Second Interview with Joshua Howard... sigh...

[Tierborn 191]

So, let me get this straight. According to boy genius there the way to a successful product is to ostracize a large portion of your existing customer base, gut the existing rich product eco-system, revert the product from open platform to proprietary locked title, erase 99% of the content and then give it away for free.Joshua is either the biggest idiot in the history of gaming software or an abject genius. But, I'm a betting man, and I'm betting that FLIGHT will soon be renamed "The FLIGHTANIC" after it sinks as fast as his career.

I agree with you except for the flight enthusiast being a large portion of the customer base... millions of copies sold and only a 100,000 enthusiast at best. You have to remember the hundreds of thousands of people that have purchased MSFS in the past, played with it for a day or so, and then it becomes a bookend.

[Ben Cap 89]

Joshua is either the biggest idiot in the history of gaming software or an abject genius. But, I'm a betting man, and I'm betting that FLIGHT will soon be renamed "The FLIGHTANIC" after it sinks as fast as his career.

Joshua is fresh out of middle school. Give him some slack. :(

20 - 30 million people LOL

:( :(

[dighost 25]

I think Joshua really has his head in the clouds, and figures he is going to bank on the DLC like Call of Duty or Angry Birds DLC does. Problem is Flight is no Call of Duty or Birds. Gamers are finicky and and you are playing with fire if you assume what kind of experience they should have.

[Arwen 289]

He never stated that Flight would NEVER include world coverage. It seems obvious to me that he is plugging only what will be released on the 29th.

The following was more interesting to me:

Q: Is your studio just building this title?

A: I imagine this is a group of people who will continue to bring flying experiences out over time. This is where we are right now.

AND:

Q: Will you sell the game on discs at retail?A: Sometime maybe in the future but right now we're all in online. Retail is not something we're talking about right now.AND:

Howard (left) leads a studio with about 50 employees, a third of whom are veterans of the ACES Studio behind "Flight Simulator" that Microsoft wound down in 2009.

Edited February 9, 2012 by Arwen

[xplanery 250]

There is also no evidence that Flight would include whole world ever. Maybe Flight is not meant to include it?

[Arwen 289]

There is also no evidence that Flight would include whole world ever. Maybe Flight is not meant to include it?

True. We still don't really know what the full intent of Flight is. Much will depend on how well what is initially released on the 29th actually succeeds (as in DLC sales).

[drumsonly2002 3]

Quote:

The bet we've made is that to the non-hardcore simmer, flying the whole world isn't as interesting when there's nothing really interesting to see or do. End Quote. That is it in a nutshell. "flying the whole world isn't as interesting" etc.etc. WOW! Flying in the same place over and over through hoops is ..interesting?

Flight.. sigh... glad it's free. I think it will never regain the financial investment put into it. I regret my ###### posts supporting Flight. They just do not get it. After the out cry for hard core development, they think a "game" approach is better. My faith in them has taken Flight. Will focus my hard earned money to those developing FSX add on's. Prepar3D keeps looking better and better. The new FSX will be Orbx and P3D. Flight will be a fun game though. Hopefully they include helicopters. Make it easier to fly through hoops and land at the theme park.

Edited February 9, 2012 by drumsonly2002

[maxter 0]

1. I knew it wasn't going to happen when all we saw was Hawaii screenshots. Unlike you I've been around for the past 20+ years watching how Microsoft does things. They tried something like this with FS95 but back then it was about shutting out add-on content from third party developers. We won that battle. With FSX Aces was pushed to add more game elements like missions then they closed the studio down after Bill Gates left. It's a known fact or should I say reading Aces blogs and developer Blogs on how the tone at Redmond was getting over the years. Last but not least as hard as it was for Aces to model the whole world with FS 5.1 once it starts getting gutted you can rest assured the work it takes to put it back isn't going to happen especially with the original team disbanded.2. The tone of your post is what has me suspicious of some new people around here. Analyzing what was said and thought is all relative and go hand in hand. It's called reading between the lines especially after years of dealing with a company on various levels. I've been on many beta teams including Flight Simulator over the years so I know a little something about the trend in where things are headed.Either way the whole world is not going to happen and the content released for Flight is going to be substandard compared to what's out there for FSX and FS9. You can believe it or not, jump up and down, get mad at me, and call me everything under the sun because you have such high hopes for Flight. Get over it your on the loosing end and Redmond will prove this more than I could ever say... :(

It really amuses me that a person with in excess of 5000 posts can can type so much and yet say so little that makes any sense...This statement alone "Unlike you I've been around for the past 20+ years watching how Microsoft does things." actually proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that your post count is far from a determinant of sensible reasoned dialogue and more about assumption, conjecture, hypothesis, and even more, hyperbole...You really don't have a clue...

[TheFamilyMan 280]

There is just too much weirdness going on with Flight! Clearly this release is aimed squared at the masses. But really now, why did they put so much care into subtile details that only hardcore sim enthuists could truely appreciated? Example: In their latest webisode, a rep for the Icon A5 states that he's impressed with its modelled flight fidelity in Flight. Now why bother with such nuances if your target market would never know any better. So here's my latest Flight <pipe dream> MS knows the hardcore sim market is a solid "ace in the hole" for them, but they want to "sandbag" for a while to see how big they can grow the "pot" (sorry about the poker references for those that don't know them). But eventually they will play their ace with Flight..hopefully sooner than later...in that a "Flight Pro" release (i.e. FSXI) will be made for the hardcore which gives us all the richness in content and expandability we've grown accustomed to. And not only that, since they'll hopefully have the masses tied in by then with the base edition, they'll know they can hit us up with say a $100+ buy in and not worry about alienating the masses. </pipe dream>

[Guest jahman]

why did they put so much care into subtile details that only hardcore sim enthuists could truely appreciated? Example: In their latest webisode, a rep for the Icon A5 states that he's impressed with its modelled flight fidelity in Flight. Now why bother with such nuances if your target market would never know any better

Exactly.

But eventually they will play their ace with Flight..hopefully sooner than later...in that a "Flight Pro" release (i.e. FSXI) will be made for the hardcore which gives us all the richness in content and expandability we've grown accustomed to

I hope you're right. For us hardcore simmers, I've always thought FSX was way too cheap.Cheers,- jahman.

[Attila 2]

In their latest webisode, a rep for the Icon A5 states that he's impressed with its modelled flight fidelity in Flight. Now why bother with such nuances if your target market would never know any better.

Because MS thinks that it's going to be enough to get some FSX users excited about Flight - and they were right. Some people on here are in awe that Flight allows ILS approaches and draw conclusions from this that are totally unrealistic. Then you can add that browsing the beta files showed them some left-over stuff from ACES' FSXI development and now they think that Flight will grow into FSXI some day. Apparently it is working on you as well. ;)MS wants our money, but they don't want to actually have to do the work to get it. It is easier to just hint at possible futures, because all they want is your $35 or $43 now.Many people on this forum, who actually talked with MS know where this is going. They have made it clear that it is not for them, yet people are looking for straws to grasp. So, MS has kindly provided a few straws.

[xplanery 250]

Yeah, to me it seems very obvious that Flight wont be another FSX and its not intended to be FSX II in future. Its different kind of game.

Edited February 9, 2012 by FScamp

[Dillon 2,198]

It really amuses me that a person with in excess of 5000 posts can can type so much and yet say so little that makes any sense...This statement alone "Unlike you I've been around for the past 20+ years watching how Microsoft does things." actually proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that your post count is far from a determinant of sensible reasoned dialogue and more about assumption, conjecture, hypothesis, and even more, hyperbole...You really don't have a clue...

A clue about who, you or Flight? :(

[N738NM 0]

I just read the full interview.

Howard: The bet we've made is that to the non-hardcore simmer, flying the whole world isn't as interesting when there's nothing really interesting to see or do. I do get that for some segment of the audience that was one of the values - I can fly anywhere, into any airport, 25,000-odd airports was crazy.

"The bet we've made..." Crap. I'm on the losing side of a bet."There's nothing really interesting to see or do..." Hmmm, I like it. I guess I should get out more."25,000 odd airports was crazy..." Yup. I'm crazy. Get the straightjacket.Yup, Flight is a game-changer (pun fully intended). We're done, Josh. You just don't understand that the miracle of flight does not lie in looking at pretty scenery. If that were the case, you should have made a hot air balloon simulator to enjoy the natural beauty of Hawaii. And, no, it wasn't about the Wright Brothers travelling a hundred feet or so. The miracle of flight is about freedom and the amazing power to make the world smaller. It's about the astounding feat that a heavier-than-air craft can start in one corner of the world and take you some tens, hundreds, or even thousands of miles away in a matter of hours while you are able to witness the beauty of said world from the same point of view as the birds. And, to unravel the mysteries, to fully appreciate how this is possible, you need to understand and be able to recreate the science and the process that is making an aircraft fly. And, if you can't witness this miracle yourself, you can imagine it. No, we're lucky, because we can go a step further, we can simulate it. And, that I will argue is why some of us love flight simulation. It's not about collecting coins, it's about the freedom to go anywhere we choose to go on this earth from the amazing vantage point of our computer screen.

[Barnstormer1 0]

"25,000 odd airports was crazy...

I kinda took offense to that statement. Otherwise the people who use it are crazy? Mr Josh, 25000 airports is actually brilliant! He's a goofball corporate sniffer :) I was trying to be opened minded with the whole FLIGHT thing. NO MORE!! He would hav been better off keeping his pie hole shut. Edited February 9, 2012 by Barnstormer1