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

[UtahJazzfan8 0]

You mark my word compared to what Simmarket and Flight1 offer for FSX/FS9 half that crap is going to be a joke...

Don't tell people here that. They think the aircraft coming with Flight are better than most payware. :( I wouldnt doubt if it never touches what Carenado does for GA.

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.

Eaxctly. The target audience is not looking for the type of high quality (sometimes high priced) addons that the rest of us seek for FSX/FS9. Edited February 9, 2012 by UtahJazzfan8

[tgibson 11]

It *is* a very odd marketing choice - going after the gaming crowd and then not giving them a real game. I mean, how long can flying through hoops and getting into an airport in bad weather keep a crowd like that? If instead they had made an immersive combat flying game using the Acceleration FA-18 and carrier landings in the Persian Gulf, along with (say) an F-14 and had Top Gun at Miramar in San Diego - all in high detail and looking as good as Flight does - perhaps they would have had a winner? Adding DLC to such a game would be very easy - just add another scenario (i.e. F-15's in Afganistan, Japanese Zero's attacking Pearl Harbor, etc.). I just don't get it...

[towerman 0]

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.

And isn't it odd that someone likes this piece of software junk?

[TedG 1]

**edit**never mind

[N738NM 0]

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.

Okay, before I even read any possible responses to my post...Do you ever write one of those letters because you're incredibly angry and you were supposed to put it in the desk drawer until you aren't seeing red? Uh, perhaps I should have held off because I see holes in my own logic. However, I'm still unhappy with what Mr. Howard had to say in the originally quoted interview. Chalk it up to Blog Rage.

[Kinetic2080 5]

Seems to me like MS Flight is just reinventing what Flight Unlimited did years ago... Focus on ga planes. Smaller high detail areas like Seattle. Alteratives to free flight like rescuing skiers in the mountains or searching for a wild animal in the local hills just to land by the hut in Ranger Creek having the wild bear jump at the plane there. Also there where interesting details far away from the city. I remember flying the Lake Renegade climbing the mountains east of Seattle and then descending to land at a lake between the steep mountains. I was just about to land when I saw something up ahead at the shore. I pushed the throttle and got closer. It turned out to be a two-story hut with a small pier. I did a water landing and moored the plane. It became my virtual country house... Good days... :)Anyway the Flight Unlimited series became a sales success even though it focused on smaller aircraft and regions. If MS Flight turns out similarly it could do good too. Flight Unlimited wasnt a good simulator for airliners though.-

[ahuimanu 50]

Reminds me of Phil Taylor and all the rubbish I read throughout that fiasco of a release.

Terrible slap in the face to Phil. It was under Phil's leadership that a "serious games" platform was created and made any possible route forward possible.Your comparison NOT apples to apples, it's apples to bat guano. You can guess who is the bat guano. Edited February 10, 2012 by ahuimanu

[Tierborn 191]

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

MS has stated that I would not ever include the entire World

[Arwen 289]

MS has stated that I would not ever include the entire World

Where was that ever stated? I need to see an actual quote.

[Ben Cap 89]

Where was that ever stated? I need to see an actual quote.

Why does it even matter now? :(

[Super Six-Four 5]

Well, I guess they were right. The world IS going to end in 2012

Edited February 10, 2012 by Super Six-Four

[NWarty 0]

Phil Taylor did what he could to salvage FSX and got beat up BADLY. The bashing of FSX's initial release was well-deserved.

[3-2-1-Now 126]

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.

Too bad the two thirds that left were the genii of the department.Best regards,Robin.

Phil Taylor did what he could to salvage FSX and got beat up BADLY. The bashing of FSX's initial release was well-deserved.

My opinion: ACES were told to go speak to the masses publicly by management, and the ACES team did so in good faith, unknown that management were really going to use them as scape goats for the disaster that was FSX at release, and later fire the entire team after they finished the last SP and helped salvage sales. Sound about right?Best regards,Robin.

[RYR738 9]

My opinion: ACES were told to go speak to the masses publicly by management, and the ACES team did so in good faith, unknown that management were really going to use them as scape goats for the disaster that was FSX at release, and later fire the entire team after they finished the last SP and helped salvage sales. Sound about right?Best regards,Robin.

You should have asked Phil Taylor about that. He was online here while you were posting that.Fred.

[corinoco 22]

Mr Josh, 25000 airports is actually brilliant!

Why?Did you fly to every single one of them?How many of those 25,000 airports had more than just a polygon or two for a runway?Flight is following a precedent set by ORBX - small areas, LOTS of detail.I do most of my flying on the eastern coast of Australia - it wasn't until ORBX released the Red/Green/Blue/Gold series that there had EVER been good scenery for Australia. Their business is based on good general scenery for a geographic zone, coupled with smaller releases of single airports (pick your favourite!) in extremely high detail. If anything it looks like MS will follow a similar addon paradigm.25,000 airports for the whole world is a waste of development - I would bet good money there are airports in that list that NOT ONE simmer has EVER landed at. I would rather better development of hubs and popular places rather than minimal coverage of everything down to emergency landing strips in the middle of nowhere.