No there is no reason to abandon FSX now , nevertheless is always very usefull to be prepaired for the future.Thats why it makes sense for developers to go into developing in X-Plane as well.The moment FSX is no more flightsim nr one , the devolpers must be prepaired and already active in X-Plane-development.I think its very wise to start developing for "the future" wich means developing for FSX AND other sims.( E.g. XP )Waiting untill its to late ,is something PMDG and other developers cannot affort.Leen de Jager

Its a bold assumption to state that XP 'version X' will become number 1! At which point in the future does this happen? 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?I am willing to bet there are still more FS9 users than there are XP users currently.I am all for going with whichever sim gives me the best end result. I dont really care if its a 1 year old sim or a 10 year old sim.If XP gets some traction, great. but right now I wouldnt be falling over backwards to be developing on it if I was PMDG or 'insert developer name here'.If FSX continues to develop from an addon perspective, then I dont see it losing its number 1 slot for a long time. As I mentioned above, the last 12 months have really brought out the best in FSX. I have a feeling 2012 will be even better!

You wrote: Its a bold assumption to state that XP 'version X' will become number 1! Yes indeed , I assume it will be nr one in time. It IS NOT nr one this moment.Its a bold assumtion too, to state that XP will not become nr one in time.But thats not the issue. The only thing I said is ,developers must be prepaired when the market changes , instead of awaiting the market to be changed and react afterwards. In other words if PMDG does not prepaire in time, they will be missing the train IF and WHEN the market changes the way I boldly assume.

Thank you Robert. You've been down this road before when the Fly! franchise wound down. I think I could still dig up my 777 installer from 11 years ago....I'm sure you will weather this storm as well whether it's releasing planes optimized for Prepar3d or X-Plane.Best,Colin Ware, Seattle

You wrote: Its a bold assumption to state that XP 'version X' will become number 1!Yes indeed , I assume it will be nr one in time.It IS NOT nr one this moment.Its a bold assumtion too, to state that XP will not become nr one in time.But thats not the issue.The only thing I said is ,developers must be prepaired when the market changes , instead of awaiting the market to be changed and react afterwards.In other words if PMDG does not prepaire in time, they will be missing the train IF and WHEN the market changes the way I boldly assume.

The chances of XP ever becoming the No 1. flight simulator platform is somewhere between zero and minus zero !Unless of course they can take the incredible ex Aces talent away from Microsoft and lock themselves in a room for about 5 years.The chances of that happening is somewhere between.................................you know the rest. If RSR is depressed about this whole Xplane thing I would not blame him.For PMDG it is a giant step backwards. MS Flight is already starting to look incredible and will be an ongoing development. Lockheed are still developing "FSX" so the futureplatform will be one of those two for sure. Xplane does not even come into the running.Fred.

Edited February 4, 201214 yr by RYR738

The chances of XP ever becoming the No 1. flight simulator platform is somewhere between zero and minus zero !I am happy this is just your opinion (assumption) and not a fact.What the future will bring us you cannot tell.For now we can only assume , based on our personal thoughts , which certainly may differ.CheersLeen de Jager

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The chances of XP ever becoming the No 1. flight simulator platform is somewhere between zero and minus zero !

Not being an X-plane fan, I'd like to know why some people dislike X-plane so much, including developers, and also why some people are convinced that it will never amount to anything. It strikes me as being unreasonable to make these claims, in my opinion. It seems to be a decent simulator, and comments like yours seem to be based on what you'd like to see happen (for whatever ulterior reason) rather than upon any solidt facts.Besides FSX, X-plane is the only serious Flight Simulator that is available for entertainment purposes that allows free and an open development. I think this is a key issue. Free and open development will be a motivating factor for anyone to start developing, and encourage widespread development and add-ons; whilst the restrictive conditions MS place before developers for Flight will close out many talented people who might have had something valuable to contribute, and instead tend to attract mostly commerical ventures motivated mainly by profit.As a long time MSFS user, an important part of a simulation platform has always been the possibility to develop, to get a bit creative with it, add some of my own stuff, tweak things a bit. With those possibilities removed, as is proposed in Flight, the simulator will be a lot less interesting to me.

The only thing I said is ,developers must be prepaired when the market changes , instead of awaiting the market to be changed and react afterwards

I think that goes for FSX users also. It might be worthwhile buying X-plane, and couple of decent add-ons, just to start getting used to it, just in case.

As we all have seen my assumtions were not as bold as they looked.Yesterday Robert Randazzo made clear , PMDG will not have a future ( on private consumers-base) with Lockheed Martin.PMDG is heading towards X-Plane ,not leaving FSX (yet) , just to make sure there will be a future for PMDG.Leen de Jager

It won't be long now !http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/#news-flight_launchFred.

It won't be long now !http://www.microsoft...s-flight_launchFred.

Eugh, still so disappointed.

The blind faith that everyone will jump to X-Plane is laughable at best.The current state of XP10 (effectively nothing more than a beta) means it will probably be another 5 years before anyone will make it a serious consideration.It will take the 5 years for:1) XP 10 to mature into a stable platform.2) For addon devs to bring the base program upto a level that can compete with FSX + addons. That is assuming the addon devs buy into XP, of which there is no guarantee.Just because XP10 is the new kid on the block does not make it the obvious nor best choice. Look at FS9 as an example.As for FSX, as far as I am concerned it is only starting to stretch its legs right now. The fact that the latest hardware can now run it with relative ease and the fantastic addons that are being released for it show that there is much, much more to come from this 6 year old platform.Neither XP10 or Flight will change this fact. So, in most cases, its business as usual.

If you are between 20-30 years old...Rejoice!!! about the development time of X-Plane, you´ll have a lot of time to enjoy it....we old flying geese will probably hit the tip of their iceberg and zoom out to kingdom come!!!!!! where no Sim will be needed......I agree with you on FSX.....with M$ trashing their sims with the Flight Game, I think they have Wide Opened a window for FSX developers of all kinds, real simmers will stick to this last of a breed Sim like leeches!!! and those developers who have vision will give their best, those that discard this opportunity will fade away......Do not discard guys that will be keen on developing a New Sim, some are already priming their engines......I suspect M$ will regret being a traitor, usually the future turns blue-black for companies like them.

Edited February 7, 201214 yr by pilota

Gents-Gentle reminder: We are not interested in hosting any discussion where folks bash one platform or another....Thanks,

You know if this is the case I'm not worried at all...I never liked Ms sim plattforms anyway, fsx is a real framerate beater anyway! I wont miss it! The only thing that I'm worried about is that developpers like pmdg, orbx and just about everyone else will not offer discounts to people who have already a copy of a product for fsx, I would find that really greedy!!! That seams to be the tendency, and if it continues I'll be sticking to fsx for a long long time...!Just my two cents...

"I was truly hoping that FLIGHT would enhance FSX to a multicore capability"This. IMO in spite of hardware finally catching up to FSX, until someone finds a way to get FSX off of one core (not the limited core spreading we have now, but full multi-core functionality) it remains a dead end. It IS nice to finally fly at smooth framerates with heavy scenery/add-ons, but it's still far to easy even on enormously fast hardware to bring the sim to its knees because of its inherent code limitations.

Nice post Robert, but I had one question in mind, XP10 would be available for Linux, Mac OS and windows, so your addons would support all operating systems ?

Folks as a beta tester, this link will make clear all your questions...http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2017460350_qa_microsoft_flight_boss_on.html?cmpid=2628