Even More Proof from the news update on the 8th of December 2010:

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 — Welcome to News from the Development Team!Welcome! We’ve created this section to provide news and updates direct from the Microsoft Flight development team. We’ve been getting all your emails and comments and are creating this central point of contact to respond to your questions. Currently, we’re still early in the development process, so there are many things not yet ready for detailed discussion. We’ll address what we can for now and will provide more in-depth information over time.Since the very first introduction to Microsoft Flight at Gamescom back in August 2010, we’ve received a tremendous response from both new and longtime Flight Simulator fans. We truly appreciate the warm welcome back. For this inaugural “News from the Development Team” update, we want to give you some context for our new direction. For starters, we’re still some time away from launching the product — far enough out that we are currently unable to provide any details, such as the launch date. We apologize for any frustrations this may cause. We can’t wait, either, to deliver this new experience to all of you! We’re delighted to be able to provide a view into our game at such an early time and to share our progress as we get closer to finalizing the product. We’ve never reached out this early in the development cycle before, so hang in there, and we hope you enjoy the sneak peek.A number of you have asked, “Why did you drop ‘Simulator’ from the title of the game?”In addition to the FAQ on this topic, we want to directly address the concern that by dropping the “Simulator” from the name, we’re dumbing down the experience. Quite the contrary! We’ve developed on the “simulation” aspect for many years and have no intention of losing that legacy. What we’re doing now is improving the total experience while building on this legacy, enhancing the enjoyment for all who share a passion for flight. The more people who join us in the Flight experience, the greater the opportunity we’ll have to do even more.Many of you are concerned that because we want to appeal to a wider audience, we must be building an arcade game.We don’t need to create an arcade game to welcome a wider audience. But we do need to improve the total user experience if we’re to be successful in welcoming new audiences into the experience of Flight. The passion and fascination of flight is powerful, with so many different aspects to aviation and different levels of enjoyment to experience. There is distinct value and strength to be gained by welcoming a wider audience, and we can’t claim to have done the best job of it in the past.What does appealing to a wider audience mean?It means improving the user-interface experience, achieving better performance on today’s hardware, providing more focused challenges for people who aren’t quite sure what to do next, and introducing more persistent experiences for people who return often. It also means keeping alive the freedom to go where you want, when you want, and to do what you want. Regardless of their hardware power, piloting experience, or level of interest, many people have enjoyed the traditional flight-simulation experience as a solitary activity. We see a compelling social aspect to the experience inherent in the fun, and we need to better enable and support this dynamic to strengthen the entire Flight experience for everyone.Based on the previous webisode, we’ve heard, “This doesn’t look any different from FSX!”As we said in the introduction, we’re still early in the development cycle, so the fact that you comment on the similarity to FSX is great! This comment alone should ease some of the arcade concerns. Please follow along with our progress as we continue to release more webisodes, screenshots, and additional information. In the end, we hope that you’ll have a great time looking back at these early samples and being part of the evolution. Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support!If you want to get advanced notice of updates to this section and the website in general, please sign up for our mailing list at https://live.xbox.co...tactPreferences.Thank you,The Microsoft Flight Development Team

Hmm does not look all bad after all. Maybe I will buy it in 2016 if it has whole world available for not too big price & full addon support unless someone makes better simulator.

Why are people posting generic press releases that don't say anything definite and then claiming that it's "proof" that Flight will not be Hawaii only?

Why are people posting generic press releases that don't say anything definite and then claiming that it's "proof" that Flight will not be Hawaii only?

Yeah not solid proof, but if Microsoft is not completely retarded they will include whole world if this statement is true and Flight is not going to be any kind of arcade game. Maybe you need to buy rest of the world or something, but I believe that Flight will have it some way.

Maybe you need to buy rest of the world or something, but I believe that Flight will have it some way.

That's been my contention for a while now: base package, Hawaii only. Rest of the world available through add-ons.

That's been my contention for a while now: base package, Hawaii only. Rest of the world available through add-ons.

You post in the X-Plane forums about people who do not plan to buy it offering their opinions and how they should stay away.You post that you have no plans to buy Flight, yet want to "contribute" your opinions about the release.Pot, meet kettle!

You post in the X-Plane forums about people who do not plan to buy it offering their opinions and how they should stay away.You post that you have no plans to buy Flight, yet want to "contribute" your opinions about the release.Pot, meet kettle!

A little context, if you don't mind: there is one particular poster in the X-Plane forums who claims to have been a longtime user of X-Plane but has become very bitter and cynical, and his every comment is a vitriolic and surprisingly uninformed rant against X-Plane 10 and Laminar Research. I have suggested that since he is obviously getting no joy out of X-Plane that perhaps he should consider taking a break from the sim and see if his spirits don't improve. I have never once told someone that they shouldn't offer their opinion about X-Plane just because they're not planning to buy it.