I just had what must be a stupid idea otherwise the teams at MS would have thought about it before. Let's give it a try anyway. What would stop MS from:A: Launching flight in spring online as planned and keeping it as a game with a closed app store for the gamers. This version would be locked to only launch the official payware addons from the closed MS app store.B: Leveraging the flight engine to launch flight sim 11 a little later as a boxed version at similar price as FSX with full world and open SDK. This version could run 3rd party scenery, planes, etc.That way MS would make twice as much money, once from the gamers and once for the hardcore simmers, keep everybody happy, sell the same engine twice in different ways without canibalising their own app store model for flight.Euh, surely I missed something? :Thinking:JC

Makes sense! :(

Leveraging the flight engine to launch flight sim 11 a little later as a boxed version at similar price as FSX with full world and open SDK. This version could run 3rd party scenery, planes, etc.That way MS would make twice as much money, once from the gamers and once for the hardcore simmers, keep everybody happy, sell the same engine twice in different ways without canibalising their own app store model for flight.JC

I wish...but there is a better chance of catching fish in a watermelon patch.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2daexBhgI

What I don't understand is why they didn't do this from the beginning.Take FSX, fix the performance and up the graphics, include the entire globe at minimal detail, maybe slightly upgraded from FSX. Improve ATC, weather, nav and physics somewhat.Then add in an app-store and lock all add-ons (third party, freeware or otherwise) to their own marketplace, charge a 30% commission rate on anything sold. Then go ahead and build their little Pilot Wings game in Hawaii, continue to develop and sell their own planes, scenery and missions or just maintain the platform. Give away a free demo locked to the big island of Hawaii with the ability to purchase the full global version. etc. etc.This way they would have the best of both worlds; welcoming this cash-laden pre-teen crowd that they seem to think exists, while truly still welcoming long time fans. It really does astound me why they have made the decision to reduce their market in the hopes to expand it somewhere else, to me it comes across as an uneducated gamble by a disconnected individual/s somewhere within the team.I can only imagine that they took a look at 3PD products, knew they had no hope of competing with the quality and decided to lock any competition out. The reason the app-store model is successful is because it has an entire world of developers and what makes games popular/successful is the community, just look at The Elder Scrolls. For whatever reason they decided to ignore these two concepts.I can't help but think something happened 2/3rds of the way through development that just destroyed what the initial game was meant to be and what has been delivered is an unimaginative shell of the original vision. In my opinion it really is a joke of a game, and I am a casual gamer at heart.To the OP I hope we do see some kind of pro version with more depth but with the decisions that have apparently been made so far I wouldn't hold your breath.