All-Hands Internal MS Meeting Turns into a Disaster... (Truth to dissension rumors inside MS?)

[Jacoba 56]

I found this on a business journal site I subscribe to. I details a huge all-hands MS employee meeting that quickly went south as droves of employees got up and walked out of the meeting with MS CEO Steve Ballmer. It links several other websites one is a known MS Employee Blog where they post up anonymous comments. (My second link below) It seems that MS is focusing hard on their Xbox gaming division as profits blew away expectations and they talk about the declining sales of PC's and PC games... according to the report front he meeting PC sales and PC gaming sales really tanked recently and they are expected to continue to fall as folks leave PC's for such technology as iPads, Smart Phones etc... and XBox for their gaming needs. They talk about Cloud and the Windows Tablet... From what is being reported it appears that MS is changing and that change is wide spread. My guess is that they are going after the Apple iPad, the iPhone and iCloud... so maybe there is something to the upheaval in the Flight Development world... MS sells the rights to FS to Lockheed Martin and we get P3D... MS wants to stay int he FS gaming business, the lions share of their gaming profits are in Xbox, so they build Flight to be primarily a console based "limited" FS... which is why we've only seen shots of Hawaii for so long now? Which brings into question the rumors about MS locking out FS add on developers or the add on exchange that MS was rumored to be developing where they controlled the distribution and therefore offerings of what add on's were sold for Flight? Many questions remain unanswered but the evidence is growing each day that something is up and I don't like what I see, frankly... too much flux, falling PC profits, much talk about growing Xbox profits and a something that has stirred up the many FS developers in our community... JMHO... http://www.businessi...plaining-2011-9 http://minimsft.blog...ft-company.html

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

Microsoft made it clear from the beginning that Flight is PC-only.

[Jacoba 56]

Microsoft made it clear from the beginning that Flight is PC-only.

And MS has never changed its mind or lied to the computer industry before?

[mmann 72]

What if Microsoft is planning an Xbox type game for PCs; would that work?

[NoahBryant 26]

A good, forward thinking should not be reacting to other companies. I think Apple pretty much blew everyone away with the iPad and it took a year for companies to come up with something close. Close but still not as good. They should spend their resources coming up with something new, rather than trying to chase down Apple, who already has a year head start on the technology. The reason Apple is come out of the graveyard and become number one in so many ways is their ability to create new things, not try and just one up someone else. MP3 players were already out there, but Apple created iTunes, which completely changed digital content. Remember before the days of iTunes? There was Napster and similar networks being sued and sued meanwhile the record companies were coming up with draconian ways to try to copy protect content. What (sort of) solved that issue? iTunes. There's still piracy, and always will be, but now normal people who weren't Napstering songs because they were free, but Napstering them because it was easy, now have iPods full of songs that wont get them sued by Metalllica! Look at the iPhone. Think in all of popular culture about a hand held device that could instantly give you the ability to communicate with others, tell you exactly where you were, tell you any information you could possibly need, diagnose illness, entertain you, record photos, video, etc etc etc. I'll give you a hint, it's was called a tricorder and was in a show that rhymes with Star Trek. And the iPhone is even better than those futuristic little devices in the show! iPad, same thing, bigger screen, but not really. I've yet to meet a single person who bought an iPad and didn't love it. Apple TV. Thanks to this little device (plus Netflix) I have completely gotten rid of pay TV in my house. My nearly 200 dollar cable bill is completely gone thanks to the $50 dollar little cube. I wish MS would try harder than this. They do have talented people there, but we already have iPads, show us something new. I cant stand console games because they take every possible chance of having to exercise the mind out of a game. PC Games used to be a hold out for good games but that's long past. Now it seems every PC game is just a port from some console game.

[Jacoba 56]

What I'm thinking would be some kind of Xbox level PC game, much like Call of Duty et al... but then MS would operate an online store where you could purchase add on scenery, planes and whatnot... but the primary "game" would be the same for both XBox and PC... A localized scenery area (Hawaii) with just a small number of planes... maybe 3 and a helo? Just speculation on my part. But if all of the rumors flying fast and hard in the development world are untrue, then why won't MS simply come out with a nice update tot he Flight Website saying... HEY!!!! were still here, were still on track to be the best FS out there and here are some pics of downtown NYC, or LA or Hong Kong or the Swiss Alps? And the King Air, Lear Jet and whatever other aircraft will be in Flight? I think they haven't done this for a simple reason... one alot in this community are simply ignoring.

[Fsau 0]

Thanks for sharing Jacoba. I agree MS are fighting a losing battle chasing the leaders in each field (Apple, Google etc.) They have a huge monopoly over PC gaming and fail to do anything with it other than let it die so they can fight in the console war.

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

And MS has never changed its mind or lied to the computer industry before?

Telling thousands of people a piece of software will be PC only, then in the end releasing it for the XBox seems more extreme than even Microsoft would do. And have we not read PC Pilot Magazine?

[Ben Cap 89]

Telling thousands of people a piece of software will be PC only, then in the end releasing it for the XBox seems more extreme than even Microsoft would do. And have we not read PC Pilot Magazine?

Thanks for sharing Jacoba. I agree MS are fighting a losing battle chasing the leaders in each field (Apple, Google etc.) They have a huge monopoly over PC gaming and fail to do anything with it other than let it die so they can fight in the console war.

Gotta agree with Brandon on this one. I really don't think any of this nonsense is true. Guys, take a look at the facts and remember that MS has said not a WORD about this situation. MS has made it clear that this WILL be the next FS. [PC Pilot Mag] Until MS says anything, it is truly a bunch of baloney....

[simmerhead 885]

Well, MS cancelled Train Simulator, so they can cancel Flight as well. CEOs have a different mindset than enthisiasts like us. Let's hope they don't cancel, or downsize the Flight team. But I keep in the back of my mind that we live in turbulent economic times and hard choices will had to be made by many companies. Anyway, Noah Bryant hit the nail on the head. MS has for many years look like a company trying to catch up with the competition, rahter than being the innovative forerunner it once was. Apple makes decent products, but they suck at customer interaction. The iPad is OK, but there are many usability problems. It's dependancy on iTunes, which is a horrible piece of software, is just one of many. The ties to the "App store" is another. The Apple universe is too homogenic for my taste. Microsoft has worked hard to choke my interest in Flight. I remeber signing up for a newsletter at the website a long time ago, and I have gotten exactly one newsletter. The website is rarely updated, and there is little of substance written. A few choppy videos and screenshots is all. I truly hope Flight will be the best flight simulator ever, but I do find Microsoft's marketing and customer interaction lacking. Maybe they try to dampen all the expectations, then relase it with a bang! Still, all this waiting is making me very grumpy!

[HoratioWondersocks 4]

Any one for tea?All those MS peoples need is a jolly good cuppa. Andy

[simmerhead 885]

I'll have a cup for sure. Thanks Andy! :)

[cmpbellsjc 2,963]

CEOs have a different mindset than enthisiasts like us.

Yep, their fiduciary responsibility is to the shareholders and their investment in the company. I wouldn't be surprised to see Flight get cancelled or even turned into a console game if it means that they will make more money on it. It certainly wouldn't be the first or last time a product has been changed or cancelled at the last moment, regardless of what they have said, if a business decision needs to be made that can effect the profitabliity of a product.Nothing is ever safe in the corporate world. Years ago I worked a for a really large firm where the CEO always insisted that the employeee came first and all the other non-sense they feed people to keep them working hard. Rumors began to swirl that the company was for sale but the CEO insisted that we weren't and that evertying would be fine, once again just to calm the nerves of employees and make sure they worked hard and didn't spend time talking about it. Sure enough, about a month later out stock price went up about $30 dollars in one day when the offer from another company was announced. Hmmm, but one month earlier the CEO said don't worry, nothing is going on, yeah right. Point being, regardless of what MS says about Flight, until it's actually released and in your hand, nothing is a done deal and Flight could very well be canned at a moments notice if MS deems that it wont make them enough money.

[Glynn 405]

HelloThe hard reality is that the computing landscape has changed, The desktop/tower PC is a legacy item now and Microsoft is changing to meet that reality.We are now using in W7 the last OS designed for the traditional PC, the future OS from MS Windows 8 is designed from the start to run on many different formats. From this point forward any software remotely related with entertainment from MS will need to take this direction.I would not be surprised to see MS go back to having a business OS division were they still have a monopoly and an entertainment division were they chase the market leaders in a game of catch up. Flight may well be far enough along that they release it early just like FSX and then draw a line under the legacy title, that is the best we can hope for now.One thing is for certain, this christmas season you will not see TV advertising for PC's and PC games only handheld devices, Tablets, consoles and a few laptops.. Why do MS need a flightsim in 2012 ?

[simmerhead 885]

Us flight simmers are about to become dinosaurs... But if Flight isn't the dream come true that we all hope for, then there is Prepar3D and X-Palne 10 to take us into the future. And let's not forget that it is still possible to have som decent fun in FSX.