There are two eagerly anticipated sims coming out in the near future: SoW and X-Plane10. It would be just like Microsoft to wait until these games are released, take all the good ideas contained therein, and release a sim of their own.
MS Flight Sim dominated the "flight sim" market for years. X-Plane was the "Apple" of flight sims in that it had a fairly small and very dedicated following. It's also a better flight sim, IMHO having played both (uglier, but the navigation and flight models are superior).
IL-2 garnered a huge following and took a big chunk out of MS's combat flight sim's audience.
Then MS laid off their flight sim staff. I had heard that Austin (X-Plane's owner) has tried to get them on board, but it didn't work out. It was either a money thing or a very long non-compete agreement. That's my guess anyway.
While I have come to love IL-2 recently (sorry guys, I was late to the game and had been dedicated to the Battlefield series lol), it's very apparent that the IL-2 flight models do not measure up to those of MSFS or X-Plane. It's just "too easy" to fly in IL-2 from a pure flight sim point of view.
Of course, X-Plane has been constantly updated so that would account for that impression. Unfortunately, MS Combat Flight sims stunk and X-Plane does not do combat sims for the PC/Apple market.
Those reasons are why I am eagerly anticipating SoW and hoping beyond hope that they get the "flight sim" functionality right (the graphics are good enough for me as they stand from what I have seen).
Those reasons are also why a company with huge resources, like MS, might try to jump back in with both feet. Put out a good flight sim (hah!) and then add a combat element and you corner both sides of the market.
Plus, to the best of my knowledge, many of the MS flight sim programmers are still out there. MS could take them back (might have already done so) and be working on their version of a flight sim right now.
Remember, MS is not known for their innovation. They are known to be very good at marketing and "improving" on other's innovation.
Now THAT, my fellow Americans, IS the American way
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Just my thoughts, be gentle.
Splitter