Guilty of speculation just like everyone else :) I *assume* there will be a Flight demo simply because there was an FSX demo. I also assume the Flight demo will be island-based, simply because the FSX demo was, and it kept FPS high. A demo is just logical, especially if Flight is using the Xbox Live infrastructure like we think it is. As for Orbx developing for other platforms, we have already started porting to Prepar3D which with v1.2 due out soon will offer substantial performance improvements over FSX and although I am under NDA the stuff coming up the pipeline for Prepar3D will blow people away. The beauty about P3D is that to us, it is "FS11" particularly when we see fundamental things being fixed and improved. There are a bunch of ex-ACES guys working on P3D.

Wow, this is great news. Mark.

Mgh, I have ask, why make an SDK then?It's an expensive feature and eliminating it would solve a lot of customer issues.So where's the value?For me - I see tremendous value in it - for them.It solves some extremely expensive problems.I say bandsma is right, and removing the SDK would launch FS into obsqurity.So it's part of a strategy to appeal to casual buyers - by staying relevant.Success is also about these sorts of secondary and tertiary effects.

How many buyers are even aware of the existence of the SDK?How many people would have refused to buy FS because if it didn't have an SDK?How much extra revenue for Microsoft did the SDK generate? I suggest the answer to all three is almost zero.

Will be interesing to see which way this goes. I'm just amazed that it wasn't announced to be on the X360. I'm sure one sticky point will be how to support addons, Fees/QA/etc. We all have a passion for FlightSims, but let's be real it's a very niche market and walk into a room of 20-35 age males and ask who has FSX or who owns Call of Duty and I would doubt one hand goes up for FSX. My wife said it best FlightSimming is akin to watching grass grow...slow.

walk into a room of 20-35 age males and ask who has FSX or who owns Call of Duty and I would doubt one hand goes up for FSX.

You might be surprised, I know I was as I did that exact thing today: I was in work this morning and talking about what we all did last night, usual boring crap but I happened to mention a thread on here about Flight, which I described to the two other guys in work as 'the successor to Microsoft Flight Simulator' thinking that'd clarify it to them since they are more your trendy Call of Duty types. Imagine my surprise when the one sales guy there said 'I love Flight Simulator'. Now I know he's a big car buff and he knows I'm a pilot in real life and that I'm into flight sims, but he has literally never had any conversations with me about flight simulator and I did not know he liked it. So that meant that in a room with three people in it, two of us were into FS. Incidentally, I'm well over your 20-35 age group, but he's slap bang in the middle of it. Oh, and yes, I do have Call of Duty, but I think Battlefield Bad Company is far better. You might be surprised how many blokes like aeroplanes, even if they might not admit it for fear of being thought of as a 'plane spotter', which is seen as very nerdy in the UK, although the fact that people know I fly the real things means I can kind of get away with saying it, not that I really give a crap if anyone thinks I'm a nerd or not. Al

As for Orbx developing for other platforms, we have already started porting to Prepar3D which with v1.2 due out soon will offer substantial performance improvements over FSX and although I am under NDA the stuff coming up the pipeline for Prepar3D will blow people away. The beauty about P3D is that to us, it is "FS11" particularly when we see fundamental things being fixed and improved. There are a bunch of ex-ACES guys working on P3D.

Your involvement with P3D sounds great and was kind of along the lines of what I was thinking when I said:

After reading some posts over the last day or so in the PMDG forum from one of the Prepar3D support guys and the way they are continually developing it, perhaps Prepar3D will be the sim of the future for us hardcore or enthusiast users? At least they keep working on it to make improvements which can't be said about FSX after SP2. Although I am not crazy about a $10 a month fee, if it's a product that continues to grow and get better over time and the 3PD's start working to make FSX products 100% compatible in it, I could see myself going to that platform in the future. For $120 a year it wouldn't really be that big of a deal considering sometimes I spend $25 a week getting java from Starbucks which gives me a lot less pleasure that the sim offers.

How many buyers are even aware of the existence of the SDK?How many people would have refused to buy FS because if it didn't have an SDK?How much extra revenue for Microsoft did the SDK generate? I suggest the answer to all three is almost zero.

How can you evaluate how much one feature earns?Or why do you think they invest in the SDK?

Just so you know how much validity to extend to his most recent post.

Was I not perceived like that from the beginning.....how does it goes...dam if you do dam if you don't or something like that....

Was I not perceived like that from the beginning.....how does it goes...dam if you do dam if you don't or something like that....

No; that was FlightSimWorld.com. Here at AVSIM, many of us were giving you the benefit of the doubt.

As for Orbx developing for other platforms, we have already started porting to Prepar3D which with v1.2 due out soon will offer substantial performance improvements over FSX and although I am under NDA the stuff coming up the pipeline for Prepar3D will blow people away. The beauty about P3D is that to us, it is "FS11" particularly when we see fundamental things being fixed and improved. There are a bunch of ex-ACES guys working on P3D.

Now that sounds like something to get behind. At least from looking at the Perpar3D web page it doesn't look like it's much beyond FSX but if it gets your stamp of approval John then it must be good. Maybe we should get a Prepar3D Forum up and running. That way we could start the process of speculating and making requests all over again! (Joking of course).

Before people get too excited about Lockheed Martin Prepar3d, please keep in mind that the target user is the commercial market. This is great news for developers like Orbx who can leverage their FSX knowledge and create a whole new market that is separate and distinct from their hobbyist market (which would be us, the current FSX enthusiasts).

Maybe "Target user" makes it sound like LM has a choice in the matter.Their own fine print suggested it was a part of the ESP terms they paid for (and asked people to respect that).While a few folks pretending to be developers isn't going to raise a stink...at some point it will.Not sure how that'll get resolved. And the fine print is harder to find now ;)From the SDK - Prepar is FSX for more money right now - but the potential is there for something exciting.It is very expensive, but the brand alone is worth that.

In my eyes we are going to see. If someone said my project was cancelled ... I'd probably feed them with screenies or a video. If I was MS I already would have done that.

So a simulator that has far superior graphics and could possibly run even better and look better than FSX doesn't interest you? Makes a lot of sense.

HelloLooks better does not necessarily make it a better sim, it needs to exceed the FSX feature set as well.I am not sure that Flight! will.I have already lost interest in the product, Microsofts attempts at showing us parts of Flight! have been extremely lame so far, almost half hearted.My gut instinct is that it will be cancelled.

Well Asshammer has skipped two shows since he made the remark.

Pretty sure that Microsoft's conditions for Lockheed Martin buying esp was it was for commercial purposes only. Would make sense as Microsoft would not want competition to flight. Should Flight be cancelled then I could see the opportunity to go back to Microsoft and ask for the terms to be changed but I can't see why Lockheed Martin would want to be associated with the game industry. Anyway, I'm hoping that flight is not cancelled and news has just been very thin on the ground due to summer holidays and the team having to work hard to meet milestones.