How long can FSX live?

[Christopher Low 5,343]

I would expect things to slow down massively for FSX in the next 2 years in terms of add-ons due to an also shrinking fan base

Why would FSX have a "shrinking fanbase" when there is nothing to replace it? Microsoft Flight Simulator isn't like a first person shooter. It isn't something that has an end. I can see people enjoying flying around in an increasingly more detailed FSX environment for many years to come.

[Guest pete1_leeds]

i think FSX will live for quite a while yet, just look at FS9 and how many people are still using and developing for that sim, its taken a while for the hardware to catch up with FSX but i think we are slowly crossing the line with the new i7's and up, theres lots of addons in the pipeline so we are along way from 'slowly fading away' we have now got several years to enjoy FSX and it is indeed a great product when you got the hardware to cope with it... i think we will see an FSvNext at some point within the next 3-4 years (Microsoft or no microsoft) and it will probably be a completely revolutionised version rather than just a rework of FSX. I feel for the staff at ACES but i dont think it is all doom and gloom.. My suspision would have been that the FS11 as was would have just been FSX with a revised graphic rendering engine and few fancy bits of eye candy but nothing greatly different to what we have now. FSvNext whenever it arrives will probably be a complete rework and that might not be a bad thing to start again from scratch..my two penneth worth...

[Toys_R_Us 0]

I would not write FS off from Microsoft. It's hard to say what is going on within any large corporate environment. Then Aces Studios did not deliver on DX10, 64bit, true multi-core support, and frame rates in games, as should have been done earlier (in my opinion). Would this kind of thing be acceptable in the video card indusry? I think not ! Also Microsoft management completely "cleaned house", which also say's something big to me. That is sometimes the best and only way to start over and get it right. K-Mart just can't seem to become another WalMart !I would not be surprised to see a more serious game environment immerge within Microsoft. That could end up being much like other industries are all doing which farm out much of what they do in order to avoid long-term employee benefit liabilities. Always optimisticBob (Las Cruces. NM)

[moggel 0]

I'm fairly optimistic too about the future of the sim. Just have a look at the venerable "Falcon 4" which was shut down but then kept alive for alot of years. Admittedly, the source code slipped out somehow and got into the hand of developers which kept releasing several versions. That scenario is, of course, very unlikely for FSX but the very fact the sim wouldn't die made another company realize the financial opportunity eventually so they bouht the legit source code and develop a new version (called "Allied Force") some years ago. The "Falcon 4" might have been big but it's tiny compared to the FSX one. Eventually, Microsoft, or some other studio, will WANT to sell more versions of it I guess. Microsoft keeps saying they're simply utilizing their very skilled resources at ACES for higher prioritized projects, that are more in line with their strategy out of whatever dire straits they're currently in. Possible, the code or experience gained will be re-used in future products that's more or less a new Flight Simulator. We'll see.However, I'd like to discuss the more technical side of FSX and its potential as a platform for the next, say, five years. I mentiond two aspects that seems to be impossible to improve/replace for add-on developers (cloud shadows and precipitation). What other aspects cannot be improved? Most add-ons so far is aircraft models, sceneries and wheather related. A few adds better AI planes. What else are we likely to see, based on what's possible?/Jonas

[n4gix 4,947]

Read Randazzo's rather optimistic comment on the Pmdg forum:http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtopic=241934Guy

I have one nit to pick with what is an otherwise excellent summary/commentary:FS was never a "child" of ESP, and never would have been..In actual fact, ESP1 is a stripped-to-the-bone version of FSX! It was the prototype for what was to become ESP2.After the reorganization of the studio, there were FOUR separate and independent teams formed, the first of which -the Core Platform team- was to provide the basic foundation from which three CHILDREN were to be developed:ESP2TS2FSvNextIf ESP et seq. were not successful, the other two teams should not have been affected at all.Now I may not have the credibility and bona fides that others might enjoy, but I can honestly state that I was among the first who registered at the official ESP Developers Forum and actively participated. I know the names of everyone who posted there, and what was discussed, and continues to be discussed... :( http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/ESP/threads/Now, all that said... I agree that FSX will continue to be a sustainable platform, as will FS9 for the next two years or longer. I know that I'm comitted to continue producing for both versions as long as there is any market at all... :(

[Guest christian]

Why would FSX have a "shrinking fanbase" when there is nothing to replace it? Microsoft Flight Simulator isn't like a first person shooter. It isn't something that has an end. I can see people enjoying flying around in an increasingly more detailed FSX environment for many years to come.

Because people lose interest in flight simming. Maybe not people like you and me, but for most people it's just a spare time activity that can be replaced with fishing, playing golf, whatever tickles your fancy. As I wrote, this already happened during 2008. There are tools with which you can measure traffic to web sites - and traffic to FS web sites like this one has dramatically gone down over 2008.

[Highmike 68]

Because people lose interest in flight simming. Maybe not people like you and me, but for most people it's just a spare time activity that can be replaced with fishing, playing golf, whatever tickles your fancy.

Apart from the die hard addicts who post on these forums I get the feeling that, for a lot of people, a flight simulator is the sort of educational tool which a forward looking family ought to have in the modern age. Not because it offers flight instruction, which will be of minimal value to most people, but because of the grand technological vista it opens up to young enquiring minds. Let's face it Aviation is an industrial leader in Western society, and so much of our future is invested in the continuous development of transportation.I reckon that, for these people, a flight simulator sits on their hard disk much like their encyclopaedia does, a handy reference tool available whenever an enquiring mind may feel inspired to undertake investigation.

[KERNEL32 499]

Regarding how long FSX can "live":Although I am a big Flight Sim fan/user since the SubLogic days, I am/was really pumped up about the TS2 release. If it makes y'all feel any better, us TrainSim fans are still using the original Train Simulator from MS in 2001. That ol' program still has life in 'er, and it's been nearly 8 years! But I am growing real tired of it all. So imagine using FSX for 8 or so years, then having the new release imminent (within 7-8 months) then MS pulls it out from under you. ouch! ######s. :(

[Jimmy Angel 19]

Up until very recently, I was flying FS9 and was thrilled with the performance and the library of addons. I was one of those guys who was just planning to skip FSX and see how FSXI worked out. Not any more. I picked up my copy this week.The next 2-4 years will be good ones in terms of FSX. Hardware will continue to improve. Addon developers will push the technology as far as they can. Initially, simmers like us might even be willing to spend a bit more money on addons knowing that they won't be made invalid in two years by a new version.But, it won't last. Without the "new and shiny", there's not much to draw anyone to the community. Others will simply quit playing the aging sim. Addon developers will close up shop. It'll become a niche with a few die-hards.And, despite the press releases from Microsoft, they didn't get rid of the Aces team because they are dedicated to supporting MSFS. We're talking about a team of very experienced developers, pilots, etc. Despite all of the flak we gave them, with every version you can see how they worked hard to put the heart and soul of aviation into our computers. These weren't just your typical grunt game coders.Other companies might take a run at it, but the undertaking is complex and the potential for a new franchise is VERY limited. In other words, smoke 'em while you got 'em.