Well I think it does imply a serious setback in Flightsimulator development.Will FSX be the last version ? Nobody knows.Will somebody else pick it up ?Under the present economics I doubt that to happen soon.Massive cuts are in progress in the entire IT industries all over the world.Starting with a venture like this will involve a lot of risk for the buyer of the license ( if it is sold at all).Not only is the technology much more evolved since the series started but also has the hardware.Not a single version of FS could be played maxed out on then current hardware.The computers always needed to catch up a year later.Since we see a recession coming all over the world people will keep their money in their pockets and pay the more basic bills prior to paying for a new computer in the upcoming 3 years.This will slowdown computer development as well as game development.Afterall is the gaming industry one of the main drivers for new hardware development.Even now (after the release in 2006) it's hard to play FSX maxed out on the current hardware.It's a niche product, and the modding of FS will touch maybe 10% of the total number of users world wide.90% are playing it right of the shelf and will never install any mod except for a servicepack.In my humble opinion Flightsimulator will live on but it will be centered on the 2 versions that are available, FS9 and FSX.No development activities are in progress for either 2 of them, making them finished products and the standards for the (at least) upcoming 3 years.It will make the FS world a place where you use either FS9, FSX or both.A new start will be A GOOD THING but also imply a setback for all add-on developers ( either freeware or payware) since they will have to reinvent the wheel on the coding for the new game.So no additional aircraft, no airlines, no scenery, you name it.Since a lot of developers didn't make the step towards FSX already I think that even less people are willing to make the same step towards a complete new environment.In the end we will end up with less development from 3rd parties and less toys to play with for the community.So does this decision impact the FS world ? It certainly does, the FS world will become emptier in new versions. I hope that the people that lost their job yesterday will be able to find something new in the upcoming times.I also want to thank them for their motivation, their enthusiasm and their dedication towards a game series that lasted longer then any other pc game series.FS will live on !Tom van der HorstWorld-of-AI

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,

Unfortunately there will be immediate fallout in the FS third party add-on developers. For example I can see Saitek curtailing their Pro Flight system peripherals. Without MS developing FS11 there will be little to attract new users to the FS community and therefore fewer yokes, throttles, headsets and switches will be sold and no incentive to develop new equipment that is affordable to the average simmer. It will probably be the end of royalty free payware add-ons if FS is sold to another software publisher as they will seek to maximize profits in every way possible. Will

Well I think it does imply a serious setback in Flightsimulator development.Will FSX be the last version ? Nobody knows.Will somebody else pick it up ?Under the present economics I doubt that to happen soon.Massive cuts are in progress in the entire IT industries all over the world.Starting with a venture like this will involve a lot of risk for the buyer of the license ( if it is sold at all).Not only is the technology much more evolved since the series started but also has the hardware.Not a single version of FS could be played maxed out on then current hardware.The computers always needed to catch up a year later.Since we see a recession coming all over the world people will keep their money in their pockets and pay the more basic bills prior to paying for a new computer in the upcoming 3 years.This will slowdown computer development as well as game development.Afterall is the gaming industry one of the main drivers for new hardware development.Even now (after the release in 2006) it's hard to play FSX maxed out on the current hardware.It's a niche product, and the modding of FS will touch maybe 10% of the total number of users world wide.90% are playing it right of the shelf and will never install any mod except for a servicepack.In my humble opinion Flightsimulator will live on but it will be centered on the 2 versions that are available, FS9 and FSX.No development activities are in progress for either 2 of them, making them finished products and the standards for the (at least) upcoming 3 years.It will make the FS world a place where you use either FS9, FSX or both.A new start will be A GOOD THING but also imply a setback for all add-on developers ( either freeware or payware) since they will have to reinvent the wheel on the coding for the new game.So no additional aircraft, no airlines, no scenery, you name it.Since a lot of developers didn't make the step towards FSX already I think that even less people are willing to make the same step towards a complete new environment.In the end we will end up with less development from 3rd parties and less toys to play with for the community.So does this decision impact the FS world ? It certainly does, the FS world will become emptier in new versions. I hope that the people that lost their job yesterday will be able to find something new in the upcoming times.I also want to thank them for their motivation, thier enthusiam and thier dedication towards a game series that lasted longer then any other pc game series.FS will live on !Tom van der HorstWorld-of-AI

I have not come to praise Ceasar...errr I mean ACES...I'm not at all sure that MS ACES was a profitable endeavor. Take 100 people, making an average of, say $75K a year, and producing a new product every three years. If M$ averaged $50 per copy sold, it'd take selling 450,000 copies just to pay the salaries...then there's retirements, health care, facilities, etc. I don't profess to know the exact numbers, but even a rough order of magnitude analysis suggests to me that maybe M$ kept the operation around as a loss leader to bring people in to their core applications (OS & Office in particular). One thing for sure, though, you can't s***-can the whole dev team and expect anyone to come in later and pick up the pieces (in the form of hundreds of thousands of lines of code) and just start back up where you left off. Development of that sort is a living, breathing thing, and rebuilding Rome after burning it down is not likely at all. FS, as we know it, isn't dead. But FS development, as the ACES team knew it, certainly is. That said, I remember an old Lily Tomlin quip..."I worry that the people who invented Musak...are busy inventing something else." I felt much the same way about FSX. It's actually something of a relief that a year or two from now we won't be beating our heads against the wall trying to claw our way back to where we were and what we had with the last version. And it's not like we'll be doing without a copious flow of product updates and improvements that was coming from Microsoft. We've been fighting some of the same bugs (can you say "wind shifts"?) for version after version without progress.MSFS has never been the only game in town. There was Fly!, Airliner Sim, Aerowinx' PS 1, and there still are ELITE, X-Plane, Flight Gear, Condor and others. The same group of bright people that piggybacked on an imperfect MSFS still have the ability to migrate elsewhere and create something new and exciting. M$ does not have a corner on the market of human imagination. Others will appear to take their place, and I'd guess it won't take too long.FS is dead!! Long live FS(9)!!RegardsBob ScottColonel, USAF (ret)ATP IMEL Gulfstream II-III-IV-VColorado Springs, CO

Sadly this was the biggest news "in flight simulation since Flight Simulator itself" not the one from PC Aviator :( Now it

I started this hobby with the original version played on an Apple IIe...and have owned every iteration of the program since.I tend to be a realist. I take what is and work with it. What I see happening was correctly predicted not long ago in the forums here. PC games are dying. It's business plain & simple...and I would be willing to bet (and I'm not that type) that the next (if any) version is going to play on your x-box. I'm truly sorry to see so much talent be cast to the wind because of the 'bottom line'. :( That said, there is a lot that can be done with what we have now. Personally I intend to work on improving what is, and not what could have been.

To many, MSFS was far more than just a "GAME".FS on XBOX !! ( Captain Mario - 747 demolition derby ) .. I don't think so.Maybe one day, the LOGIC and REASONS for these actions will become public, but at the moment, the decisions seem to be very surprising.Would I consider a job now at Microsoft, seeing they way they treat long standing, faithful, DEDICATED employees ??? Obviously not anymore.How many VISTA developers were laid off ?? That I could understand !One would like to think that this sort of thing would not have happened when Bill was running things.As for Steve, well .. maybe to be expected. Amazing that something that took over a decade to build up, could be destroyed in 24 hours.As each day passes, the possibility to reversing the decision becomes less and less of an option.Reminds me of the destruction of Meigs -- and evokes very similar feelings. :( One surprise I would not be upset with .. seeing the "FSX Source code" leaked onto the Internet. :( Something to think about !!!Geoff_D

I have created a petition on a couple websites.Click below to sign them:http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/flightsimulatorhttp://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/flightsimulator

Why two? The object should be to collect the largest number of unique individuals (real people, not pseudonymns!) in ONE place.BTW, I did sign both anyway since I was there... ;)

Why two? The object should be to collect the largest number of unique individuals (real people, not pseudonymns!) in ONE place.

Some people may trust one site and not the other. I honestly don't know why I created two.(I wish it was as easy to get members to join my website as it is to get signatures on my petitions, lol.)

Sad times, sad times.I already joined the FB group, sent feedback to MS but that's about all one can do to express disapproval. And none of this will have any effect either. At most, the effect is to each one of us, to at least try to say how we feel about this.It disgusts me how MS only thinks about dollars and profit. They made profit. Again. FSX was the 9th most selling PC title in the world in 2007. They are killing a Title series that is almost 30 years old. It has survived nearly 30 years, and now, due to the economic situation they feel that a group of ~50 people and the entire ACES studio must be shut down to protect their economical security. What a joke!This is why I have never appreciated Microsoft. They underestimate the customers, big time. This whole thing is absolutely crazy and messed up.Tero

I am still so upset over microsoft's terrible decision, I grew up with flight simulator and now they killed it and saved the zune??? I literally want to grab the next zune I see and destroy it.Andrew

I am still so upset over microsoft's terrible decision, I grew up with flight simulator and now they killed it and saved the zune??? I literally want to grab the next zune I see and destroy it.Andrew

Do you own a Zune? Do you know anyone who owns a Zune?I thought not. Good luck finding a Zune to destroy.

Do you own a Zune? Do you know anyone who owns a Zune?

I had to find Zune on Wikipedia :(. If they sacrificed ACES for Zune .... stick a fork in MS ... they're done :(

http://www.flightsim.com/main/op-ed/ed420.htm

Naturally I feel sorry for the chaps and chapesses who lost their jobs, but FS dead? Nah. At least not as a current product. I had just ordered a new i7 box for FS, and it was set good to go for the next three years (I had vowed back in '06, after getting burned by the initial FSX release, not to buy the next one until it had been out for a year). As far as that's concerned, nothing has changed. In 2011, if there's still no new FS in development, I'll simply keep on going with what I've got. After all, how many people bought FSX and then went straight back to FS9 in disgust? I know I did. Once the new box is built, I'll be putting both FS9 and FSX on it, with my oodles of addons, and I'll be like a bunny in bunny heaven.The future, three years down the line can live with itself.

Naturally I feel sorry for the chaps and chapesses who lost their jobs, but FS dead? Nah. At least not as a current product. I had just ordered a new i7 box for FS, and it was set good to go for the next three years (I had vowed back in '06, after getting burned by the initial FSX release, not to buy the next one until it had been out for a year). As far as that's concerned, nothing has changed. In 2011, if there's still no new FS in development, I'll simply keep on going with what I've got. After all, how many people bought FSX and then went straight back to FS9 in disgust? I know I did. Once the new box is built, I'll be putting both FS9 and FSX on it, with my oodles of addons, and I'll be like a bunny in bunny heaven.The future, three years down the line can live with itself.

Tim-That is what a lot of us said when Pro Pilot bit the bullet. Now you can't even get the video card anymore that is required to run it.