HelloIf Flight! turns out to be a success and corners the Flightsim market as MS obviously hope it will.What will become of our favourite sites such as AVSIM, Flightsim.Com and Simflight.With any third party involvement at least 2/3 years away and a dwindling market in FS9 and FSX addons, where is the advertising revenue going to come from to sustain the hobby sites such as this.I know from my own experience that when I moved from FS9 to FSX my addon buying moved exclusively to FSX.No real harm done there as I simply bought FSX product from the same developers as I had supported in FS9.But this time around it is different, I can financially only justify buying for one platform,If i move to Flight! then that means no more FSX purchases for me, I already have enough to keep me happy there.Can sites like this exist with diminishing advertising and salesWill Avsim need to move to a subcription scheme if the Payware developers cannot afford the rates.Two or three years is a long time to expect the 3PD to hang around in the event of everyone switching to Flight!.What will fill the void till the SDK ?

Nobody knows what the future hold;but if nothing change - well ...... it does not look promising in the long run.

Who knows, but logic dictates that huge Flight success is bad for the independent FS community.X-Plane 10 and FSX is a dead end IMHO and embraced more because it's what we got rather than because it's what we want.In my country there was a lot of FS activity five years ago, now it is almost a dead scene - which is why I now frequent international FS sites like AVSIM. People want new things and get tired of beating old horses. Even hardcore simmers like myself are tired of the tweaking, installing, uninstalling, problem solving, tweaking and even more tweaking in FSX.What the community need is a new modern flight sim platform with a semi-open (quality controlled) addon store/freeware library connected to it.New technology is often adopted because it's new and fresh. It often doesn't matter if the old is arguably of better quality. People chose mp3 files instead of CDs, even though the quality of the audio was worse. If the future of hardcore flight simming is FSX or X-Plane 10, then I predict a shrinking FS community.If people start investing heavily into Flight DLC then I think very few will turn towards FSX just because it is a more realisitc and serious sim. I see them living with Flight's shortcomings instead of moving backwards into the future.

Edited March 5, 201214 yr by simmerhead

IS the market for FSX addons dwindling? Anecdotally, I get the impression it's quite bouyant. Do the figures tell a different story?Ian

I still think that Flight will eventually bring people to FSX. Yesterday I flew some of the challenges in Flight for a couple of hours. Then I loaded up FSX and did the same thing in the RV-7....and with UTX,GEX, REX water and AS2012, I _still_ like FSX scenery better....something about it just seems more "alive" to me. Plus you have trackIR, which really is a necessity imho.Couple that with youtube, which, I feel, is the biggest proponent of FSX, I think people will get into Flight and then start looking into FSX, and then stumble onto youtube. There they will see all of the amazing jets like the PMDG 737 and MD-11 and scenery like Kai Tak or ORBX PNW. If they seriously have the sim "bug", then FSX will be their next natural stop.

If people start investing heavily into Flight DLC then I think very few will turn towards FSX just because it is a more realisitc and serious sim. I see them living with Flight's shortcomings instead of moving backwards into the future.

Very well said, but truly scary for me. So much of me is wrapped up in FSX with much of the last decade of my time treasure and talent spent on and in it. FSX remains my favorite sim by far, and I want it to continue to grow and get better all the time. As you say, the problem is just that, isn't it? In order to run at a level that satisfies me, and most of my FSX friends, we need to have a large dose of those three things, and that puts it out of reach of almost everyone else, everywhere.Success is the automatic outcome when opportunity meets intelligent flexible initiative. Perhaps Microsoft is intelligent and has the opportunity and initiative with a flexible Flight platform. If so, their success could possibly drive a wedge that separates off the extreme edge of super FSXers (and hardcore users of FS9 and X-Plane) from the broader flight simulation/ gaming vast majority.My sense is, and some would argue that I have too little of it to spare, that Flight is going to move forward, despite occasional stumbles, and will be successful and accepted in a major way. I don't know what that looks like. However, there may be a revolution in FSX that will enable it to run well for a larger group of new people, but if not, interest in it will die out as our does.In any event, one way or another, I will keep all my options open and will let events decide which platform will be the route I fly into the future. I do believe that AVSIM will still be the dominant social influence and player if it does the same thing. However, digging a trench and arming it with machine guns will only serve to have us left behind as events move forward at an ever increasing pace.Please don't hit back too hard as I am bruised all over as it is. :smile:Kind regards,

I'm no hitman Stephen, so don't worry. After all Jonathan's analysis might be the right one, but if I allow personal experience into the equation I place my chips on people selecting the easiest option. I had a collection of 2000 LPs which had superiour sound quality over CDs, but my LPs are gone. Now my shelves are packed with CDs, but I have hardly bought any for the past ten years, and now I play all my music through streaming services like Spotify with crappy sound quality. I don't even own a CD player anymore, and in a few years my CDs will probably be thrown out with the garbage. Ian has a point. Addon sales are probably OK at the moment, but IF Flight is a success I am sure this will change. What scares me is that without a new sim platform FSX might end up like my LP and CD collection. Most people don't have the commitment and interest to make FSX run well with a cocktail of addons. FSX has sold at least two million copies, but how many are still in use? Of those still in use, how many are modding FSX with addons? I love my addons, but as a 25 year computer user I'm still annoyed by all the work involved in running FSX. This hobby needs to be taken into the modern age, and IF Flight is a success, it will be a Microsoft future, which might not be bad, but in the long run I think competition is neccessary to fuel innovation.

8 years later, the FS9 community still seems to be pretty lively.I guess the big thing will be "what happens to freeware?" I haven't really been following Flight, but it looks like it's quite limited. It may be that Microsoft's plan tis to turn it into a payware thing, where they do much of the development and sell it to you, piece by piece. That will get old, particularly if the pieces I want are slow in coming. I've bought a few add-ons to FS9, but quite honestly I'm very happy with the vast array of freeware airports and planes, and I never seem to get bored with them.

8 years later, the FS9 community still seems to be pretty lively.I guess the big thing will be "what happens to freeware?" I haven't really been following Flight, but it looks like it's quite limited. It may be that Microsoft's plan tis to turn it into a payware thing, where they do much of the development and sell it to you, piece by piece. That will get old, particularly if the pieces I want are slow in coming. I've bought a few add-ons to FS9, but quite honestly I'm very happy with the vast array of freeware airports and planes, and I never seem to get bored with them.

The question is, how many of "you" are there and are you growing as a group? How will FS9'ers contribute to the development and future of the flight sim hobby?Don't misunderstand this as me trying to bash FS9 - I'm so nostalgic that I've got every PC version of FS installed on my computer :) The OP asked what is the future of the FS community if FLIGHT becomes a huge success. Who will pay for the AVSIM servers that store our freeware? Microsoft?

As long as there remains a demand for all things FSX, it will remain in one form or other. I predict their will be a number of FSX Diehards for years to come...To quote the late Charlton Heston:From my cold dead handsCheers

Hope you are right, because I sure don't see what Plan B is.

HelloIf Flight! turns out to be a success and corners the Flightsim market as MS obviously hope it will.What will become of our favourite sites such as AVSIM, Flightsim.Com and Simflight.With any third party involvement at least 2/3 years away and a dwindling market in FS9 and FSX addons, where is the advertising revenue going to come from to sustain the hobby sites such as this.I know from my own experience that when I moved from FS9 to FSX my addon buying moved exclusively to FSX.No real harm done there as I simply bought FSX product from the same developers as I had supported in FS9.But this time around it is different, I can financially only justify buying for one platform,If i move to Flight! then that means no more FSX purchases for me, I already have enough to keep me happy there.Can sites like this exist with diminishing advertising and salesWill Avsim need to move to a subcription scheme if the Payware developers cannot afford the rates.Two or three years is a long time to expect the 3PD to hang around in the event of everyone switching to Flight!.What will fill the void till the SDK ?

It seems wildly unlikely that there will be massive switchover to Flight from FS9 and FSX given the current model. Flight as currently promoted has nothing to offer the serious simmer and in spite of the hopes of some I see no reason for that to change. Why would you even consider moving to flight from the existing platforms? MS has decided on the game approach and (IMHO) is unlikely to change direction. If anything, it's more likely that Flight may diminish the number of new adopters for FS9 and FSX (whatever that number may be); we'll see. On the other hand, FS9 users will inevitably switch to FSX or X-Plane as the number of add-ons for FS9 continues to dwindle because of market saturation and the difficulty of providing advanced features in the older sim. I run FS9 and FSX, attempting to get add-ons that are for both as a cost saving measure - that's becoming increasingly difficult and I have a number of add-ons that are FSX only. That's no big deal really - I have the silicon to run both and frankly, in spite of the screams of anguish from some users, a properly installed FSX installation is just as solid as an FS9 installation.Unless Flight dramatically changes course, I don't expect the add-on shops to quit producing material for FSX for years to come, and then only because the market will have reached saturation.As for subscriptions - I already pay another site for bandwidth and would have no problem doing so with this one if required. Also note that the sites in question are already supporting Flight and will continue to draw clicks even if the older markets diminish.DJ

The way I see it....If I was 12 years old again and just discovering Flight Sim for the first time. MS Flight would be the perfect platform to discover flight sim. As I spent countless hours exploring Hawaii and the various aircraft I will get bored and want something more.A transition from MS Flight to FSX would be the next logical step. With FSX I can learn even more as FSX has more detailed aircraft models and the entire globe to learn how to Navigate around. Eventually I would want to learn the 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 787.......It wasn't much different when I was 12. Back then I had SubLOGIC Flight Simulator release 2.0. I learned a lot about aviation from that. Eventually I moved up to Flight Assignment: ATP and learned more about Airline Operations.Microsoft is offering the next generation a step into Flight Sim with MS Flight, and Microsoft will still continue to sell FSX to any newcomers who wish to take Flight Simming to the next level.Also consider the success of MS Flight may directly lead to an FS11 if their is a demand for it from newcomers into this hobby. If MS Flight creates good revenue and continues to create in interest in FSX as people move up to FSX from MS Flight then that is great news for the future of this hobby. Revenue like that could lead to further development from Microsoft on perhaps an FS11.In the mean time I am very happy all things FSX and will be for years to come. Many great developers continue to produce great additions for FSX and I look forward to more...Cheers

IMHO... I think this is a case of 'making a mountain out of a molehill'.Just because Flight is out on the market doesn't mean that all of a sudden everything we've come to know and revere about FlightSim is suddenly going to vanish and disappear.As long as there is interest in the existing crop of FS products there will be designers out there creating add ons for those products.PMDG with the DC-6... Milton Shupe and the boys with their S-2 Tracker series and the SOH B-26... even Kaz Ito has gotten back into the game with some new stuff for FSX,not to mention Carenado and Aerosoft developing for XP!I don't think FS as we know it is going anywhere for quite a while yet; as many have said (myself included), Flight could very well entice more new simmers to give FSX or XP a try.If they like it, then there's new blood coming into our side of the playground, which is always a good thing.It's up to us as a community to keep our hobby thriving as best we can. What's it going to be...Sitting in the dark, pouting and whining that Flight is a disaster, FS as we know it is dead, doom to all who promote Flight?Or...Welcoming the newcomers to our hobby, being civil and courteous, answering their questions, and promoting our side of the deal?Your move.

Edited March 6, 201214 yr by ViperPilot

Welcoming the newcomers to our hobby, being civil and courteous

+100 :(