Some thoughts on Flight...

[ScottJ. 0]

Except for Microsoft, you would have never seen PMDG quality stuff etc.

People do have short memories and do make really stupid statements.

 

Fred.

PMDG's first aircraft addon was for FLY! II, FYI. You said something about short memories?

 

Scott

[Luis_KMIA 242]

Any sales figures on Flight's pay expansions? I don't think they'll ever come close to FSX.

[Sekstifire 10]

It wouldnt surprise me if they sold far, far better than the average FSX addon

[wingsoffire 1]

MS pitched this 'flight simulation' at the 'general gaming community' . However, I strongly suspect it is unlikely to appeal to average 'microsoft gamer'. Why? Because of its very nature. If I take the opinion of my son ( an avid 'general Microsoft Gamer') and his friends (who have all tried Flight) , 'Flight sucks' because it is 'boring' and nobody is going to spend hard cash on add-ons for a 'game' that 'sucks'. Unfortunately the decision to chase this particular, largely uniiterested, commmunity, by offering a dumbed down FSX has aliented the hard-core simulation community who are, and always have been, the main market for FS9 and FSX over the years and remain the major purchasers of add-ons (I have over 2GBs) . This smacks of a serious misjudgment by MS regarding the core-market from flight simulation products- but time will tell.

 

To add insult to injury MS they also screwed up the licensing arrangments for developers. Nobody begrudges Microsof from wanting to make a few bucks from its platform, the problem is how they proposed to do this. Most of the developers they were pitching to are not huge multinantional companies earning millions of dollars a year. However, MS effectively required them to hitch their entire future to MS in general, and the Flight platform in particular - in effect turning them from independent companies into vassels of the MS state only able to sell what MS permits them sell at a price dictated by MS through channels determined by MS, no other retail sales allowed. This smacks of a attempt at corporate bullying and If I had bult a company from scratch such as PMDG and as was presented by an MS lawyer with a contract like this I would tell him to take a hike, which is exactly what most developers, including PMDG, have done. If the sales were going to be astronomical maybe I would reconsider, but MS have provided no evidence to back up their sales figures other than wishful thinking . Why should I hand over my company to MS for a product that isn't even proven? This again demonstrates a serious misjudgement by MS who genuinely thought that they could coerce companies to 'toe the MS line' and I suspect it was something of a shock when developer after developer turned them down.

 

To simmarise MS have got it wrong on two counts, Firstly, they have targeted the product at the wrong market - a market that doesn't buy flight simulation products and secondly their draconioan licencing arrangements have aliented just about every developer out there. In my view, the success of Flight is going to be largely dependent on the flexibility of MS on these two counts. If they want to sell to general gamers they are going to have to make it alot more appealing to the average gamer and they want serious simulation enthusists to buy it and use it they will have re-engineer aspects of the product and get some serious third party developers on board which will mean changing the licensing arrangements.

 

I doubt they will do either, I have tried Flight but as a serious simmer and a real life pilot I don't care for it, the aerodynamics and aircraft handling characteristics are way off, FSX isnt perfect but with suitable add-ons it is way, way better. I am not worried howeve,r as I suspect that over time other companies such as X-Plane will take up the slack and we will all continue to sim long after Flight has expired.

[boxman83 32]

PMDG's first aircraft addon was for FLY! II, FYI. You said something about short memories?

 

Scott

 

Not to be pedantic here, but if we're going to correct other people, we should probably be correct ourselves.

 

As far as short memories goes, PMDG's first add-on aircraft was the 757 for the original Fly!, not Fly! 2. Previous to that, I think the first product they developed was a 747 flight manual for another developer's add on aircraft(hence the name Precision Manuals). I had both the 757 and the 767 for Fly!, they were brilliant aircraft for their time.

 

-john paul

[DrumsArt 270]

As far as short memories goes, PMDG's first add-on aircraft was the 757 for the original Fly!, not Fly! 2. Previous to that, I think the first product they developed was a 747 flight manual for another developer's add on aircraft(hence the name Precision Manuals). I had both the 757 and the 767 for Fly!, they were brilliant aircraft for their time.

 

-john paul

 

The Precision Manuals was for the Aerowinx PS1... PMDG has released at the time of FLY or FLY2 a Greek airport scenery.

 

Regards,

 

Richard Portier

[Fabo 213]

A PMDG scenery? Now that is an interesting thought.

[phil747fan 14]

PMDG's first aircraft addon was for FLY! II, FYI. You said something about short memories?

 

Scott

 

i dont think so ... Robert made some AIR files for FS98 ......but maybe not under PMDG name at that time ....

 

Phil

[ScottJ. 0]

i dont think so ... Robert made some AIR files for FS98 ......but maybe not under PMDG name at that time ....

 

Phil

Apparently I was wrong. PMDG's first aircraft were for Fly!. Their 777 was for Fly! II.

 

http://www.avsim.com/pages/0901/pmdg_fly_777/pmdg_fly_777.html

 

Scott