Flight post mortem.

[Gibbage 199]

Brilliant post Kevin. I'll link to this at our site. Pass on our appreciation and concern to your talented friends

 

I don't remember the mb episode, but it still looks like a piece of poo?

 

The myth was if you could polish a xxxxx. Myth busted. You CAN polish a xxxxx. Thats the reference, but Flight was never a xxxxx. It was a diamond that was buried in one.

 

I think the #1 thing that hurt Flight the most, was having an almost empty store on launch. When you have a product like Flight, people are investing in an eco-system. If you buy an iPhone, you want to know that they have a good catalog of apps, since the iPhone will be the only place to get apps. Same thing with Android and WP7/8. You need a strong eco-system to attract customers. That eco-system could of been GIVEN TO FLIGHT via 3rd party's. Many were ready and willing to do just that, but as we all know, that didnt happen for whatever reason. So Flight launched with an empty eco-system, and they were very secretive about there plans for that eco-system. So it was very hard for people interested in Flight to INVEST there hard earned money in that eco-system. I think THAT is what killed Flight.

[styckx 1,871]

Loved that MB episode.. I'm actually shocked Howard is even talking after this.. I guess he's trying to save himself a position.. Which is ironic considering he tried to start e-fights with flight sim enthusiasts via internet tough guy interview answers. I gave flight an honest go but between Josuhas holier than thou pompous attitude and the constant silence followed by cheap cockpitless airplanes I ultimately gave up. I splurged for Alaska just to see if they did anything special and.. They didn't.. Just more of the status quo basics..

[neve38 0]

Kevin, in regards to MS killing the Flight Server, what exactly will that do to the game, we can still play right? Will that just effect multiplayer? Can you expand on this. Thanks, appreciate what you have posted so far. I am actually a huge fan of Flight and was sad to see this announcement today..

[mgh 89]

Robin, at the time FSX was in the first year of development, the "future hardware" envisioned was that which unfortunately forked off into an alternate universe...

 

...meanwhile in this, our current universe, the rules changed and hardware development took a sharp right turn and went merrily on its way sideways from its previous path. FSX coding had already gone too far in the (now) wrong direction, and couldn't really be changed.

 

Kevin, as far as I can see somewhere along the line Microsoft seems to have lost the true vision and raison d'etre for the Flight Simulator Franchise. Truthfully, it was never any real "revenue generator" of any type, but it was a terrific "Goodwill/Loyalty Generator" for Microsoft as a whole...

 

As many will recall, FS was at one time the "semi-official measuring stick" by which true "IBM compatibility" of hardware was judged. When that eventually became irrelevant, it still remained as a very valuable asset vis-a-vis attracting and maintaining MS brand loyalty among many of the IT movers and shakers in the industry.

 

Unfortunately for Microsoft, these days they've managed to throughly disappoint and discourage many of their long time supporters because of their serious and sequential failures to satisfy expectations.

 

But times have changed Bill - IBM's no longer in the PC business, and Microsoft's not in the business of subsidising hobbies. A commercially viable franchise will survive - otherwise it will go to the wall. Expectations will not be satisfied unless they are commercially viable, And that's the bottom line despite all the wishful thinking.

 

" but that was in another country, And besides, the wench is dead."

[nbz 4]

I think the #1 thing that hurt Flight the most, was having an almost empty store on launch. [...] So Flight launched with an empty eco-system, and they were very secretive about there plans for that eco-system. So it was very hard for people interested in Flight to INVEST there hard earned money in that eco-system.

 

Completely agree. I could not believe that this was all their content at launch. I actually was a beta tester, but I had only the basic Hawaii with 2 planes, and assumed more content behind the flying triangles that were buzzing around than the few planes they released.

 

On the website, prior to release, they had told us that in the shop, we could not only buy planes and scenery, but also functionality. I had hoped - maybe also assumed - that they would basically take FSX' functionality, slice it into pieces (the ATC module, the Traffic module etc.) and sell these pieces individually.

 

Then it was AVSIMs interview with Mr. Howard (a lot of good questions followed by a lot of bad answers) that did not help to convey that Mr. Howard actually had any idea of where to take this in the future. Except for dropping a DLC piece in 1-eternity-intervals.

 

But now, the speculation and uncertainty of "where MS will take Flight" has been answered. The trashcan, it is.

 

Regarding alainneedles back burner: how about MS selling their codebase to the same entity they sold ESP to.... and P3D v3 incorporating the Flight graphics code... (just daydreaming)

 

Sorry for those who got laid off. Not their fault.

[newthog 0]

For those planning to move on do not be shy of the FSX, Xplane or the Prepar3D forums to ask any questions

 

ironically enough, I started downloading FSX last night because I was tired of waiting for a helicopter in Flight! (kind of) got the hang of whirlybirds in FS9, just wanted to try something a little updated.

 

Looking forward to exploring a new (for me) flight simulation experience!

[scotchegg 4,186]

I wonder if the code is simply not for sale at any price, or just too expensive for one 3PD to buy themselves.

 

If it's the latter a bit of communication could see them get together, maybe with extra help from the community (I would gladly put in a couple of hundred dollars investment if I knew the skilled 3PDs were committed to development), to pool resources and make the mouthwatering sim that there's clearly a market for.

[hmsdreadnought 12]

I'm sorry that the developers lost their job - but they really should have seen this coming. The whole concept as released was a marketing disaster, from positioning, to product (plane after plane without a cockpit, small flying area, no radios, no ai) to absolute deafness to the criticism heaped on by simmers and mainstream gaming sites alike. IGN's review pretty much summed it up.

 

I would have been looking for job even before the site went live. You don't need an MBA to know that Flight as released was a terrible idea.

 

Colin

[Gibbage 199]

Kevin, in regards to MS killing the Flight Server, what exactly will that do to the game, we can still play right? Will that just effect multiplayer? Can you expand on this. Thanks, appreciate what you have posted so far. I am actually a huge fan of Flight and was sad to see this announcement today..

 

It depends on MS. There are two online portions of Flight. First it "dials home" every time you load up Flight to make sure you have a legal copy and validates all DLC's. Thats 1 server. Without that, Flight wont load your DLC. 2nd server manages all the online content. Stuff like multi-player, aerocaches, achievements and so on. Without that, Flight would be crippled, but flyable. From what Tom's interview said, they plan to keep the servers up, but did not specify for how long. Sometime down the road, MS could pull the plug on those servers and effectively invalidate all of our purchases. It wont be the first game in history to do this, and it wont be the last. It sucks, but thats life. Another reason why people simply dont like investing in online content. At some point in time, it will be worthless.

[HiFlyer 9,361]

It depends on MS. There are two online portions of Flight. First it "dials home" every time you load up Flight to make sure you have a legal copy and validates all DLC's. Thats 1 server. Without that, Flight wont load your DLC. 2nd server manages all the online content. Stuff like multi-player, aerocaches, achievements and so on. Without that, Flight would be crippled, but flyable. From what Tom's interview said, they plan to keep the servers up, but did not specify for how long. Sometime down the road, MS could pull the plug on those servers and effectively invalidate all of our purchases. It wont be the first game in history to do this, and it wont be the last. It sucks, but thats life. Another reason why people simply dont like investing in online content. At some point in time, it will be worthless.

 

Well the fsx authentication servers are still up after about a zillion years, so maybe that's a good sign........ maybe.

 

But.

 

With no new content, I cant see people logging into flight years from now.

[dburne 2]

With no new content, I cant see people logging into flight years from now.

 

With only the content in there now, and no hope for new, I would be surprised if there were many logging into Flight 6 months from now.

[styckx 1,871]

Well the fsx authentication servers are still up after about a zillion years, so maybe that's a good sign........ maybe.

 

But.

 

With no new content, I cant see people logging into flight years from now.

 

And Microsoft is still selling FSX also.

[HiFlyer 9,361]

And Microsoft is still selling FSX also.

 

I suspect if they can, they will continue selling flight as well.

[tgenius 2]

I suspect if they can, they will continue selling flight as well.

 

Difference is, open market and constant influx of new content for FSX, locked up market and no new content for Flight. Who in their right mind would buy any part of Flight a year from now knowing there will never be anything new for it. When sales start drying up theres really no incentive for them to continue selling it or maintain the servers.

[Dogstar23 0]

I don't see why they would not monotize the asset by licensing the code out to third parties to continue development.