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Originally Posted by simast
So are you implying people actually want flight simulators to release planes without a cockpit now? Because that is what MS Flight is all about. You know, getting closer to the consumer and all that.
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I didnt mean for the quality of MS flight to be compared to IL2 or ROF, merely the commercial model for development. But you may be right in the case of MS Flight because its pitched at a different market.
The combat sim vs FS4/FSX vs casual flight vs console market are all different beasts and again when the MMO announcement comes from 1C it will be a different market. The point is that there is more market opportunity for marketing core content to different gamers, presented in different scenarios/genres which will hopefully help fund the hard core sim development going forward. Otherwise a commercial model just doesnt stack up in the new world unless your a top 10 mainstream game developer.
I can see a world where a core game with assets/content are released in a theatre of operation, built on a core engine, where additional content is available in micro transactions. A hybrid commercial model of IL2 and ROF if you will... a broader side to this is using your core game and to drive other 3rd party add-ons for planes/theaters/objects for the offline/campaign crowd and getting licensing fees from allowing the add-on content and distributing it through a central mechanism such as steam or another online store.
Im sure that there will be some 3rd party content created for MS flight (eventually), most hard core FS4/FSX fans will buy almost all the available 3rd party addons. And there are more addons than there are core assets in the base of any of those old flight sim games. I know most of us IL2 fans have bought all the addons available for the original IL2. FB, ACES etc...
The new world of software development is relying even more heavily on this modular approach to development. Dont under estimate the power of the IL2 brand either, I know it has had a beating over the last couple years with the release of CLOD, but its designed to be the combat flightsim platform for the next 10 years or so in what is a vastly more complicated world than when the original IL2 was released. Just remember IL2 was released before people even new what MP3 players were and before the WWW became widely adopted. The world has changed and moves even more quickly. Who would have thought 10 years ago that Apple (love them or hatem) would be where they are today?
So the point is, if they can get through the current bugs and issues over the next few months and find a few creative ways to use the content for other game genres and gaming platforms to make some more money to keep development going, Im sure the future will be a lot brighter than people can currently see. Its all about the vision I guess which Oleg had, and just because he has left it doesnt mean these types of grand visions dont still exist within the team. A lot has been invested in the brand so it wont go quietly into the night. As is evident by the passion displayed in the forums.
