You could say these are good times for customers. A lot is happening in the flightsim/game market! However, it's already becoming quite clear the community is getting divided more and more. While we had FSX (and some FS9 die hards) and Xplane in the past, now we also have or get P3D, MS Flight and (maybe) Aerofly FS.Apart from a few big companies most FSX developers are barely earning enough to keep going. Now no matter what happens, one things is for sure: the FSX addon market will become divided and hence smaller... I don't believe that new MS Flight customers will get FSX later on. Some people will move to P3D and some devs won't, so... they will lose a bit of the market. Some people (I am sure) will move to MS Flight and most devs won't, so... they will lose a bit of the market. Some people don't trust LM and don't like MS Flight and have had it with FSX and will move to Xplane 10. Et cetera. Some will be satisfied with Aerofly FS and forget about the rest completely.Within some time (a few years at the most) FSX will be too old and technology will be changed so much that hardly anyone will want to play that old game anymore. Maybe a few, but surely not enough do keep the devs going. The fact that a LOT of simmers are so angry about MS Flight shows that deep inside they aren't satisfied at all with FSX... The KNOW it's old already. The fact that they are looking at P3D also proves this. FSX is the biggest sim right now. But it will become smaller and devs will go down...Some devs have their hopes set on P3D, but as is now only the die hard simmers will go that risky road (not knowing how it will evolve) and so it will be a very, very small market, a lot smaller then the current FSX market. Devs who are going the FSX/P3D road and say they will be supporting that combo for the coming 10 years should do a reality check. It's simply wishful thinking.Usually choice and competition is good for a market, but maybe we are seeing the end of flightsimming as we knew it...? When 3rd party devs go down, we will all suffer, because in the end there won't be a sim anymore.I am almost inclined to say that we really should HOPE that MS Flight DOES catch on and that it will become succesfull enough to let MS create some real sim dlc. Maybe we all should SUPPORT MS Flight because it might be the last straw to hold on to. If MS Flight fails, MS will never make a flying game anymore, I think. And no one else will too. Who wants to burn their hands on such a nasty and divided community...? The best thing that could happen is that ONE sim becomes big and that there is ONE community and no divided community...Hm, this post turned out different then I expected... :( When I started typing, I didn't think I would end with a call to get together and support MS Flight... :( So I changed the topic title. I am curious what you will think of this. Although of course I know what to expect from some already... :(

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by Guest

Its not intended to us, even if we all bought all addons for it that would not make it simulator or add whole world and ATC to it. If Flight fails there is a chance that they could try to make a simulator again in future, but if its successful then they may just make another stupid arcade flying game in future. Flight is for mainstream, they will make addons that mainstream can easily use. We will never see anything near current FSX payware products, other than Abacus and Perfect Flight maybe.Also its not our last hope. There is still X plane 10 and Prepar3d, Aerofly FS and also some completely new company might make one too, who knows. We do not need Microsoft to make any stupid arcade flying games.Lets support the simulator that has dev who actually cares about us - X plane 10, instead of Microsoft that does not care about us at all.Lets make it clear, Flight is not a simulator so its safe to assume that no one from current FSX addon buying community will abandon FSX because of Flight.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by pvjinflight

Hi,That's not going to happen, at least not from my wallet. I refuse to allow MS to nickel and dime me to death while locking out all of the third party developers that have supported my hobby over the past 25+ years. My loyalty lies with the third party developers that have supported my hobby, not with Microsoft who has once again turned their back on all of us.As far as I'm concerned, MS is done!. They want the gaming market, they can have it. They will not see another penny from me...

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by Mike_CFII_MEL

Sorry Jeroen but I have to decline. I can understand where you're coming from but I see MS Flight as a very uncertain investment. There is no guarantee that if I support MS Flight with my money that it will eventually become what FSX is albeit with better technology.It is clear that Microsoft's market is not us and therefore will only provide DLC to cater for what they perceive as being what their market wants. Maybe Silver and Bronze coins to add to the Gold ones.My loyalty also lies with the 3rd party developers (freeware and payware) which have enriched my enjoyment of FSX immensely.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by Marith

Personally, I don't see young people embracing this arcade game from the standpoint of spending their dollars. It's just too boring for them. And shoot em' up flight games are easy to create in the console format because it does not involve or need a very broad prospective. It's more about action. So if this is a flop, and I think it will be, Microsoft will most likely unload the technology in either a direct sale or licensing that includes allowed modifications to the source code. All is not lost in my opinion, over time.Further, the concept of locking down software has been tried many times over. And in almost every case it has eventually flopped. I see cracks in the current flavor-of-the-day trends already. If all this was so wonderful, there wouldn't be the emergence of thousands of free apps for almost everything. Now the MSI motherboard even comes with a separate free instant load and fairly functional operating system called Winki 3. That follows about 3 other major operating systems that have come into being since Microsoft finally pretty much closed the door on their own system, and left them dead last in the new tablet/cell business. People with real business moxie know that you only stay big by staying big. And you do that any way you can. Cases in point... Adobe, Autodesk, Oracle, Google.....Bob

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by Toys_R_Us

Download the freebie and keep your wallet safe and fat.Enjoy the freebie !

I support businesses that have passion and dedication in the field which they operate. I support businesses that treat customers with respect and reward loyalty. I support brick by brick work over short term profitability. I part with my money to support products not share holders or management bonuses. I support businesses that reinvest their profit in development and growth, not those who pay dividend to greedy investors that feed upon the hard labour of others.

I'm voting with my wallet. When MS turned their back on 3rd party developers, I turned my back on them.Austin Meyer and his team are the horse I'm backing now, they still represent what I see as the root of flight sim, some smart aviaophiles sitting in a basement coding a cool program to do everything you could want it to.

I don't see Aerofly FS ever becoming a simulator like FSX, so you can kick that one into touch right from the start. I also don't believe that Microsoft have any interest in developing MS Flight into FSXI, so that avenue of opportunity has a CLOSED sign in front of it aswell. As far as I am concerned, FSX (despite its age) has a long life ahead of it. New scenery packages and aircraft can transform the base product into something quite spectacular. Why do we need anything better? Yes, it would be nice, but is it essential?I used Flight Unlimited 3 almost exclusively between 1999 and 2008, and do you know why? It's because I wasn't impressed with FS98, FS2000, or FS2002. In fact, I was so fed up with MSFS by that point, that I bypassed FS2004 entirely. I was far happier flying a handful of nice planes around two relatively small, but high resolution photoscenery regions than I was flying what I then considered to be rather unconvincing planes, looking down at ugly generic textures. FU3 had a nice ATC system, AI planes, weather effects and realistic scenery. A handful of freeware guys made it look even better over time (refurbished airports, detailed AI plane models, and new scenery packages). I was quite happy to keep flying the same planes to the same airports over the same scenery.....time and time again.The same is now true of FSX, except that the planes, scenery, airports, ATC, weather effects, textures (in fact just about everything) are much better than they were in FU3. That's why I eventually "upgraded". I can quite easily see myself enjoying flying around the UK in FSX for years to come. The United Kingdom is a rather small region when compared to the entire Earth, but it is VAST when compared to those two high resolution scenery regions in FU3. I had maybe 60 airfields to visit in FU3 (including the FU2 San Francisco scenery region), but now I have access to something like 300 (including plenty of large, busy international airports, filled to the rafters with beautiful airliners of all shapes and sizes).In short, I have my very own Garden of Eden to explore at my leisure, and I can see myself enjoying it indefinitely. I really don't need MS Flight at all.EDIT: No disrespect to you, Jeroen. I can understand your point of view. In a perfect world, I would welcome full support of MS Flight from the entire flightsim community, but I really don't think that Microsoft are interested this time.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by Christopher Low

I agree with "pvjinflight", in that the sim of the future that needs supporting is "Xplane 10",not "Flight"! No point flogging a dead horse! Xplane 10 is going somewhere with a developer who communicates with his market,loves his product enough to update it for the next few years and involves himself with the forums on what we want! I am not trying to sell Xplane but it is the only real viable "sim" that is going to be around in years to come. Aerofly by the sounds of things is another"Flight" with set sceneries so not really a true "World sim" per say! I have used FSX from day one but see "Xplane 10" as the only future,maybe not now for many hard core fsx simmers but still the future nonetheless. Anyway,this is all so subjective and personal for what we all want,so my opinion is not to start a flame but a view that I hold only! Regards to all!

While I like the spirit of the X-Plane crew I don't have the time and patience to use another sim in constant need of tweaking and installing addons to fill in all the gaps.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by simmerhead

EDIT: No disrespect to you, Jeroen.

All is cool. :( I posted what I did to get a discussion going: I knew the answer to my this specific question already... The point of my post is that It DO think it would be best if we all would choose ONE platform. I understand not many people believe in MS Flight right now, so let's change our focus: let's pick Xplane. If we would all decide today to go for Xplane, all developers would follow. I am 100% sure about that. They wouldn't have a choice! Even Orbx would start developing for Xplane. And that would mean Xplane would be awesome within a year. So... let's do it! But I also know the answer to this proposal... It won't happen. We are too divided and I am afraid things will only get worse...P.S. Sometimes I just like to post what comes up in my head... My thoughts about flight simming are divided in a lot of layers, so to speak, so don't be surprised if I post a complete diffrerent point of view tomorrow. :(

Last hope for what?In other news, X-Plane 10 was released in December.

Last hope for what?In other news, X-Plane 10 was released in December.

*yawn* Most definitely a troll post.

So many beliefs. Hope we get some word from Ms, to clear things up a lot. It would help tremendously, for the communities out there. :)