I know Microsoft probably won't do this... but in a perfect world here is what it could do before the final release to fix FLIGHT:1. Instead of just giving the game away for free and then charging for subsequent DLC to make up for it (with is the same old same old model of xbox being subsidized by the console game sales and smartphones subsidized by monthly subscription and contracts, etc) Microsoft should OPEN SOURCE the FLIGHT like Google open sources Chrome browser, Chromium OS and the Android operating system. Then the "hardcore" community can fork off the main code and create its own variant of flight that is streamlines for realistic flight dynamics, weather, ATC, and remove all the Games for Windows Live, DRM, DLC, silver, bronze, gold star points and all of that other nonsense. Look at what Amazon was able to do with Android code and create its own Amazon marketplace and now Kindle fire is running honeycomb OS... If MSFT open source FLIGHT then devs like PMDG, Level-D, Orbx, etc could come together to create its own little customized Flight simulator as a streamlined platform for their own addons to better serve the hardcore community. By going the open source route MSFT will seal the fate of FLIGHT as the most widely used simulation platform ever. Long term, this is better than any short term profit.2. Microsoft should PAY us to fly FLIGHT. This is not as ludicrous as it may first sound. Amazon gives an app away for free (well they pay the developer) everyday to generate good will, word of mouth, and to get more people to use their marketplace. Hardcore simmers are still a tiny percentage (and always will be) of the entire "audience" for a product such as FLIGHT, but hardcore simmers are the "trend setters", and the most vocal of the simulation bunch. If MSFT want FLIGHT to succeed, it should not go around angering the hardcore simmers. MSFT should do what it did with "Live Search Club" when it tried to promote its LIVE search engine. People earned points by searching the web using LIVE and then you could redeem real stuff for free using those points. I believe even BING had a "cashback" bonus of similar nature. If MSFT really wants to promote FLIGHT, it should partner with PMDG/ Level-D/ etc and give the hard core simming community vouchers for reduced cost of PMDG /etc aircraft to help us more effortlessly transition from FSX to the new FLIGHT platform. MSFT pays PMDG/Level-D/Orbx and in return they bring down the cost of their new lineup of FLIGHT addons, the hardcore simmers all switch over from FSX to FLIGHT, this goodwill generates buzz and people start adopting FLIGHT once they see the trendsetters all switching over in masse, MSFT can write off the transition vouchers as an advertising expense, and win win win win for all. MSFT wins, Dev wins, Hard core simmers win, and FLIGHT as a platform wins so ultimately even the casual gamers Win.3. Microsoft can find creative ways to make money off the casual gamer that just wants to fly around aimlessly. But in the meantime, to keep the hardcore simmers happy and to prop up FLIGHT as a platform for its continued array of DLC to milk the casual gamers; it should offer its subsequent DLC, and terrain/texture/land ADDONS at ZERO cost to hard core simmers to keep these top echelon of FLIGHT customers happy so they don't transition to P3D or XPX competitors. MSFT is this close to losing the platform and then eventually the casual franchise too if it makes the same mistakes once more. How can Microsoft distinguish casual from hardcore simmers? MSFT can partner with the hard core third party addon companies and create a registry of all the users that have purchased one of these PMDG, LEVEL-D products and then sell its terrain DLC at free price to these members of the simulator communities. This will make the hard core community at ease and give them peace of mind to switch and transition from FSX to FLIGHT, thus compelling the third party addon developers to adopt and switch to FLIGHT as well. Basically the casual gamers should subsidize the hard core community! and by doing so, FLIGHT becomes entrenched as the defacto platform for the foreseeable future, further fueling the mass appeal of FLIGHT and of casual gamers.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by etheris

:(

LOL... good luck.

I 'm pretty sure Microsoft would never open-source the FS engine. Although this would be totally great for the reasons you mentioned, there is no chance they'll give away such algorithms that are 20 years old.

:(

LOL... good luck.

SMH

I 'm pretty sure Microsoft would never open-source the FS engine.

More likely. they would be totally embarrased if anyone outside Microsoft saw the mess the FSX code was in !!

More likely. they would be totally embarrased if anyone outside Microsoft saw the mess the FSX code was in !!

lol I am pretty sure that's true.

Good out-of-the-box thinking!Here's smore:MS could release FSXI after releasing Flight, as both would share 99% of the code!The best chance we have today for MS releasing FSXI is for the hard-core sim-community to pledge to contribute $1 per flight hour to BillG's Foundation to Fight Malaria.Cheers,- jahman.

Edited January 9, 201214 yr by jahman

I surmise Microsoft might be receptive to our recommendations... about the time people from Earth set foot on Mars.

I know Microsoft probably won't do this... but in a perfect world here is what it could do before the final release to fix FLIGHT:1. Instead of just giving the game away for free and then charging for subsequent DLC to make up for it (with is the same old same old model of xbox being subsidized by the console game sales and smartphones subsidized by monthly subscription and contracts, etc) Microsoft should OPEN SOURCE the FLIGHT like Google open sources Chrome browser, Chromium OS and the Android operating system. Then the "hardcore" community can fork off the main code and create its own variant of flight that is streamlines for realistic flight dynamics, weather, ATC, and remove all the Games for Windows Live, DRM, DLC, silver, bronze, gold star points and all of that other nonsense. Look at what Amazon was able to do with Android code and create its own Amazon marketplace and now Kindle fire is running honeycomb OS... If MSFT open source FLIGHT then devs like PMDG, Level-D, Orbx, etc could come together to create its own little customized Flight simulator as a streamlined platform for their own addons to better serve the hardcore community. By going the open source route MSFT will seal the fate of FLIGHT as the most widely used simulation platform ever. Long term, this is better than any short term profit.2. Microsoft should PAY us to fly FLIGHT. This is not as ludicrous as it may first sound. Amazon gives an app away for free (well they pay the developer) everyday to generate good will, word of mouth, and to get more people to use their marketplace. Hardcore simmers are still a tiny percentage (and always will be) of the entire "audience" for a product such as FLIGHT, but hardcore simmers are the "trend setters", and the most vocal of the simulation bunch. If MSFT want FLIGHT to succeed, it should not go around angering the hardcore simmers. MSFT should do what it did with "Live Search Club" when it tried to promote its LIVE search engine. People earned points by searching the web using LIVE and then you could redeem real stuff for free using those points. I believe even BING had a "cashback" bonus of similar nature. If MSFT really wants to promote FLIGHT, it should partner with PMDG/ Level-D/ etc and give the hard core simming community vouchers for reduced cost of PMDG /etc aircraft to help us more effortlessly transition from FSX to the new FLIGHT platform. MSFT pays PMDG/Level-D/Orbx and in return they bring down the cost of their new lineup of FLIGHT addons, the hardcore simmers all switch over from FSX to FLIGHT, this goodwill generates buzz and people start adopting FLIGHT once they see the trendsetters all switching over in masse, MSFT can write off the transition vouchers as an advertising expense, and win win win win for all. MSFT wins, Dev wins, Hard core simmers win, and FLIGHT as a platform wins so ultimately even the casual gamers Win.3. Microsoft can find creative ways to make money off the casual gamer that just wants to fly around aimlessly. But in the meantime, to keep the hardcore simmers happy and to prop up FLIGHT as a platform for its continued array of DLC to milk the casual gamers; it should offer its subsequent DLC, and terrain/texture/land ADDONS at ZERO cost to hard core simmers to keep these top echelon of FLIGHT customers happy so they don't transition to P3D or XPX competitors. MSFT is this close to losing the platform and then eventually the casual franchise too if it makes the same mistakes once more. How can Microsoft distinguish casual from hardcore simmers? MSFT can partner with the hard core third party addon companies and create a registry of all the users that have purchased one of these PMDG, LEVEL-D products and then sell its terrain DLC at free price to these members of the simulator communities. This will make the hard core community at ease and give them peace of mind to switch and transition from FSX to FLIGHT, thus compelling the third party addon developers to adopt and switch to FLIGHT as well. Basically the casual gamers should subsidize the hard core community! and by doing so, FLIGHT becomes entrenched as the defacto platform for the foreseeable future, further fueling the mass appeal of FLIGHT and of casual gamers.

You do realize that MS does not care if we the "hardcore" simmers enjoy or play the game at all.. So again why would MS open source the engine, pay us to play it and subsidize add-on's for us???

Microsoft is smarter than that.And what they are doing is actually somewhat brilliant (if you look at the big picture). One of the reasons that there are so few sims that cover the entire planet, is that making all the scenery takes a very long time, so you have to invest a ton of money before you have any product to sell. That's why X-Plane 10 was released with a generic "plausible world." What if Flight is just MS's way of paying for the new version of FSX, as they go? Why wait and release the entire finished earth (which might be too great of an investment to sell to the CEO's), when you can start off with just one free chunk, and then release the rest as DLC? Work on one chunk at a time, and release it when each is finished. After the entire planet is done, they just might release the entire product (the free part, with all the DLC), in the boxed FSX format. Game companies do this all the time.

What if Flight is just MS's way of paying for the new version of FSX, as they go? Why wait and release the entire finished earth (which might be too great of an investment to sell to the CEO's), when you can start off with just one free chunk, and then release the rest as DLC? Work on one chunk at a time, and release it when each is finished. After the entire planet is done, they just might release the entire product (the free part, with all the DLC), in the boxed FSX format. Game companies do this all the time.

Very possible, a little transparency in their plans would help us all decide whether it is worth our time and money though, maybe they will open up more once it is released into the wild.(If this is their plan) Hopefully when it is all built they go ahead and release an SDK and open up their store to developers (both free and payware).

What if Flight is just MS's way of paying for the new version of FSX, as they go? Why wait and release the entire finished earth (which might be too great of an investment to sell to the CEO's), when you can start off with just one free chunk, and then release the rest as DLC?

There is an intermediate point: Release the rest of the World now with low quality scenery similar to what was released with the FSX DVDs. Relatively small size, and already available so no development budget needed. Of course with only a Stearman and an A5 there's little point because you can't get to the mainland from Hawaii anyway.

Work on one chunk at a time, and release it when each is finished. After the entire planet is done, they just might release the entire product (the free part, with all the DLC), in the boxed FSX format. Game companies do this all the time.

Releasing the entire World with the high-definition quality of Hawaii would be huge, requiring several doublelayer blu-ray discs ("only" 50 GBy each).

Very possible, a little transparency in their plans would help us all decide whether it is worth our time and money though, maybe they will open up more once it is released into the wild.(If this is their plan) Hopefully when it is all built they go ahead and release an SDK and open up their store to developers (both free and payware).

Perhaps the reason MS is not being transparent with their plans is they are not confident in how this Flight thingy might pan out, so their strategy might end-up being "quite flexible" in practice and over time (well that's what I'm hoping for, at least.)Cheers,- jahman.

Edited January 10, 201214 yr by jahman

Microsoft is smarter than that.And what they are doing is actually somewhat brilliant (if you look at the big picture). One of the reasons that there are so few sims that cover the entire planet, is that making all the scenery takes a very long time, so you have to invest a ton of money before you have any product to sell. That's why X-Plane 10 was released with a generic "plausible world."What if Flight is just MS's way of paying for the new version of FSX, as they go? Why wait and release the entire finished earth (which might be too great of an investment to sell to the CEO's), when you can start off with just one free chunk, and then release the rest as DLC? Work on one chunk at a time, and release it when each is finished. After the entire planet is done, they just might release the entire product (the free part, with all the DLC), in the boxed FSX format. Game companies do this all the time.

I think it's wishfull thinking Arwen.. This is not about lack of funds to develop a new FS or having to sell it to the execs.. MS has lots of money, they are far from hurting. What happened is they do not see any value in hardcore simmers, MS execs think they can make more money selling a dumbed down game to the console crowd and casual gamers. I think they are very wrong in thinking the casual gamer is going to be interested in a 1930's bi plane and a flying toyota long enough to buy some dlc. The game has no crash effects, little johnny is going to be seriously disapointed....... uninstall

Flight is in beta. It is not yet complete.Until I use the finished product, and allowed some time to see where Flight might be heading, I'm going to remain optimisticThis is not just wishful thinking on my part. Yes, it is only a theory at this point, but it is not just based on idle speculation, I know games and and I know how (some) game developers think. Fight might surprise us all yet.