There is no competition. I play (played) Aces High.
The competition I speak of is war thunder and its online FSO mini battle setup.
I played it for a good many months but got burned out on its limited variety non persistent gameplay and stopped playing.
If this was not a competitor to HTC's product why did so many people there know who I was even after a short time playing?
The primary reason the players that migrated there gave for their departure from AH to WT was they could no longer stomach the graphics aspects such as the terrain even though they preferred AH gameplay and AH community.
To quote one former AH player turned WT regular... "if they would just fix the horrible ground." -Pand
HTC has been at this since 1999 and they are clearly highly motivated to improve their excellent product to be competitive in the graphics department with other offerings from Russian companies that have saturated the market.
Graphics will not hold interest of players alone for more than 6 months I would think but they are very necessary to get people to look in the window and open the door and download the game to try it. they are also a good method of keeping the game interesting to long term players who want the graphics of the competition in the game they prefer to play.
just my 2 cents.
I think HTC is doing a wonderful job with this terrain engine overhaul effort and such passion for improving Aces High is a good omen and signal for many sitting on the fence looking for a suitable playground that will suspend their disbelief and entertain them.
make no mistake the Russian game studios are making a no holds bared attempt to corner this niche market with free to play mechanics and pretty graphics and they are doing so in an environment of an economy flush with prosperity from oil revenues where energy is cheap costs of everything are lower than the US. etc etc not to mention the avaiable player base in there hemisphere is actually larger than their US base.
of course many american players are going to stick with HTC because they are the home team but the overseas contingent of HTC's player base seems to be attending the russian developers arenas from what I saw when I was a player there as well.
again this is just speculation and observation and its just my opinion.
HTC's progress is exciting and I can't wait to see more of these exciting developments because I think such things turn the tide in their favor to not just survive in this niche industry but thrive and dominate it.
S! HTC keep up the great work!
