I am still sick to my stomach about this...but...Perhaps the wisdom of Aces in designing software that is taxing for todays hardware, but can be increased in the future via "sliders" is finally vindicated. I'll keep using fsx, and perhaps have all sliders on 100% a few years from now, thus still improving my simming experience yearly. Perhaps by then the world economy will have recovered, and either Fs or another company will be back in the flight sim business. If not I will just keep using fsx the rest of my life and consider my self very fortunate to have been thru 30 years of a time of exciting flight simming that is no more.I will also be happy because the potential for 3rd party developers to continue to push fsx to greater and greater things will probably keep it growing for many years to come. The development is starting to appear greatly now, and thank god there are areas of this sim that allow much future growth, such as the ability to display high res scenery, missions, etc.I thank the Aces team for making something that instead of dying at this point will hopefully only get better and better.

Its kind

Very sad day indeed but a sign of the times. What I hope this will do is maybe revive the FS community as well as developers and we could see a revival of FS9 development. I myself was waiting for FS11 to see if it was better than FSX as I removed FSX a week after I installed it just not as stable as FS9 not to mention my current rig just cannot handle it.John

Its kind

This is disappointing news definately but it will give FSX time to mature. If in 5-6 years Microsoft still sees 3rd party addons being added to it they may pick the ball back up. I'm one of those who thinks Microsoft won't release the code or the rights to Flight Sim to anyone but MS. It's sadder to see the 5000 people who lost their jobs and new jobs right now aren't an easy to get ahold of. Maybe one of the nice 3rd party people can lend out a hand to the ACES folks. I'm not counting MSFS out completely and I don't think it's dead. It's just on a good long hiatus until the economic situation recovers. So, lets make FSX and even FS9 shine so we will see an FSXI in the future. And, I was sorta looking foward to seeing Train Sim 2.

I'll keep using fsx, and perhaps have all sliders on 100% a few years from now ...

You're assuming, however, that the bean counters will allow a defunct game divison to leave their validation servers up and running, even though the division has been eliminated.I'm not sure I'd count on that - given the current state of intelligence at Microsoft.Couple of other thoughts:Microsoft made $4 billion profit last quarter on $16 billion of revenue. That annualizes to $16 billion of profit on $64 billion in revenue. And then announced the layoff of a 25-year franchise? WFT?If I'm Michael Dell, or Intel ... I'd start counting the end of days. There is no other software out there that, for the last 10 years, has caused me to upgrade my hardware. It has ONLY been Microsoft Flight Simulator.I bought 2 new computers - just for FSX. Now that Flight Simulator has been decapitated, I cannot imagine buying new hardware for the next 10 years - minimum. What out there will tax my quad-core processor? Even video processing doesn't tax this hardware.Nose. Face. Spite.

I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade, but what do you exactly base those hopes of FSX improving in performance with time on? FSX is still very much a single-core oriented application. The only thing that significantly boosts its peformance is an increase in core speed. Its performance increase is pretty much linear with an increase in Ghz. In case no one's noticed, CPUs are growing in cores, not increasing in hertz these days. Unless Intel decides to release a 5 or 6Ghz i7something, I don't think in 3 or 4 years we'll see that much more bang for buck out of FSX (or FS9 for that matter). That's why losing the prospect of the next installment (which, presumably, would've been developed to scale with cores and not Ghz) is such dire news.My thoughts are with those laid off today, I hope they will find employment soon. Please remember however that this is not the end of the world. Don't despair too much. No one's died.

Argh and I was hoping for better autogen tools in the future, dag nab it!!!I also agree, the only reason I upgraded hardware and OS was for Flight Simulator, the only reason I ever used Windows as an OS was because FS dropped Mac support after FS4...Is Bruce Artwick still around? Does he hold any patents or if he did does he still hold them? Could BAO make a comeback?The future is multicore, cuda, physx/physics and cloud/distributed computing, if we want a sim to take advantage of that, the work needs to start today, not in 5-6 years time...

Nick-Exactly. My other thought is we may be going from a time where every release of a flight sim software add in is met with a multitude of complaints to a time where people will actually be somewhat appreciative instead-like it was 20-30 years ago.

IRONY at it best!There is no excuse to be crabby or bashing performance anymore.. They were smart in that respect and ensured the shelf life of the product

If I'm Michael Dell, or Intel ... I'd start counting the end of days. There is no other software out there that, for the last 10 years, has caused me to upgrade my hardware. It has ONLY been Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Don't be ridiculous. You are the exception to the rule.

I also wish to express my condolences to the Aces Team and my thanks for all their efforts. I have to agree with NickN - it's way too soon to tell what the end result is going to be. Too many possibilities. The end of FS?? I really doubt it. Considering the cottage industry that has sprung up around it, I'd be more inclined to believe that, worst case, MS would sell the rights to someone. Possibly even the Aces team as a collective startup. Too many possibilities to be predicting the end of FS at this time.At this point, I am sad for the people who are losing their jobs but retain an open mind as far as FS and our community. Right now, the glass is half full - let's see what develops over the coming weeks.Vic

Shacknews says:

The studio responsible for Microsoft's Flight Simulator games is reported to be among those cut, losing a bulk of, if not its entire, staff. There's no indication from Microsoft if this signals the end of the Flight Simulator series, or if it will be tasked to another studio.

So I don't know if it's completely set in stone. Though that may be old.http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/56905

Sad for everyone at microsoft and aces but also the hundreds of employees with flight1, aerosoft, just flight, pmdg etc. who base themselves around Microsoft flight sim.Lets hope x-plane or another developer can carry on the simming franchiseSorry to all those who have lost jobs. :( Richy

Having just lost my full-time job last week, my heart goes out the Aces team. This is a shock and I'm still soaking it in. I've been a flight simmer since 1993 and have owned every version since then. This hobby has been a huge part of my life and I'm sure it's the same way for many on these forums. Despite all of this bad news, I remain optimistic in the long run. As a community we will stay strong and support this hobby for decades to come. I doubt MS will release the source code but they will keep it safe somewhere for future use. Like some others mentioned, the bright side is that we will have time to soak in FSX for now.... and I'm hoping we reach the point of developing planes and scenery for just one version of FS instead of two as is the case right now.For the MSFS team, I wish you guys the best of luck in finding a new job. Your years of hard work are greatly appreciated and will NEVER be forgotten. Sherv Commercial Level Simulations Model Designer

You're assuming, however, that the bean counters will allow a defunct game divison to leave their validation servers up and running, even though the division has been eliminated.I'm not sure I'd count on that - given the current state of intelligence at Microsoft.Couple of other thoughts:

Like everyone here has stated, my prayers go out to everyone at Ace's affected by this.I don't think removal of the validation servers will happen, without the keys unlocked. As every valid user is legally licensed, and to do so would subject them to legal action for breach of contract. What I think we may lose is the sub functions like online weather, and maybe multiplayer through GameSpy.

Don't be ridiculous. You are the exception to the rule.

I agree with Mission Guy. FS has motivated my hardware purchases for many years now. The FS community may not be as big as some of the other gaming communities, but we are an older group, in terms of our demographics and in terms of the longevity of the FS franchise, so you can't say we are without influence in the gaming market. I have, in fact, just upgraded my hardware, and with the i7 and nVidia technology my new box is a monster whose only purpose is to drive FS. Ask yourself what progress Intel and nVidia can expect to make without being able to count on corresponding developments in software such as the MSFS franchise?