It’s not the store that hurts add-ons – the store is a huge advantage.It’s the second idea that MS might prevent alternative ways of sharing add-ons. (free and commercial).(…it was mentioned this is likely technically impossible anyway)But imagine if Marketplace lawyers decide against selling airliner add-ons with authentic systems for liability or licensing reasons.What then? :( It’s not clear this would happen, but who knows?And I don’t really see any way for even experienced game developers to make the leap to aircraft development without freeware – even if they don’t actively produce it. The casual and hardcore audiences are two segments of one audience.I look at it this way, many, if not most, of us were casual FS users for a time.Not computer savvy, little online experience, and surely not pilots…but we did buy FS.The idea a successful flying game would be made without the hardcore audience is mistaken.These days the consensus of experts is absolutely the only marketing you must have.There is no casual-flying-game that sells 2 million units…

I agree with everything you say and go one step farther: MS Flight ought to have one airport with a 25 mile radius where third-party developpers can showcase their aircraft and scenery add-ons. Do you like the add-on? Click! Its yours! And it is donloaded automatically and installed automatically. For an extra fee, you can get back-up DVDs or use the clouds (nice pun, huh?) to re-download.Impulse buyig is a well known concept by supermarkets and suppliers pay a hety dee to place their merchandise near the checkout registers because we like to purchase on impulse. This is a feature of human psychology. For simming its no diferent: Make it really easy to purchase via Amazon-style "one-click" and folks will overspend on add-ons, guaranteed, and you add-on developpers will be happy as clams, so you will develop even more add-ons for us simmers (South America, Africa photosceneries, anyone?) and we simmers will be happy as clams too (alas poorer in the process.)As Kilo7 said, works with the iPad, will work for MS Flight too if done right.Cheers,- jahman.

I like that idea of a stores in major airports where you have the option of opening a new window and looking at a large selection of add ons.

It’s not the store that hurts add-ons – the store is a huge advantage.It’s the second idea that MS might prevent alternative ways of sharing add-ons. (free and commercial).(…it was mentioned this is likely technically impossible anyway)But imagine if Marketplace lawyers decide against selling airliner add-ons with authentic systems for liability or licensing reasons.What then? :( It’s not clear this would happen, but who knows?And I don’t really see any way for even experienced game developers to make the leap to aircraft development without freeware – even if they don’t actively produce it. The casual and hardcore audiences are two segments of one audience.I look at it this way, many, if not most, of us were casual FS users for a time.Not computer savvy, little online experience, and surely not pilots…but we did buy FS.The idea a successful flying game would be made without the hardcore audience is mistaken.These days the consensus of experts is absolutely the only marketing you must have.There is no casual-flying-game that sells 2 million units…

I agree for the most part. The general public will not purchase a PC only "flying game" as they are partial to consoles and definaltely will not purchase/upgrade a new PC to run it.It is only the established FS comunity who will recomended it to the masses that will insure its success.

I agree for the most part. The general public will not purchase a PC only "flying game" as they are partial  to consoles and definaltely will not purchase/upgrade a new PC to run it.It is only the established FS comunity who will recomended it to the masses that will insure its success.

This is funny .. Actually its MS's multiple million/billion dollar advertisement and distribution network that will insure its success.

This is funny .. Actually its MS's multiple million/billion dollar advertisement and distribution network that will insure its success.

You can only BS the public for so long before a product fails. Have you forgotten about Vista? :(

This is funny .. Actually its MS's multiple million/billion dollar advertisement and distribution network that will insure its success.

I guess that may be true - but…and I'm speculating.What’s really funny to me is, in the 90’s that was money well spent ;)Today a homeless man makes his pitch to a billion people.Peer to peer ads are less costly and more effective. They’re targeted and they’re persistent.For a niche product like Flight I don’t see air-time and print as good value...not at all.And the old-style distribution is evaporating quickly too.Electronic distribution gives publishers a retail shelf inside your house - these goods are always at arm’s length.As I see it, those two developments are the fundamentals behind the likes of Steam and Live.Still, I’d admit all that’s not free… :smile:PS. veeray...funny...I've only seen 5 -tops- TV ads for FS - ever. I think because I have basic cable ;)Mostly I see FS ads on youtube...or linked to their site.I did see the ads in Flight magazine - but IMO they weren’t very convincing

I remember they flooded Discovery Channel / TLC for months during the FSX launch.

It is only the established FS comunity who will recomended it to the masses that will insure its success.

Then it will be a failure!

FWIW, Apple today expanded the concept of their iphone/iPad store to also cover regular Mac software.So Microsoft is not alone in realizing the sales power of integrated, easy to use on-line stores.Cheers,- jahman.

FWIW, Apple today expanded the concept of their iphone/iPad store to also cover regular Mac software.So Microsoft is not alone in realizing the sales power of integrated, easy to use on-line stores.Cheers,- jahman.

Very interesting news! Thanks for sharing.Regards,Owen

Then it will be a failure!

LOL....you may be right there!! This is not to point fingers....because I am just as guilty as everyone. But stop and think....This site is consisered to be the Number 1 in the world for us flight simmers. It is full of information and a must visit for me at least once a day. But......please note that there is no place herethat "Sells" the hobby to new people. With the talent we have here, this site could easily have a huge button on every page that says "Click Here to Learn about our wonderful hobby". Inside could feature Information including Video, Pic's maybe even a place to hook up with a mentor to work one on one. The list could go on forever. Before everyone lights the torch for a good flame party....I am not looking to start a screaming match. Some one out there is thinking right now...."That's Microsoft's job" and yes you are right but give this some thought....If we think of this as a hobby, and you would like to see it grow, it is also our job. The benefits could be great for the whole community. If this were to be done correctly, I think it would carry a lot of weight with Microsoft. I really believe that once they see our effort then they will be much more willing to support our wants and needs. I have a lot of ideas if anyone is willing to have a discussion about them including what AVSIM thinks about the idea.

A few comments/observations-A lot of negativity over some speculation! This system is used on Xbox Live and it works quite well. In theory it could be implemented and be a benefit to us (of course it comes down to the nitty-gritty details which we don't know as this is only speculation)! Having add-ons independently tested would cut down on a lot of crap in the community. Most of us have figured out how not to get ripped off, but still many others buy first and think later. -MS is not going to kill 3rd party add-ons. I'm not sure where this fear keeps coming from. What little info we have from them, they've stated this clearly. Now, the potential issue with this:-Is MS going to really test every add-on, including the interoperability of them all? If so, who will do this? It is one thing to test an add-on in a vacuum, but we all know how big most of our FS installs will grow to. We buy add-ons to enhance other add-ons in their ability to enhance another add-on :( Clearly, Flight(Sim) is considerably different then Xbox where games are separate and don't interact with each other. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has spent hours trying to track down FS problems. This is obviously not a simple thing to implement. Honestly I could see this going either way. While it is very plausible, the whole logistics of testing are a question. It is one thing to do it for something on the scale of Xbox, but for the relatively smaller Flight(sim) market is it cost effective?

I think it will be more like a seal of approval from MS to the dev....if a dev.addons meet the requirement and specification asked by MS to be used with Flight the dev. will be allowed to have their addons in MS store. I don't think MS will test each and every addons made by the dev.

I think it will be more like a seal of approval from MS to the dev....if a dev.addons meet the requirement and specification asked by MS to be used with Flight the dev. will be allowed to have their addons in MS store. I don't think MS will test each and every addons made by the dev.

And really needed it is!I promise I would never buy an add-on without the MS Flight Seal-of-Approval! I'm tired of crappy installers, of add-ons dumping their stuff into FSX's main directory, of making me believe the add-on is uninstallable because it saved the dll.xml (or whatever it's called) prior to installing itself, of buting an FSX aircrat only to find the textures don't work in DX-10, etc., etc.In engineering it is a well-known fact that the complexity of a system increases proportionally to the square of the number of its components: Increase the number of components by ten and the bugs increase by a 100. So where does that leave FSX with dozens and dozens of photo-real scenery, land class, mesh, weather, aircraft, AI Aircraft, etc. etc? The whole mess needs to be tidied-up and safetied so that add-ons can't step on each other or onto MS Flight, and they need to be tested to see they are well-behaved. I know man landed on the moon thanks to untested software developed before quality control for software was invented, but we have moved on since. (Folks, when Armstrong and Aldrin were a scant 6,000 ft off the surface of the moon, the AGC - Apollo Guidance Computer "1202 Alarm" went off and nobody knew what it meant because the MIT whizzes that developed the software never though of editing a "User Manual" with a chapter on "Exception Codes and what they mean" :-)What no one counts is the number of sim enthusiasts that have been left behind because they got tired of what they thought was simming turning into a game of FSX arcana re: debugging, stuttering, crashing. Just can't compete with the pull of spending time with the family. (Of course if the family bit doesn't work our, tinkering with the underbelly of FSX can be a great distraction! :-)Cheers,- jahman.

Can you imagine a Simulator based on this here.....WOW