I know ill keep playing it, IL2 is one of those games that no matter how old it gets its simply to awesome to stop playing =D Just like Mechcommander 1 =D

It will be bought out by Microsoft who will promise to base the new MSFS XI on the SOW engine. MS will modify windows 8 to only work with MS endorsed flightsims like SOW but will they lose a US anti trust case over it in 2012.

There will be a famous copyright case involving the Eiffel Tower and royalties for use of its image (though apparently its only copyrighted at night). This is resolved by the gaming removing the Eiffel tower at night.

Whilst apparently successful MS drop the entire product line during the staff cuts in great recession of 2015. MS justify this by saying their profits that year had dropped under 10 billion and their shareholders had found that unacceptable :D

I think it'll last a max of 10 years just because of the way computer development is headed, the more advanced a program you make, the easier it is to make an even more advanced program, also having entire company devoted to making trees, and another to making just buildings... thats where game development is headed, in the future it won't be one company that makes a game, it'll be a whole bunch of companys making all the different components for a game, then another company just sticks all those components together to make a game.

25 years sound a bit too optimistic, it will be a spaceage in compareacenss to todays hardware and stuff. More likely 5-10 years lifespan, i doubt even World of Warcraft is alive in 25 years.

I think most people just don't remember how bad the sims(and graphics!) were 20 years ago.

Falcon F16 1988
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...K_E-f12QaiDTw=

Best Graphics at the time, 1993
(everybody went uuhhh and oohhh - look, snow on the hills!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=oAdi...eature=related

Progress in computer technology was much more dramatic in the 80ties and 90ties than
it is now, at least for gaming. PCs have matured since 1988. Just compare the
improvement in visuals made in 8 years between Aces of the Pacific (1992) and CFS 2
(2000). Eight years ago we had Il-2 just like today. Of course newer sims look much
better, but it's still competitive. There will be new SOW engine titles every few
years or so. Thus SOW engine will receive more updates to newer hardware than Il-2
and age more slowly than any sim before. If they redo all parts of WW2 with SOW
engine and later eras as Korea the platform will be kept up to date for at least 10
years and as we can see with titles FSX, Il-2 or Falcon 4.0 there is still lot of
potential in old sims abandoned by their makers.

1992:
http://www.abandonware-paradise.fr/G...pacific_02.png

2000:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/comba...ng_Corsair.jpg

Aaaaahhhh..!!! Nostalgy just hit me hard! :cry:
I was 17 at the time, and loved that sim. Played it a lot together with Falcon 3. Until IL-2 came out, it was my ww2 all time favourite sim. :grin:

1st - I totally disagree.. There are people who are just now getting into IL2.. and believe it or not there are still people who fly in CFS1. The fact that this sim is still enjoyable after a decade and that it will still run good on 5 year old gear is a testament to the developers and their foresight. I expect no less from CFS.

2nd - Yeah but can we expect a goodflight sim.. Products of the caliber of IL2 are not common.. name another game that came pout in 2001 that you still regularly enjoy..

Mario Kart :D

10 - 12,as IL2.
I believe Oleg will try to beat IL2 with SoW not only in graphics and gameplay,but with content too.And while the updates keep coming,nobody will stop playing it.After the project is over,some more 5 years,till something new comes out.

And IL2 will not die after SoW is released.I believe TD will still being working on the final patches,and after the work is gone,IL2 will be played till SoW haves the half of its content or even more.