Here's a quote from Tom and some other general ramblings :)"I said it earlier and am not sure that it might of slipped by un-noticed...Freeware won't exist in FLIGHT as far as I can tell. Also, I would venture to guess that liveries, such as United, BA, Lufthanza, etc. will have gone the way of the dodo. MS won't want to sign up for licensing, and won't assume the liability of accepting unlicensed a/c from others. "As Tom mentions here,, I was also wondering how many missed his comment quoted above and what your opinions are?I'm a long time MS sim flyer, started with FS98---> all the way FSX. Bought everyone and a boatload of addons.So, my point?Did we all start buying add-ons right away? I would venture to say none of us did :)I think most of us started with "freeware". That great stuff hosted by Avsim and others, made by people who loved to do it not for profit, but because of the love of doing it.So my Sim experience model goes like this :)Buy FS whatever, get interestedSee Avsim forums, cool people and all this awesome freewareinstall and play freeware, yap on forums etcWant more, more more....move into payware.... slowly... but still use alot of freeware..Kind of a progression we all started with I think. Could be wrong:)So what has Flight done to this model? Pretty much trashed it I think.So and So goes to install his free Flight game, Flys around Hawaii a bit but gets bored.2 things can happen, he either shelves it because he can't blow stuff up or he takes an interest in it and wants more. When we all wanted more, we found this here Avsim place, lots of free stuff, lots of cool people willing to help. With Flight, he "may" come here for help, but if he wants a shiny new Cessna, well he has to go to the MS store and buy it. No progression from free to pay, he has to spend cash right out of the gate. Will that shy people away from Flight?Of course the help he gets maybe "get that thing off your harddrive and go buy FSX " :)So, here's our guy, watching all of us flying in our Boeings, Airbus's, Cessnas both freeware and payware. What happens next?Just wondering if MS thought this through "completely".Who buys addons for FS? Hardcore simmers for the most part. Be it GA or Heavies or anything in between.Does Flight "at this time" appear to be aimed at hardcore simmers? Not in my humble opinion, I forsee most of us trying it, then shelving it for "insert your sim of preference".Will little Billy or Betty have an interest in flying with out blowing something up? Sadly, I think not. Such is the world we live in. So how much will they buy from the MS store?Maybe dad will say, "hey" , neither of you are using it, I'll try it :). Of course, if he gets into as I and many others have, and he will go buy FSX, X-Plane etc. :) without limits imposed on Flight by MS. In FSX, FS9 etc "We fly the WHOLE WORLD" Why would he settle for less from a "newer game"? If MS were to make a deal with, say, PMDG, how would PMDG hope to sell anything like we have now? Not only do we have to buy the plane, but, I would think more scenery as well to make the plane worth flying?What are your thoughts with the death of freeware for Flight?Ok, I'm tired, typing in the dark, etc.. Just rambling :) Although we have "some" info, it's not complete so I reserve judgement on Flight for a while.

What are your thoughts with the death of freeware for Flight?Was there any freeware for Flight before, how can something that never existed be dead?

Could have been :)

Just wondering if MS thought this through "completely".

Of course they did, as I've posted many times here int he past few months. GO read some of MS financial quarterlies and you'll see the lion share of their gaming profits come from Xbox, not PC... infact PC gaming profits have fallen in the last few years while Xbox gaming profits are up almost 45%...

My first feeling was a sunken heart. I felt like a part of what propels Microsoft Flight Simulator games has died. Now, I'm back on the fence about if the loss of freeware downloaded from sites like this one will be that terrible. Microsoft's flightstore could be no different to any other appstore and just have pay and free apps for Flight, but you have to register as a developer. The future plans for the Flight marketplace are still cloudy. I'm going to wait and see.The new challenge is to see how the marketplace grows and who Microsoft will get onboard. I suspect that the margins are already thin for developers of some add-ons, so the incentive to join has to be there from Microsoft. Though, if Microsoft gets this right we could have a great experience installing new add-ons.

I sincerely hope no one spends another minute waiting for this pig's butt to become a silk purse.

I sincerely hope no one spends another minute waiting for this pig's butt to become a silk purse.

Now THAT is funny.... :(

So Bill, does that mean there will likely be no Eaglesoft aircraft flying the Hawaiian skies in Flight in the near future?

Ask yourself a question... Why did Microsoft not include "brand name" airlines in any of thier FS releases over the years? Yeah, they probably did not want to pay licensing fees on a low margin product, but I also believe there was another reason... Can anyone guess what that was?

I don't know but how about they hoped that Orbit and World Travel would become valuable Airline name brands?

:LMAO:Kind regards,

Actually they did include a "brand name" airline. Kenmore Air's Beaver aircraft is represented in FSX.

Actually they did include a "brand name" airline. Kenmore Air's Beaver aircraft is represented in FSX.

Fair enough and mea culpa... Where are the AA's, BA's, LH's, KLM's, ad nauseam?

How hard is it to create a new sim ?How hard is it to adopt a sim like Flightgear, polish it up and make it upto date with current hardware and technology ?

Fair enough and mea culpa... Where are the AA's, BA's, LH's, KLM's, ad nauseam?

They probably just didn't have the time, simple as that. Other then AA, just about every other airline out there would have jumped on board. I approached several of them when we were in business. If they're endorsing VAs they surely would have been more then happy to jump on an MS title.

Edited January 5, 201214 yr by Jeff Nielsen

So Bill, does that mean there will likely be no Eaglesoft aircraft flying the Hawaiian skies in Flight in the near future?

No decision has been made at this time since there's nothing available yet to indicate just what the entry requirements will be, much less an SDK to evaluate. Considering that there's (apparently) no real gauge system, "programming" would certainly be much easier...