MS should have made flight into a Combat FS. Huge market for that especially when one figures in consoles. The blowing stuff up market is much bigger and lends itself much better to multiplayer action. Imaging exciting add on titles such as: F86 vs Mig 15 - Conflict over Korea! The Lemay Treament- B29's over Japan! Flying Fortress! Flying Tigers! Spitfire! B-26 Marauders! Jugs! P-47's over Germany -known for its provocative nose art... Midway! D-Day! The Mighty 8th! Linebacker II- B52's over Vietnam! One a Day in Tampa Bay! Naval Aviator Training The last days of the Luftwaffe! ME 262's taking on massed bomber formations. Dam Busters! etc etc..

I agree…except that flight combat (sim) isn’t considered a profitable audience. But strategically combat seems MSFS’s best (I think only) move towards real growth. If you think of gaming as a spectrum with simulation (education) on one end and arcade (lizard brain coordination) on the other….what separates FS from the profitable middle is a vast desert of combat simulation. On the far side of the wasteland is a fortress called “Battlefield”, a full combat simulation (air and ground). Beyond Battelfield are the rich and mean cities of mass-market gaming - GTA and WOW and NeedForSpeed and MaddenFootball. With the help of 3^rd party developers MSFS might cross this desert. Though they’d have no reasonable hope of ever breaking into Battlefield’s market.There is hope for missions using FS’s intrinsic game-play. But it’s not obvious what that is :) There is a risk to inserting common and unbecoming game-play. It’s likely to be seen as a ploy by mainstream. A game like that is like a zombie (and not the good kind)…they have a body but lack a soul. If you do happen to become a zombie your best hope is to be ignored.

Hey I have been Flight Simming since I was 15 years old! I think I started out in FS2002. I remember flightsim.com used to have these contests and I won my first 737 aircraft... Back then I would just fly with the default lear. Even just flying with the keyboard I used to love it, I think the older I get the more I delve deeper into it, and actually appreciate having to do a startup checklist.

I started out on B17 bomber for the Mattel Intelivision. Well, that really wasnt a flight sim, but in my mind it was. Then I got Sublogic FS2 for the Commodoer 64 and I was hooked. Never really got into games that did not involve flying. I tried first person shooters and although they were fun at times, they never held my interest the way a flight sim did. And this was way before hitting 40. Now at 48, I still love flight sims and still dont care for First person shooters. Much. I picked up BF3 and played for a few hours and Im done. Gimme a joystick, pedels and and plane and im good.Rob

So will there be enough of a supply of FSX copies already out there and in the aftermarket to keep FSX community alive?

I outta buy like 15 copies for 25 and resell them in 6 months for like 50 bucks LOL

FSX speculators create a real "Gold rush"... lol

:(