Here's my take on the whole MS Flight announcement and Aces' demise.  I believe MS had realised that FSX is an utter mistake, poorly coded, and released to the entire general public at a time when nobody's computer could even run it.  Aces messed up, ruined the Flight Simulator name and thus they were disbanded.I truly hope and believe that MS Flight will be a quantum leap, taking advantage of all of today's hardware and be released being fully capable of running on the average PC's of a year from now.FSX is a failure on so many levels, and thus Microsoft was forced to drop the 'Flight Simulator' tag in order of not putting off future retail consumers which would have otherwise overlooked another version of FS still keeping in mind how bad their last experience was.I have now decided to not invest any money into FSX, 2 months ago I was preparing to build a new PC specifically for FSX.  I am now more convinced than ever that sticking to FS9 is the right move and then immediately moving to MS Flight when it is released.  I believe MS Flight will be the Flight Simulator we have all been waiting for.  Microsoft has been known to royally screw up however......

I not sure if you are serious or not .. but this is way off.For your premise to be correct .. you are saying the MS didnt know about the coding, the program, or anything about the project before/until they released it.  The more rational reason ACES was removed.. was likely related to the downsizing all American companies have been engaged in for over the past decade and especially most recently.  The push has been to "variablize" your fixed costs. Basically, you maintain all of your core competencies on your fixed cost budget and all else you contract out, thus reducing your overhead.As you call FSX a failure on so many levels .. i call it a success on so many levels.  The franchise continued to post solid numbers.FSX was a step forward vs. FS9.24,490 airports and those in the major US cities modeled close to RLthe default aircraft were better than any previous releaseI am having more fun with FS than everlist goes on and on............Perhaps you should highlight some of the points that made FSX a failure so that we can better understand your position.Finally, I bet the named changed doesnt have anything to do with a ruined brand.   First, the brand at Microsoft is Microsoft. Basically, you brand the name Microsoft and hang any of your products off of that brand.  So the brand remains and "flight" will be hung off of the overall Microsoft brand.   Perhaps the agreement with ACES and the product name "flight simulator" is behind the change.  Or it could be as simple as  products change names from time to time to try to keep the product fresh.... and Microsoft is saying this will be different than any of their previously releases, and thus, the likely driver for the name change.  

As you call FSX a failure on so many levels .. i call it a success on so many levels.  The franchise continued to post solid numbers.FSX was a step forward vs. FS9.

Yes, I've preferred FSX over FS9 also. Mostly GA amd mountains. For those two items, FSX is much better. I still have FS9 though.L.Adamson

Honestly when FSX was released it was so unusable that the whole team should have been fired, no computer on this planet was able to run it with decent performance, and this was without any addons. Even today many years later if you turn on bloom the framerates drops to unplayable.

Honestly when FSX was released it was so unusable that the whole team should have been fired, no computer on this planet was able to run it with decent performance, and this was without any addons. Even today many years later if you turn on bloom the framerates drops to unplayable.

I don't really care to re-hash the FS0/FSX debate, since we have already done it for years. I would have beta-tested FSX, as I did two prior versions, but my computer wasn't up to the task. I picked up a more powerful model (not so powerful by today's standards), and FSX has run very stable. Not full sliders of course, but I certainly prefer FSX over FS9. I could tell that on day one.L.Adamson

At this point all there really is to do is speculate. I'm just offering up an opinion. I think we call all agree that there have been some real letdowns from Redmond, Windows ME, Windows Vista, and FSX. Flight Simulator has always made its money from the casual consumer. I really do not believe that any casual consumer is firing up FSX today after 4 years and most likely gave up on it a few months after purchase simply because it could not run. Little Jimmy gave up on his Christmas present after he realized that it played more choppy than liver and out of the box, FSX looks terrible. It is not only after our landclass upgrades and scenery add-ons that FSX really started to look good.I don't think dropping the Simulator from Flight Simulator was to freshen up the product line. Once you acheive brand recognition, you don't change it and FS has got to be the most successful entertainment software PC title sold.I think MS realized that FSX was a letdown that essentially letdown the whole franchise but since flight simulation software is so popular it would make sense to continue developing such software but just not call it Flight Simulator due to its tarnished brand.Really would we have purchased Windows 7 if it was called Windows Vista 2?My thoughts.In the end I'm hoping for the simulation title we have always been hoping for.

At this point all there really is to do is speculate. I'm just offering up an opinion. I think we call all agree that there have been some real letdowns from Redmond, Windows ME, Windows Vista, and FSX. Flight Simulator has always made its money from the casual consumer. I really do not believe that any casual consumer is firing up FSX today after 4 years and most likely gave up on it a few months after purchase simply because it could not run. Little Jimmy gave up on his Christmas present after he realized that it played more choppy than liver and out of the box, FSX looks terrible. It is not only after our landclass upgrades and scenery add-ons that FSX really started to look good.I don't think dropping the Simulator from Flight Simulator was to freshen up the product line. Once you acheive brand recognition, you don't change it and FS has got to be the most successful entertainment software PC title sold.I think MS realized that FSX was a letdown that essentially letdown the whole franchise but since flight simulation software is so popular it would make sense to continue developing such software but just not call it Flight Simulator due to its tarnished brand.Really would we have purchased Windows 7 if it was called Windows Vista 2?My thoughts.In the end I'm hoping for the simulation title we have always been hoping for.

Another great post. I agree!

The name change may have to do with them wanting to make it more appealing to those costumers who did not want to buy a 'simulator' but who would buy a 'flying game' (even if it still contains the functionality that we enjoy now). Have a look at Page 2 of this where some insider mentioned a list of things they had planned for after FSX. Some of these features would certainly make it more appealing to the masses and they could still provide the simulator world that we know. The mere existence of the missions in FSX didn't harm any of us and so if this stuff makes it into the sim it won't either :-).Cheers,Siggy

Here's my take on the whole MS Flight announcement and Aces' demise. I believe MS had realised that FSX is an utter mistake, poorly coded, and released to the entire general public at a time when nobody's computer could even run it. Aces messed up, ruined the Flight Simulator name and thus they were disbanded.I truly hope and believe that MS Flight will be a quantum leap, taking advantage of all of today's hardware and be released being fully capable of running on the average PC's of a year from now.FSX is a failure on so many levels, and thus Microsoft was forced to drop the 'Flight Simulator' tag in order of not putting off future retail consumers which would have otherwise overlooked another version of FS still keeping in mind how bad their last experience was.I have now decided to not invest any money into FSX, 2 months ago I was preparing to build a new PC specifically for FSX. I am now more convinced than ever that sticking to FS9 is the right move and then immediately moving to MS Flight when it is released. I believe MS Flight will be the Flight Simulator we have all been waiting for. Microsoft has been known to royally screw up however......

I will take the exact otherside of that as far as FSX being a failure.I was as FS9 guy from about the time it was released until after FSX had released Sp2. For me I have had a gotten a lot more satisfaction and enjoyment out of FSX than I ever did in FS9. Although I truely loved FS9 at the time, now every once in a while when I load FS9 for kicks I always end up closing it after about 5 minutes because I dont care for the look of it any longer.Even though I am primarly a flyer of airliners, I never really have any problems I read about here flying into major hubs with a lot of AI and heavy weather. Maybe I am just lucky since I dont have a cutting edge PC or maybe it is because somehow I have mine tuned to the max to get the most out of it. Either way, I love FSX and enjoy all the addons I have purchased for it and plan to continue to add to my list of airports and aircraft.I'm not a programmer so I cant speak to how good or bad the code is in FSX, but even considering the fair amount of stuff I have installed in it, I have never had problems with instabilities or FPS problems, with the exception of one addon airport (NiceX). So for me FSX has been a complete success and I am really glad I made the move a few years ago.On that note I am very excited about Flight and it will be interesting to see how much better or how much the same it is to FSX. If it ends up being a truely ground breaking sim then I will switch once the 3PD's start to roll out addons for it. I have a feeling though, that unless a lot of sceneries and aircraft are going to be able to be ported over to Flight easily and not have to be totally redone, it will at least 2 years from now before enough 3PD content is availabe to make the switch viable for me. Until them I will continue to enjoy FSX and buy more addons for it.

So what do we have so far...First video seems to have drastically improved water.Second video has Godrays.*awaiting the third video*!!-J. King

... douchebaggery.

That is my new favourite word. I'm going to use that at work today. :( Cheers, SLuggy

It all sounds enticing, but one part concerns me. It's that whole "social networking" aspect. Now, the flight sim community is fortunate that the level of... well, there's no delicate way to put this, so I'm just going to come out and say it. Compared to shoot-em-up and action games, we enjoy a relatively minor level of douchebaggery. VATSIM strictly controls their servers to make sure that people are courteous and respectful of others while using their service, but can the same be said for Games Live? The FAQ says you can fly solo. Does this mean that one can do their simming in an offline mode, free of harassment from DEMONSLAYER666 trying to recreate the 9/11 attacks on random skyscrapers? I'm just a bit leery about. There's a concept floating around called The Greater Internet F-Wad Theory that pretty much sums it up. I'd hate to have to deal with that just to be able to do some bush flying or virtual airline revenue flights.

Does this mean that one can do their simming in an offline mode, free of harassment from DEMONSLAYER666 trying to recreate the 9/11 attacks on random skyscrapers? Excellent!I agree.Nearly all my simming has been done in glorious isolation.and thats how i like it.Andy

I'm not sure either. But, Avsim is a social network too and it's happens to be the one we've chosen to use.At the root of it Facebook is a forum...The difference being Facebook members manage who belongs to their 'forum'.It’s harder to remain anonymous in FB…that means there is more pressure to be civil.I suspect we’ll see a new level of social network integration GFL/facebook/avsim/others

AVSIM can be described as a social network of sorts, but it really is a closed network unlike Facebook where anyone could send a friend request to you. Here, it is like minded individuals and companies sharing their love of one thing, FS. Rules here also require members to remain civil, even if some push the envelope a bit, mods do ban those that cross the line, even in anonymity (they are not anonymous to the mods).To those who think that some are complaining about a 24/7 constant connection to play games just to complain, it isn't so with me. My job keeps me on the road, just like I am now, for any period of time, once it was a 13 month job 600 miles from my permanent connection. Sure, hotels offer Internet connections, but they are not really stable and any hiccup will cause a disconnect from the DRM server and loss of game progress. That does not count the times I have played games while at work (nothing for me to do until all the welds are completed) where there is no connection. At least with Steam, I can play the games I have installed on my laptop, even Company of Hero's which also requires an Internet connection. I couldn't play SHV or Assassin's Creed 2 while sitting at some oil refinery if I owned them as I would have no way to connect to the Internet to authenticate them with the servers.24/7 DRM handicaps those who pay for their games, unlike those who pirated AC2 and Splinter Cell Conviction especially when the servers where under a denial of service attack when the games were first released. Pirates get to play unhindered if their connection hiccups or fails. I don't condone piracy, but publishers who make legitimate buyers use such draconian measures to ensure that people pay, only serve to push more to actually pirate said games.

I highly doubt msflight will have constant 24/7 DRM it will most likely be like fsx online activations. the xlive thing to me at least is just a way to add people to your friends list etc etc in add-on store for people to purchase from the Sim itself maybe or threw a website multiplayer threw xlive. its not at least in my opinion something that's going to take over the whole sim it will help connect everyone that does not know anything about flgihtsim and even hopefully get many new simmers.

This is most bothersome as it quite possibly means the game is tied to MS's servers as a form of DRM, a similar kind that Ubisoft lost 13% in sales in PC games in it's last quarter compared to the same quarter the previous year. This could be no more than a Steam like feature, but at least Steam allows for one to play games offline unlike Ubisoft who requires a constant connection. MS may have a hard time selling Flight if it does require a 24/7 connection. I won't get into the "social" experience part of it. I don't use Twitter or  Facebook, and I don't expect games to give me that for any price.

I wonder if this means no more Vatsim? If so forget it. An unchecked MS server for online will mean kiddies galore screwing things up.

This is most bothersome as it quite possibly means the game is tied to MS's servers as a form of DRM, a similar kind that Ubisoft lost 13% in sales in PC games in it's last quarter compared to the same quarter the previous year. This could be no more than a Steam like feature, but at least Steam allows for one to play games offline unlike Ubisoft who requires a constant connection. MS may have a hard time selling Flight if it does require a 24/7 connection. I won't get into the "social" experience part of it. I don't use Twitter or  Facebook, and I don't expect games to give me that for any price.

I don't know, maybe ATC instructions could be Tweeted to us!