I am sorry to say that I am not at all surprised. I have been a FS user since the Apple IIe version in the 1980's and have watched as DOS 2.11 gave way to Windows and massive growth at Microsoft. I have long thought that Balmer was (and would be) a horrible executive with no idea how to translate creativity into net income. You can see the lack of creativity over the last few years as Microsoft seems to only to be protecting its position -- rather than innovating and coming up with cool new stuff that people want to buy. The epitomy of a creative CEO is obviusly Steve Jobs. An unimaginative suit like Balmer (sadly) only knows how to cut expenses through layoffs rather than creatively finding ways to boost income. Plus Balmer is outright wierd. I doubt he has ever played an XBOX or Flight Sim. Very sad.

Hello Folks,I agree +/- with all your comments.How many Flight sim fans in this World ?What's about a donation of, let's say, 50 bucks per simmer ?!"No bucks, No Buck Roger"... :( Cheers,

Hmm, if we all had our FSX (empty) boxes, why not all of us ship them to Microsoft with a note that we ALL want our FS back, and while at it we want the Train Sim 2 that you promised as now we have to tell our kids that it won't be coming when that's all they (and many other adults) looked forward to this close to release ...Something about physical objects (empty boxes) really stand out...

It all started with those stupid bankers and their ninja loans. They finally realised that there were more poor people than rich people so they decided to rob the poors of their would be properties. What a brilliant idea, morons. And to those CEOs, who will buy your products now that everybody (except you) is being laid off?

It seems like most FS users are ###### at what and how MS did what it did and not sufficiently focused on WHY, IMHO.My guess is that the Bruce Artwick flight model/code was getting hard to maintain for future growth as well as compatibility. What with Google coming out with Google Earth and making it available to a great extent free to most noncommercial users with its potential to go into different areas (inluding flight sim) may have something to do with it.If MS were to continue developing a flight sim, which they have said they will continue to support in some fashion, (they just can't talk about it), my guess would be to somehow tie the flight sim to their Virtual Earth with its vast database of terrain photography and potential 3d stuff.If I were Google or MS, I'd be seriously thinking of that possibility. As background, before either one got into the virtual earth buisness, there were a couple of firms doing somethings - Google Earth's predecessor, Keyhole, Terraexplorer and Whirlwind, which came a liittle too late - to name a few.Just a thought, FWIW.

Well I personally am not disappointed by this news. Yes it's sad to hear of others getting laid off but unfortunately that is today's economy. What pleases me is the FSX can now stay mainstream for that much longer and allow for developers to continue to build addons for FSX. FSX is a beautiful sim if only the hardware was available to run it. Which is slowly beginning to happen. I was very much upset when FSX was released, prematurely, and suddenly FS9 was over. Until developers began to find that FS9 had a larger user base than FSX and continued to roll out addons. But again you can see that many new releases are going FSX only and this is in part is due to the catch up of hardware that we are beginning to see.I'm sure if FS11 were to be released it would be even more of a dog on today's hardware than FSX. I'm glad FS11 will be delayed, or scuttled. Focus on FSX now, we can begin to buy hardware soon to run FSX like FS9 runs today. In the meantime who knows what will happen, perhaps a new publisher will buy the FS franchise, a new developer can re-write the code, and release a sim that is the greatest ever. One that runs fluid on hardware of the day, looks beautiful, and allows for greater expandability. I do not think ACES could have accomplished this, not that they don't have the talent but perhaps that Microsoft limits such resources and time to make that happen. I'm willing to wait for that while I can take comfort that FSX will be able to run like it was intended to in perhaps a year or 2 chock full of great addons.I think this is great news!!

Looks like an Internet version of FS might be in the far future but FS as we know it sounds done... Aces was completely closed... http://www.computerworld.com/action/articl...rc=news_ts_headbnick

Steve Jobs just got a new customer,I can finally ditch all the windows crap.The only reason for having it was...you guessed it : Flight Simulator.Now,i may sound spiteful,but i really hope this decision hits 'm where it hurts in a couple of years..laying off dedicated folks in that way,i'm sorry,the corporate world just gained another enemy.I will now not buy any MS product whatso-ever,not in a million years,I'd rather pass business on then live of stuff made with tools madeby a company with a CEO like that.

MS is in the business to make money. In tough times they have to scale back like any other prudent company. Why are surprised or take it personally? They are not in the business to sell you a $50 product when their effective cost is well above that. This is not socialism - yet.Bernd

Steve Jobs just got a new customer,I can finally ditch all the windows crap.The only reason for having it was...you guessed it : Flight Simulator.

You do realise that you can still use Flight Simulator X on your Windows PC? Am I missing something here, or has FSX suddenly become obsolete overnight? :(

having been a fan since the wireframe environment of verysion 1.0 and upgrading my computer diligently through the years to keep up I must say I am very saddened. Not that FSX isnt a great program but it had some shortcomings that kept it from being a stellar program. I was hoping that fs11 was addressing these issues such as better ATC, more AI traffic, better code to take advantage of newer technology, and perhaps the implementation of something like 3D google earth.I feel that we have seen the end of the franchise. Just like propilot and flight unlimited which were a few of my faves....Maybe if MS ever sells its code to devs we might have a shot at a future but I dont see that happening. Rest in peace MSFS. for 25 some odd years I have had my flights of fancy on the wings of your ever changing world. From being astonished at the wireframe city of Chicago on my first ever bootup of MSFS in the early 80's to me ######ing at the virtual pilot of the plane landing in front of me for sitting on the runway too long and making me go around, I have enjoyed you thoroughly. Rest in peace......

You do realise that you can still use Flight Simulator X on your Windows PC? Am I missing something here, or has FSX suddenly become obsolete overnight? :(

I follow his logic. I started simming in 1981 first on Commodores and then several Amigas. The only reason I switched from the Amiga to a pc was for flight sim. I considered it a big step down, and it took quite a few years for the pc to begin to catch up with the Amiga.If there is no future fs for the pc-then when it comes time to upgrade to another computer-I will probably not go pc/windows environment. I might keep the old pc to run fsx though.I would think there are many flightsim users who might make the same decision and thus lower Microsoft's market-along with those who are just migrating because....

My first ever flight simulator was Psion Flight Simulator for the ZX Spectrum 48k (1983). It had two runways, two lakes, and a 2D mountain range on one side! My first serious flightsim was FS2 on the Commodore Amiga (Christmas 1988), and that was followed by FS4 on my first PC in 1992.Unfortunately, as far as I am concerned, MSFS took a major nose dive after that. FS5 was (graphically) one of the worst pieces of software that I have ever seen. Those so called "photorealistic" terrain textures were appalling. Even so, I continued making the same mistake (buying the next version of MSFS) right the way through to FS2002. Then my brain kicked into gear, and I decided that enough was enough. IMO, the Flight Unlimited series was far superior (anyone remember that advert for Flight Unlimited 2; "Flight Limited (FS98), Flight Unlimited (FU2)? :( ), and so I stuck with FU3 until 2008.Of course, there comes a time when even much loved software starts to look and feel outdated, and that was the case with FU3 at the start of 2008. I wanted more. I wanted to be able to fly around a photorealistic version of the British Isles, and land at lots of detailed airports. I knew that FSX would enable me to do that, but I was worried. The flight models in FS2002 were (IMO) total rubbish. I couldn't fly the planes in the way that I desired (low and slow) without them bobbing around all over the place. The ground performance was also poor. The planes failed to move until an invisible "power line" had been reached, but as soon as this was detected, they leaped forward as if a rocket booster had been strapped to them!So, you can perhaps understand my trepidation regarding FSX. The difference here is that I finally got the chance to test a demo version of Microsoft's new flight simulator, without having to pay 50 pounds for the privilege. That allowed me to see that the default Cessa 172 and Beechcraft Baron were actually controllable at low speeds. That gave me the confidence to buy FSX, and concentrate on a selected list of addons that would improve key areas of the evironment, and bring them up to a level that I was happy with (the VFR Generation X version 2 scenery for the British Isles, and a handful of European island holiday destinations).I am still deciding which AI package to buy, and I intend to purchase several more addon scenery packages (Gary Summons' UK2000 Xtreme airports and VFR Airfields Volume 2, and the upcoming Baleares-X, Gibraltar-X, Lanzarote-X version 2, the Channel Islands by Earth Simulations Ltd, and....eventually.....VFR Scotland plus 3D models package from Horizon Simulation).Phew!Most of those will be purchased with PayPal funds that I have been accumulating by selling bits and pieces of old stuff on eBay. That will keep the bank account intact, and the Credit Card at a sensible level :( I look forward to enjoying FSX for many years :(

It all started with those stupid bankers and their ninja loans. They finally realized that there were more poor people than rich people so they decided to rob the poors of their would be properties. What a brilliant idea, morons. And to those CEOs, who will buy your products now that everybody (except you) is being laid off?

Good lord ... it almost seems as if you believe that somehow in the current economic downturn, Microsoft isn't profitable. Nothing could be further from the truth. Microsoft is a printing press for dollar bills. It made $4 billion on $16 billion of revenue in the last quarter. Not the whole year ... they made that profit in just 3 months. The economic downturn has nothing whatsoever to do with why Microsoft is laying off programmers.If you really want to know what's going on at Microsoft, listen to Ray Ozzie ... the man who took Bill Gates' job when Bill Gates retired. He told Wired Magazine that making software and selling it to people - the very acts of commerce that made Bill Gates the richest person on this planet - isn't a viable business plan. He pointed to Windows Update as the example of a "successful service."Folks, that's the software that Microsoft is forced to use because its OS is has security problems. That's what Ray points to as a "successful service." Total 2008 revenues for the Windows Update Divison: $0.00. Profit: $0.00. Someone is off his meds.http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazi...e?currentPage=2Ray Ozzie is the chief software architect for Microsoft. And he thinks that creating software and selling it isn't viable. It's no wonder they're canceling FS11 and firing programmers. Mr. Ozzie thinks Windows Update is something to tout, rather than being one of those things you tolerate.He points also to Hotmail as a "successful service." Since people don't pay for Hotmail ... what Ray must mean is that Hotmail is good for selling advertising. It almost seems as if the Chief Software Architect for Microsoft is in the advertising business. At Microsoft, he says, there must be a shift from the traditional model of software,to what he calls software plus services. Hmmmm ... didn't IBM try that when it used to be somebody?If I was Bill Gates, I'd fire Ray Ozzie. Ray Ozzie has lost his way. The Chief Software Architect for Microsoft should be chiefly thinking about architecting some software. Not selling advertising, or becoming IBM.I have a viable business model for Ray and anyone else at Microsoft who might be listening: Create some compelling software and I'll buy it. That's a viable business plan.Meantime, I hope these ad men will sell Flight Simulator to a group of programmers so we can get on with FS11.(Adding: Flip on over to CNN, where you'll see the news of the firing of thousands of programmers. But Microsoft announces it's hiring ... financial analysts, human resources, administrative and marketing and sales talent particularly in online ad sales.)

hi,microsoft says goodbye to Flight simulator, I say goodbye to windows 7. I don't think we will ever meet. I will stick with my 3 year old computer with XP till it dies. No need to upgrade anything now though I would have liked an always improving FS like before.

Folks, that's the software that Microsoft is forced to use because its OS is has security problems. That's what Ray points to as a "successful service." Total 2008 revenues for the Windows Update Divison: $0.00. Profit: $0.00. Someone is off his meds.http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazi...e?currentPage=2Ray Ozzie is the chief software architect for Microsoft. And he thinks that creating software and selling it isn't viable. It's no wonder they're canceling FS11 and firing programmers. Mr. Ozzie thinks Windows Update is something to tout, rather than being one of those things you tolerate./quote]Nah, Ray Ozzie just has his head in "The Cloud(s)"... :( Seriously, Ray does seem to have lost his way someplace "back there" when he took the wrong fork...