burn all your cash reserves in six years of development, then launch an unfinished buggy mess of a sim based on a niche theatre of war appealing to only half of the already limited simming public, then quit in a fit of pique, blame the publisher and disappear off the grid to raise pigs in Vladivostok.
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good,it needs it.We also need it to keep a specialist genre alive.
. Now these same guys feel we all should throw our total support behind CLoD and have total understanding while CLoD goes through it's "growing pains". Well okay fair enough, I bought my copy of Il-2 CLoD when it first came out, paid full price for it too. But my one question for them is where was the same "understanding" for WoV? I've said it before but IMHO I really think these guys were so stoked that Il-2 CLoD was going to kill WoV they couldn't contain themselfs, their mantra seems to be one developer for all WW2 flight sims (aka the Highlander Syndrome). If any of these guys lurk here (and I'm sure they do) be stand up about it and show you really support the flight sim genre and not just "only if it Il-2", buy a copy of BoB 2 WoV, if you already own WoV then update it to 2.11 and play it, and lastly if they really can handle this part RECOMMEND WoV to people who ask, with HD's that are 1TB standard nowadays having 2 BoB simulators isn't going to hurt.