but I can quote:

That's about all you can do.

Thank you for your compassion and generosity.

Nothing personal but this was funny.

That's OK. :(

MS openly suported and praised commercial developers. Just visit the link page on the FS Insider website!MS could have made addons themselves if they wanted. They didn't - except for Acceleration. If they wanted to monopolize the addon market they could have tweaked the FSX code and made FS11 with little effort.For large software companies projects are about more than ROI. Flight Simulator would make a great sanbox for Microsoft to test creative and visionary ideas. Invention and competitive edge isn't created in the bread and butter departments, but in the playrooms.

That's the business Microsoft has always been in. :( Look at Windows and applications like Mozilla and Dragon (which is actually offered in default Windows). This is what made Microsoft successful while Apple was closed to any outside development on their systems and/or hardware. Microsoft made their stuff work on IBM compatible machines opening the way for many companies to get rich. Now in certain circles in Redmond they want to go with a model that didn't work for Apple. I'll say this again when Bill Gates left common since went out the door as well...

Uh...no. I should have seen this comment coming. It's called cross-licensing. A very different--and hugely profitable--business model. Look here: http://m.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/microsoft-pulls-in-444-million-per-year-from-android-patents/15111

MS could have made addons themselves if they wanted. They didn't - except for Acceleration. If they wanted to monopolize the addon market they could have tweaked the FSX code and made FS11 with little effort.

You're right. MS could have made addons if they wanted to, but ACES wasn't doing that. You've no doubt noticed the talk about expansion packs and all the other garb mentioned on the Flight website. Do you think those MS points (or whatever they're called) are free? Haha, no. MS wanted in on the addon market. And, you'll recall the difficultly that 3rd party developers initially had accessing and manipulating the FSX code in order to develop addons. Hence, all of the frustrations amongst developers about FSX code limitations (particularly around things like flight dynamics and performance). I would argue that imbedded in FSX was an attempt to eat away, or at least thwart, the tertiary addon market. ACES just wasn't falling in line fast enough. Flight is simply Microsoft's renewed effort.

as much as I might disagree with MS development/marketing plan for Flight, I'm still going to support it, because it is still a simulator and it does some things much better than both FSX and X-Plane (which I will continue to support as well).

Fair enough Arwen. Just to let you know I'm not in here with an opposing view just to have one. I like to get people to thinking because we come up with some interesting discussions. Don't take me the wrong way, people challenge me and I challenge them. So where I'm at is I can't support something just to support it. Flight Simulator has allowed many of us to realize our dreams which very few titles can claim. Many can give us an escape but to truely enable us to accomplish real world goals is on a whole other level.

Edited February 8, 201214 yr by Dillon

You're right. MS could have made addons if they wanted to, but ACES wasn't doing that. You've no doubt noticed the talk about expansion packs and all the other garb mentioned on the Flight website. Do you think those MS points (or whatever they're called) are free? Haha, no. MS wanted in on the addon market. And, you'll recall the difficultly that 3rd party developers initially had accessing and manipulating the FSX code in order to develop addons. Hence, all of the frustrations amongst developers about FSX code limitations (particularly around things like flight dynamics and performance). I would argue that imbedded in FSX was an attempt to eat away, or at least thwart, the tertiary addon market. ACES just wasn't falling in line fast enough. Flight is simply Microsoft's renewed effort.

If they wanted in they should have made them - they didn't. My point is that they didn't need to make an arcade game to sell addons. I disagree with your argument that FSX was an attempt to eat away the addon market. The positivity from the ACES team towards developers and the creation of the SDK don't make any sense if that had been the case.

Didnt MS contact 3pd, couldnt reach and agreement? I would like to know excactly why? Because Microsoft owns the store they wont cooperate? if current 3pd turns down MS Flight will they not loose market to new developers?Also the blog comments are about the beta, im sure we'll see options to turn on more realistic controls in the final release.-

Didnt MS contact 3pd, couldnt reach and agreement? I would like to know excactly why? Because Microsoft owns the store they wont cooperate? if current 3pd turns down MS Flight will they not loose market to new developers?

Because they don't like that MS wants 30% of everything it earns. They have been too used to making a fortune on their own up to now.I think MS are right in making things more strict. Afterall the whole MS flight sim franchise was developed by them after they aquired it.

Does everyone remember Sublogic's Flight Assignment ATP? Personally, I started with MSFS 3.0, but Sublogic's ATP is what really sparked my passion. Now that I hve a commercial license with all the bells and whistles, I would rather dial back the clock and fly ATP than waste my time with Microsoft's new arcade game.

Yes I have it. For me it was a giant step in simulation, it was the first time there was an ATC in a flight simulator.Just for info I start sim with Flight from PSION on Spectrum Sinclair 48K., believe it or not it still works !Richard Portier

MS will create lots of DLC but, the price and quality is unmatched from an advanced airliner or GA that a team like PMDG or A2A could create.

I find it kinda strange the MS contacted and apparently spent some significant time with the likes of Orbx and PMDG concerning Flight. I'd think that since they're obviously making a coin-collecting carplane arcade game that there really wouldn't be any need to open discussions with 3PDs. I think I know what happened. Microsoft was planning on doing FSXI and wanted to bundle Orbx and PMDG stuff with it's release, but when those two developers told MS to "get bent", MS decided to scrap the whole thing and go with the coin-collecting carplane arcade game. I'm sure those were the only two 3PDs Microsoft talked to and since they didn't approve of Microsoft's vision of FSXI, Microsoft realized that without those two companies they would certainly fail with an FSXI, hence their decision to just do a low-budget WiiWare game and call it a day.Obviously there is no other 3rd party development going on since we haven't seen those companies come here and post, "I have a secret, but I'm under an NDA and can't tell you." Obviously they would do that since it wouldn't be breaking the NDA.

Obviously there is no other 3rd party development going on since we haven't seen those companies come here and post, "I have a secret, but I'm under an NDA and can't tell you." Obviously they would do that since it wouldn't be breaking the NDA.

They couldn't if the terms of the NDA forbade that.

Obviously there is no other 3rd party development going on since we haven't seen those companies come here and post, "I have a secret, but I'm under an NDA and can't tell you." Obviously they would do that since it wouldn't be breaking the NDA.

They couldn't if the terms of the NDA forbade that.

My whole post was a lame attempt at being facetious. Of course a developer 'in bed' with MS and under an NDA who stands to make much money won't come here and dance around an NDA. That's my point, the 3PDs that ARE developing for Flight wouldn't so much as peep the existance of their work. Unlike public beta testers, there is way too much on the line to mess it up by something as dumb as teasing customers with even the mere fact that they are working on a Flight DLC.

Edited February 8, 201214 yr by Rush1169

Because they don't like that MS wants 30% of everything it earns. They have been too used to making a fortune on their own up to now.I think MS are right in making things more strict. Afterall the whole MS flight sim franchise was developed by them after they aquired it.

It's deeper than that...

Because they don't like that MS wants 30% of everything it earns. They have been too used to making a fortune on their own up to now.I think MS are right in making things more strict. Afterall the whole MS flight sim franchise was developed by them after they aquired it.

That's the part that made me giggle. FLIGHT beta testers always seem to have bountiful knowledge of the piles of money made by 3PD's... but none of them are 3PD's... curious...

That's the part that made me giggle. FLIGHT beta testers always seem to have bountiful knowledge of the piles of money made by 3PD's... but none of them are 3PD's... curious...

I dare say most of those who toss around such silly remarks probably will get more in their annual tax refund than I made this past year......which was slightly under $7,000.00.