The End of Flight?

[George_FlyTampa 3]

Best of luck to the Team. Fortunately it sounds like most the guys will keep their jobs...

 

Update: Microsoft has informed Kotaku that they have not shut down the studio but it has ended development on flight simulator Microsoft Flight and Project Columbia, a Kinect interactive TV project

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I wasn't a big fan of how FLIGHT turned out, it all went horribly in the wrong direction after Hussain left.

But, can we have FSXI now? Or was this the final act for Microsoft Simulations?

[quadraspleen 7]

The irony is that, had they diverted all of the FLIGHT team's effort, not even into FS11, but how about an SP3 for FSX? (as somebody above said) They could have literally charged what they liked for a service pack and we (me for one) would have gladly coughed up. We'd be eating out of their hands right now..makes me want to :Cry:

 

This is despite all of the whingeing (me included) regarding the cost of FLIGHT's DLC going forward (the "how much will it all have cost by the time we get to"..conversations)

 

FSX's code is still seen by many who know as the best example of its kind available, despite its flaws..to totally re-design and re-code it would have cost millions..This is why they only re-wrote parts of the code for FLIGHT, not the whole engine from the ground up. Sure, lots of man-hours went into re-writing that code, but not as much as they did originally with subLOGIC, FS95, and the rest, up to FSX..it's all accreted code and experience over the years..why that legacy wasn't continued with foresight, we'll never know..

 

And to see the skill of Stevejp over in the FSX forum, fixing the old DX10 bugs in weeks; again, it makes me want to :Cry: that MS hadn't picked this up and run with it..All because they wanted a slice of the afters...

 

As has been pointed out; it is a salutory lesson in business/marketing and who to/ not to listen to when making roadmaps

 

Also, I reckon it wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway; as has been pointed out..MS just posted a big loss..I'm sure FLIGHT won't be the last shelved product at MS..I wish they'd killed WIndoze 8 instead..

[RobberK 0]

For me flight was fun but it was the lacking in the GA department that kept me from using it much. Without the ability to fly aircraft that I do rw, cockpits without realistc or inoperative avionics/gauges, ability to simulate rw weather, and inability to fly to areas that I have flown rw or are about to -these along with others left the GA experience lacking for me. I'd even mention ATC which is also part of the GA experience but I don't use it on FSX :)

 

Ok, true - you don't need to set the altimeter as Flight exists in a perfect world of ISA atmosphere, and clearly pitot tubes don't ice up much in Hawaii or Alaska or surely the checklists might've mentioned it! But, on the whole, the feel of the planes is "right", and at least I can switch on the pitot heat even if the consequences of not doing so are nil... and, for whatever reason, I feel that it is more important to get it right in Flight than I ever have in any other sim, so it must have a certain something that I can't put my finger on but makes me feel more "there".

[Kosta 122]

To me it seems Microsoft is taking many wrong turns lately, just to name some: W8, windows phone... That's just my personal opinion though, as a computer and telecommunications salesman.

[Glynn 405]

I have spent countless hours and throwing money down the drain trying to get FS to run as smooth as Flight, and so have some pilot friends of mine, and we all gave up.

 

Hello

On todays hardware FSX is really running well, those issues are gone and it looks and fly's great

Flight! is running no better than FSX on this machine and Flight! is stripped of features.

Try Realairs new legacy and tell me that the FSX flight modelling is poor, that addon is way better than anything I have used in Flight!

True FSX needs a fairly large sum of money throwing at it to get there, but tell me a hobby that doesn't, If you want a really first class FSX experience it is going to sting the wallet a bit, but then so does any pastime taken to the extreme, Pop into one of the HiFi forums if you want a reality check on how cheap FSX is in comparison.

 

No one will ever know how the Flight! engine would have held up with really complex aircraft, weather simulation, ATC and a ton of AI, but it could hardly not run well with so many features missing.

[basic ils 0]

Sad day, not only for the Flight supporters, but for all flight simulation enthusiasts. Competition between companies only benefits the consumer. With one less competitor, the consumer will suffer. I applaud those of you who stood by Flight and continue to stand by it.

 

Flight never offered me anything in the way of DLC that I desired, but I definitely saw the potential and was willing to be patient until the day DLC appealed to me. Apparently that day will never come and, for that, we are all losers, whether we paid for DLC or not.

[Knottypine1979 0]

What's bugging me .... is that they released the Deluxe Carbon, which most of us pay for it....

 

And the next day, they are killing the project (if rumors are confirmed).

 

They just try to get most of the ca$h from us and then run away.

 

A shame...

This would kind of bug me too, the fact that this news would be delivered just after a release of a VC. The release by itself gave Flight a very positive outlook.

[quadraspleen 7]

That's just my personal opinion though, as a computer and telecommunications salesman

It's the opinion of pretty much all of my peers in the same industry as you, as well, Word Not Allowed.

 

Microsoft, like so many vendors out there, are panicking about a certain Iproduct manufacturer and are just "lashing out" with reactive, flawed products..They're all at it; MS; Nokia; RIM...S'why having a business company creating and marketing a flying game was never, in the long run, going to work..They'll withdraw into their core business, now..Boring office software and useless operating systems..ho hum

[Guest]

Yes, it is official. One of the Devs on the beta site has confirmed it !.....................................

 

" Thanks everyone. We were working hard on Flight right up until we were told yesterday. Thanks for your participation and help in the beta and post-launch to make Flight better. I'm sure there will be an official post on the website soon, but everything should continue to work, and I believe some of the recently finished content will still go out the door. "

 

Having been part of the beta team since 5th Jan, I am very sad to read this news.

Alaska was the hint for me. The detail was just not there and it looked like the focus and commitment were gone.

 

Best of luck to the Flight Devs for the future and R.I.P MS Flight !!

 

Sad day....................

 

Fred.

 

Thanks. That's it, then... Looking forward to the new content...

 

I am a bit lost here. I don't feel like investing time in a game that has zero future but I also don't feel like playing another sim because what I like in Flight can't be found elsewhere. I also doubt if I can enjoy Flight knowing 'this is it', with all its flaws and unfinished things... If the game had been finished properly I might have enjoyed it as any other game for a while, but now... flying in Flight and thinking all the time 'it could have been great' kinda sucks a little. Flight is/was a work in progress. Half of the fun was looking forward to what was yet to come.

 

Yeah, feeling a bit lost here... with my Saitek Combat Rudder pedals.

[3-2-1-Now 126]

Apart from x-plane/DCS...who else is developing flight sim now?

No-one that I'm aware of.

 

Try DCS - the base sim is free and comes with the Su-25T that showcases the capability of the advanced flight model used in the Ka-50 and A-10C. Look out for the 3rd party dev products too - work has just started on the first 3rd party advanced flight model for the sim.

 

If more people get interested in DCS, then there is a good chance they will expand the sim world, and of course, the possibilities (especially now MS are completely out of the picture).

 

Best regards,

Robin.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Well that did not last long did it :lol:

[HiFlyer 9,363]

Hello

On todays hardware FSX is really running well, those issues are gone and it looks and fly's great

 

It would be more convincing if I had not been hearing parts of that same "its all better now" mantra for years and years. I even said it myself from time to time and then had to admit I was wrong. (and the hardware race continued)

 

If its fixed (finally!) why are people still trumping Prepar3d as the fix? Why are people still excited and ready to leap like pouncing panthers every time something other than the finally fixed! sim appears?

 

What got me about this whole community reaction was that If people are still happy with FSX, then why the excitement about Aerofly? (not to mention Xplane and Prepar3d) And if the excitement about Aerofly (and others) is just about having new choices to explore, then why the hostility about the choice of exploring Flight?

 

Logic disappeared beneath a sea of pitchforks and angrily hefted torches from the villagers.

 

It seemed to me like we wanted what we wanted (now!!) and exactly the way we wanted it, but only if the company producing it is Microsoft. Everyone else seemed to get reasonable slack and patience. Jeez, I might have pulled the plug myself if I was them, faced with that.

 

Then I hear "Now they can get started on FS11" or "Now they can fix (the fixed) FSX" and its just....... :blink:

[quadraspleen 7]

So, farewell then, FLIGHT,

You weren't around for very long,

And lots of people said you were wrong,

 

Even though you were only around for a while,

In many ways, you made me smile,

 

A new, MS supported sim, we'd love to see,

Alas, I fear it's now not to be,

 

You made some really duff planes, for sure,

The cockpitless ones were poor,

 

But your face was pretty, and your touch was light,

And flying you felt just right,

 

So, farewell then FLIGHT, we had some good laughs,

Especially when we made them barf,

 

Now I'm off to fly; goodbye..

 

(p.s it's great that the team looks like they won't lose their jobs - MS says so..you'd better believe it)

[CryogenicPilot 1]

Flight vs. FSX flight modeling:

 

They are both 3D games.

 

Nothing can replicate the sensations of real flight. Nothing... Except maybe a full-motion simulator and even then it is missing the G-Forces.

 

The only reason Flight seems more "real" is because it is smoother (better performing)... But I can duplicate that fidelity with FSX by using Tileproxy, no autogen (because TP uses default landmass with no autogen) and a light GA aircraft like the default C72, or others. And not only does it look better using hi-res real world photo scenery, its accurate, too boot.

 

The other irony is FSX still has more depth to offer those who want it even with "simple" GA (default) aircraft, let alone the fact you can fly to and from ANYWHERE in the base package.

[xfullboost 0]

This news really angers me. I've been waiting for FLIGHT to allow Force Feed Back in devices since release. Specifically my Logitech G940 flight system, which i bought after FLIGHT, in hopes of flying the maule over alaska one day. The stick is just limp when I try to play FLIGHT, because of no FFB.

 

I cant fly with a limp stick, can you?