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

[diveplane]

Originally Posted by Redwan

http://flyawaysimulation.com/postt35097.html

We can thank Oleg to invest in a sector that doesn't seem se lucrative.

microsoft still working on the flightsim products , they regrouped and are doing a new version. titled microsoft flight.


http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsinsider/

[Flying Pencil]

Originally Posted by diveplane

microsoft still working on the flightsim products , they regrouped and are doing a new version. titled microsoft flight.


http://www.microsoft.com/games/fsinsider/

Why did the regroup?

Official MS statement was they "disbanded" a section dedicated to its FS product, but later said it was keeping some core employees (still laied off 5000 of them).

Bottom line, 5000 programmers is a massive downsizing, they simply will not be able to do any ground up upgrade to its FSX.
What they could do is reconfigure the engine, improve parts, add features.


Something must have made MS change its mind to make a new version so soon after canning most of its staff.


As to SoW advertising, I agree, 1C and publisher will need a massive ad campaign, how they plan to do it is another topic.

Originally Posted by Flying Pencil

Why did the regroup?
Something must have made MS change its mind to make a new version so soon after canning most of its staff.

2008 happened, and pretty much every company that could, did cut as many "non-essential" jobs as possible to save money. MS probably saw the FSX dept as being expendable and cut as much as they could. When the economy made some recovery they probably figured it was safe to rehire and start another project. Given the recent release of the G940 and the Warthog they might have figured the genre is in a resurgance. Maybe they have been following the sales of 3rd part add-ons for FSX and figured "people are still buying this! Lets make another one so they feel compelled to upgrade their games. This will also probably take full advantage of DX 10/11 so that might mean a few more people dropping XP and moving to Vista/Win7.

I just hope they don't crap out another 1/2 assed combat flight sim in the next few years that will siphon money away from SOW.

I think MS didn't actually cancel FS when they shut down Aces as much as they figured they were spending way to much money going down that road. Now that the market is returning they believe they have a much more cost effective way to proceed with FS.

I watched the teaser ... and I'm still waiting for a flight sim that includes ground loops - voiceover talking about the Stearman takeoff, "See how easy that was? " after virtually no rudder action on takeoff roll - Even a locking tailwheel won't stop a groundloop - lol.