Eleven years have passed since the original Silent Hunter game was released. The two sequels that followed centered on U-boats in the Atlantic. Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific brings the player full circle, back to the Pacific, commanding the US submarines which effectively crushed Japanese shipping and hastened the end of the war. SH4 was originally conceived as an expansion to SH3 but eventually Ubisoft decided to make it a full title, albeit with an accelerated development period, building on the SH3 foundation.