Sad news, it's the end of Flight Simulator.

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Flying Pencil

My opinion:
The huge backlash against MS over FSX further hurt MS's very sorry image. Eventually (after a few months, that is) the numskulls leading MS realized the screwed up and are starting MAJOR DAMAGE CONTROL.

I don't think that whatever backlash there was had any impact on MS. It's simply that MS is completely erratic with their PC gaming strategy. When the FS team was disbanded there was a general wave of layoffs at MS, not just in games-related development areas. Recently now they stated they'd want to get back into the PC games area again, probably after seeing how successful Steam is. And I guess someone realized that MSFS had people buy addons (or "DLC" as it's called these days) for years already, way before this became the latest buzz in the industry. I have no doubt that the most important part of the LIVE integration of Microsoft Flight will be the in-game store for new planes and scenery.

Will be interesting to see how this turns out, until yet another change of strategy will happen