You know it truly is hard to grade. What I mean by that is simple: a good game is one that keeps me rushing home from work and telling my friends I am "busy" so I can play the sim. Well, that has been my life the past two weeks. I have asked a question on the forum that has generated great discussion and made me much better at the game. The downside is that after only 2 weeks, I am already at level 16, I have found all aerocaches except the high altitude ones and have completed the missions. I am not a big fan of the job board but that could be my next focus.So, what do we have? A game that thrills and grips you. I found the game by accident on a webpage. I thought Flight Sims were dead in the MS world. So I am glad to find this program but yes, for those of you who have been playing it since release, it will have tired by now but I am not sure you are the focus at this point. They want people like me who will buy everything they offer in the first few weeks. Then they will appeal to all of us by opening a new world.Again, I LOVE this game right now and it is my passion but the time is near that if expansions are not released, those of you who have been playing since inception will need something else to occupy your time. Very much a pro-con for Microsoft.

for those of you who have been playing it since release, it will have tired by now but I am not sure you are the focus at this point.

I may be in the minority here - I downloaded actually on March 5th - currently have over 35 hours logged, at level 19, and not quite tired as of yet. Just now really getting into the jobs, and haven't even started the aerocache hunts yet.Of course this also coming from the same guy, who said he would never download Flight after reading what it was going to be upon release.

may be in the minority here

I think I'm more of a minority than you - I downloaded day one, think I only have about 25 hours? Just too much other "stuff" that takes time away from Flight.However - to me - this is one of the pluses - I'm able to get an enjoyable flight in a short period of time. Typically, do the daily aerocache and then one job. Then it's time to shut down the computer and do all the other things that are part of life. So I feel I'll stay interested for a while - although I will say I'm quite disappointed with the choice of aircraft (non-cockpit Zero) for the next available DLC. I just don't feel it will add any utility to Flight...

A new cockpitless warbird indicates that the Mustang was successful. This may be something new gamers like.I'd love to be privy to the Microsoft Flight sales data right about now. There might be plenty of steam left, and if it makes Microsoft enough money to continue funding development, then it's still a good thing.I've got over 130 hours since release, and I'm still finding interesting stuff to do. One more Stearman Landing Challenge, then on to the Maule and RV-6.Hook

think I'm more of a minority than you - I downloaded day one, think I only have about 25 hours? Just too much other "stuff" that takes time away from Flight.

Well in my case if things were normal, I would not have near the hours I have in it - unforeseen circumstances have sideline me for a bit... so much more time available , as things get back to normal soon that will drastically change.

I think one thing people should consider is that while folks here at AVSIM and on the Flight Beta forums are complaining about being bored or running out of content, the people who frequent those forums tend to be more of the flight sim enthusiasts and may spend more hours playing flight sims every day/week than your average casual Flight pilot.There may be (I don't for sure, no one but M$ does) a large group of people out there that are only playing a few hours a week, or maybe they're new to flight sims and they're still stuck on Icon Landing Challenge 3. Or maybe the whole flight sim thing is so new to them that they are just flying around and not even completing challenges. Does this group exist? I don't know. How big are they? Thousands? Millions? I don't know. But if there's enough of them, then maybe their buying power is greater than those who have completed every challenge Flight has to offer, and, rightly so, M$ is building their release schedule around this group.Just a thought.

What is the profile of the flight simulator user base? How many simmers are "serious" and how many just mess around on occasion between bouts of Skyrim IV and Warcraft? How many people have copies of FS9/FSX unused and hidden on their machines? How many bother to transfer these programs to new computers when they upgrade? How many casual users can be relied upon to purchase dozens of new planes and scenery add-ons in the coming year or two? I'm sure MS has far better marketing gurus with 6-figure incomes making those predictions than my common sense suggests. I wish them well, I guess, but until the provide the flight experience of FSX and X-Plane and shift emphasis from eye candy to cockpits and flight dynamics and real world flight complexity, they will do it without my help.I hope the after-market community continues to flourish for FS9/FSX and X-Plane so sites like Avsim can continue to bring us the outstanding support that they have given us over the years. Sadly, I don't see much income for them outside of FLIGHT ads, and certainly no add-on sales or ads from FLIGHT vendors outside of MS. I will continue to surf this site for my FSX and X-Plane news and continue to support Avsim in any way I can. Unless they receive a lot of advertising revenue from MS, I don't see much going for them from that direction.

I must say, with their first DLC offering since the release of Flight and the dlc offered with the release, being apparently a Zero which like the P51, will have no cockpit - exterior model only.I have to admit, my positive attitude I have had regarding Flight since installing it, and belief of remaining hopeful is now starting to dwindle a little. First no native Track IR support, and now this as an aircraft dlc offering?I am still somewhat hopeful, but in my mind this ain't very good.

is now starting to dwindle a little.

+2disappointing. utterly disappointing. chance missed. too sad.

How many casual users can be relied upon to purchase dozens of new planes and scenery add-ons in the coming year or two? I'm sure MS has far better marketing gurus with 6-figure incomes making those predictions than my common sense suggests.

I don't thinlk that they even used such specialists. Too expensive.The basic idea behind Flight is much mor simple: We reuse an old property (in other words: cheap ) to sell Download Content. When the project was established such games were considered a pretty good possibility to earn money. It took some time till it became obvious that most of these games didn't earn money.You can't really predict how big the market is if you want to reach new groups.For Microsoft this is a very small project that tries to find a new market.

I have no doubt that people are buying the RC mustang, but the real question is how many more people would have bought it if you could actually get in the thing to go flying.

Over the past week or so the number of posts here have decreased considerably, so new posts are no longer quickly getting buried.

Well well well... After today's DLC announcement I doubt that will be the case! I must admit feeling a little dissapointed.

... a large group of people out there that are only playing a few hours a week, or maybe they're new to flight sims and they're still stuck on Icon Landing Challenge 3. Or maybe the whole flight sim thing is so new to them that they are just flying around and not even completing challenges....

Probably that group does exist, but just considering that they already use only a fraction of the game possibilities, why should they buy a lot of other DLC? It doesn't seem make much sense from a commercial point of view, don't you agree?A.

I'd love to be privy to the Microsoft Flight sales data right about now. There might be plenty of steam left, and if it makes Microsoft enough money to continue funding development, then it's still a good thing.

Larry, a more fair test would be to follow through on what was claimed several months ago, that some a/c would come in two versions: cockpitless and deluxe.Unless those two models are available at the same time, there's really no way to judge which of the two is the one most wanted and will generate the greatest revenue.

when the choice exists to fly in 'external view' whether a cockpit exists or not, my question is....why offer two versions? it would be a waste of time and money no?you make complete aircraft available and let "light users" switch off the VC view in the settings - right? that makes the most sense... or offer a "light" version of Flight that does not allow the VC view to be usedand charge less for (those scenery packs)Unless your thinking @MS is that you want to use the revenue from the additional gamer "light" versions of planes to pay for a portion of the overall expansion of your game that you fear you would not realize from sales to serious flight err, gamers alone...that we would not generate the kind of money needed to maintain the evolution of Flight - that they feel that without a bigger audience - they cant get Flight to where they want to take it. thats the "I know there's a pony under all this cra-stuff and I'm going to find it" view anyway