MS Flightsim staff canned
- Thread starter Donamy
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Great opportunity of developpement for Orbiter, Flightgear, X-Plane and others. As I say often, where there's a void, there's space for growth.
Alas, MSFS was so mush aimed toward "eye candy" in recent versions that I still use MSFS 2002 Pro, and am very happy with it.
Alas, MSFS was so mush aimed toward "eye candy" in recent versions that I still use MSFS 2002 Pro, and am very happy with it.
Moonwalker
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The end of the Microsoft Flight Simulator era is bad news for hundred thousands of people all over the world. Microsoft Flight Simulator is not only eye candy. Commercial addon developers offer the most realistic and complex aircraft addons for MSFS (you sadly won't find such complex aircraft addons for a different simulator). The only hope I have is that top commercial addon developers, especially such like Flight1 and Dreamfleet, change over to X-Plane, which is the most realistic desktop flight simulation software.
I personally still use FS2004, and I'm never going to finally use FSX because of its poor performance and minor changes compared to FS2004. Maybe it's not really bad that FSX is the end of MSFS on the whole. My vote now goes to X-Plane. But in case there still won't be any complex and professional addons for X-Plane in future (which is why I don't use X-Plane atm), this to me means FS2004 forever.
Or maybe I should start to save money for a real licence in future. The end of MSFS also enables me to finally get a girlfriend once again after many years of abstinence:rofl:
I personally still use FS2004, and I'm never going to finally use FSX because of its poor performance and minor changes compared to FS2004. Maybe it's not really bad that FSX is the end of MSFS on the whole. My vote now goes to X-Plane. But in case there still won't be any complex and professional addons for X-Plane in future (which is why I don't use X-Plane atm), this to me means FS2004 forever.
Or maybe I should start to save money for a real licence in future. The end of MSFS also enables me to finally get a girlfriend once again after many years of abstinence:rofl:
Pilot7893
Epik spaec mishun!
Arg. First they piss off all the Halo fans with the Bunji splitup, and now this?
AFAIK the Bungie split was Bungie's idea. It allows them to develop for platforms other than the XBOX 360, which they couldn't do as a Microsoft group.
As to the MSFS thing...Wow. Really, all I can say is wow. Steve Ballmer had said that Microsoft wouldn't be dropping any products entirely, but that apparently wasn't true, because it's kind of difficult to continue development when the entire department is gone.
It doesn't seem like the smartest move to me, either. I mean seriously, MSFS? WTF? MSFS has almost (if not just) as much of a stranglehold on the home flight sim market as Windows has on the desktop OS market. I mean, there's plenty of Microsoft products that no one's ever heard of that they could easily cut to save costs (Soapbox? Anyone ever even heard of it, much less used it?)
Apparently, some of the higher-ups at Microsoft are still obsessed with the MSN and web thing, which is where some of the company's biggest $$$ losses have been. I really, really doubt that the MSFS team wasn't turning a profit. Sigh.
As some of the blogs are saying, this really is "the end of an era." X-plane is nowhere near as user-friendly as FSX, and man, you want to talk about games based solely on eye-candy...X-plane's terrain is incredible. The planes and flying experience...notsomuch. FSX's ATC simulator really added to the "feel" of being a pilot, even in single player. It made the skies come alive with (presumably) accurate ATC and traffic. X-plane has no such thing, with no AI aircraft that I've seen and background ATC just being a noticeable loop of random chatter.
Sigh. I'm going to go drink away my sorrow now.
-----Post Added-----
Hmmm, I looked it up, and apparently most of the major PC gaming departments in Microsoft have either left Microsoft (ie, Bungie) or already been closed. MS leaving the PC games market, perhaps?
That's disappointing. With some exceptions, Microsoft games have almost always had consistently high quality.
Pilot7893
Epik spaec mishun!
Well, all we can hope for is that some other company starts making flight sims. And I can't wait to tell my kids (if I ever get a wife, or a girlfriend for that matter) I had the last ever Microsoft flight simulator.
Face
Well-known member
I have to agree to the last statement. Everytime I played a M$ game, I couldn't help but think "well done, folks".
OTOH, this whole thing feels like watching rats leaving the sinking ship...
regards,
Face
The ship's not really sinking...a lot of divisions (like Windows...and until they got rid of it, Games) are doing really well, and they're using revenue from those to prop up money-losers like the web services.
To me, this seems more like saying "Hmmm, it's possible that if we don't lose some weight, we're going to sink" and then throwing all of your golden plates overboard yet keeping the lead ones (and the rats).
Moonwalker
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martins did not release an Orbiter for years and did not stop us yet.
And you have such hopes to overcome your FS addiction?
Actually, you are right
Today I'm already going to take a few hours with my Flight1 Piper Dakota, and that even in FS9 :lol: Anyway, having thought about it, I think it might not be too late for MSFS. It offers the biggest market for the most advanced airliner simulation software and sceneries, and it still will do so for some years. Alex Ford from JustFlight said rather recently, that in the absence of any further development of FSX, tremendous opportunities continue to exist for developers to create add-on's for the product. Some other developers say that FSX still is a 4 to 5 year stable product base (while within 4 to 5 years a lot can happen...
). PMDG lately released its new MD11 even for FS9 (http://www.precisionmanuals.com/priv/pages/prod/fs9/md11_fs9.html)And I can't imagine that those who have worked for many years on FS, which is one of the oldest product line of computer entertainment (started in 1982), simply give it up. There might be a second change-over of FS to another company after almost 21 years (FS was not a MS product from the beginning). Just let's wait.
well it looks like I might have to switch to X-Plane 9 but really how stupid can Microsoft get ?
EDIT1: and there is all ways the Crysis Flight simulator (sorry for going a bit of topic)
http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=25876&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=16
EDIT1: and there is all ways the Crysis Flight simulator (sorry for going a bit of topic)
http://crymod.com/thread.php?threadid=25876&threadview=0&hilight=&hilightuser=0&page=16
Moonwalker
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Be aware that you definitely won't be satisfied with X-Plane in case you like complex airplane simulations (related to the systems and cockpit). I used X-Plane 9 and I found out that it gets boring pretty soon. Because you don't have to control complex systems and do all the cockpit procedures. Less than ever is there any kind of complex auto flight systems and flight management computers, compared to what you can get for MSFS. That's what actually makes X-Plane still less famous than MSFS.
Moonwalker
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Well, X-Plane 9 + global scenery actually is phantastic too. It has got great scenery and graphics. Also the physics is great, it even simulates runway slope and such things. But it sadly totally lacks of professional content/addons and usability. That is what really makes me fear of the death of MSFS. Because there is nothing similar left if you like the complex stuff of flight simming.
But with FS9 still being famous and even being still supported by a lot of addon developers, it will survive another few years, and FSX even longer. Maybe until the end of the following decade or so. And I can't imagine that nothing happens meanwhile. Any company might continue with FS and who knows, maybe even with a part of the original bunch of MSFS developers, who put many years of hard work into the great product.
Kelpie
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Spare a thought for DanSteph (DGIV) This will have an impact on his Day Job
Urwumpe
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Yes... he will maybe need a new job - or maybe not. Who knows. It would be nice if we could port the simulation models of Flightgear to Orbiter as generic vessel module, maybe this could improve our support of planes.
cjp
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I don't understand how this could mean the end of the Flight Simulator software. Why wouldn't they sell the copyrights, source code (and maybe the development team as well) to any sim company that's interested in continuing the project? And if nobody is interested, why not make it open source, or sell the rights to a community foundation (like was done with Blender)?
Urwumpe
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Well, it is Microsoft. Making it open-source would be unlikely, as it sure contains knowledge which Microsoft wants to keep themselves for a while.
But Microsoft has made software of them open-source from time to time, mostly system tools.
I think it is more likely Microsoft will sell the Flight simulator franchise for good money to another specialist simulation company. Microsoft will more likely concentrate on XBox games as this brings them more money.
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