Suppose we had never been told about the closing of ACES and the cancellation of a never-officially-announced FSvNext?Would we really be in any different position than we are now? All we knew was that if there was going to be an "FS11," we couldn't possibly expect to see it released until at least late Q4 of 2010.Now I know that there wasn't even any "Alpha" code yet for FSvNext. A lot of pre-planning had been done, and the advances being made for TS2 were widely announced. It was likely that much of what was going to be in TS2 would have also been incorporated into any future FSvNext......but aside from that there was nothing but sheer conjecture that any FSvNext would ever be announced officially, much less released.So again I ask, how would the situation really be any different? We still don't know if - or when - any future FS will be produced.From my perspective, nothing is different at all. Freeware and Commercial modelers will continue to support FS9 and/or FSX as they see fit, irrespective of any possible future FS release.Good grief! There are still folks (admittedly few) who're producing FS98 models! ;D

My experience over many years of gaming and gaming development is that there is a very unique difference between game buyers and regular software buyers. That difference is called emotion.When I purchase MS Exel and spend X hundred dollars for it, if it doesnt run on my current PC, I am ###### at Microsoft. When I purchase Flight Simulator for less than 100 bucks and it doesnt run on my current PC, I BUY A NEW PC. Now which is the more powerful market controlling software? Frankly I think Microsoft doesnt get this. Once I have the better PC to run FS...dont you think I can also enjoy a better experience with MS Office? When you engage peoples emotion it is DIRECTLY tied to their wallet.

NO NEW SIM...NO NEW COMPUTER...NO WINDOWS 7Microsoft is really shooting themselves in the foot with the discontinuation of Flight Sim. If they were smart they'd be putting extra focus on the gaming end of the business. Face it, these days computers are more than powerful enough to run any applications thrown at them excluding cutting edge games. I can't count how many computers I've built over the years and how much money I've spent JUST BECAUSE OF FLIGHT SIMULATOR!! Gone are the days of the short computer life span. People are NOT going to buy a new computer just to run Office 8.Microsoft just doesn't get it. If there are no games in their future there will be no future for Microsoft. They will also be killing the video card and processor industries too. Who do they think buys all this stuff?I was just going to upgrade my rig to run FSX. I've decided not to. I'm sticking with XP. They will never get another dime from me. My next computer will be a MAC. (Never thought I'd say that)Steve G.

I agree. Flightsimulator is the only program I run that requires windows. I will keep this computor going for fsx but my next computor is going to be a mac. No more windows headaches!!! keith

S.T.O.P. Apparently very few know what LIVE actually is...Look here to learn:http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/Live/.../AboutLive.aspxWhat MS is aiming for is for everyone to be forced to login to their service to play a "flying game" if and when they get around to it... :( Where is the "vomiting my guts out" smilie? :(

Bill,Was that a TYPO ? PLAY ===> PAYieWhat MS is aiming for is for everyone to be forced to login to their service to PAY to fly "flying game" if and when they get around to it... :( Also, expect every Cloud to hold an AD !!Geoff_D