As of September...

 

http://izismile.com/...hises_ever.html

 

Ah, sorry! Gotcha.

 

 

Ah, sorry! Gotcha.

 

 

No need to apologise. I should have been more specific. But those numbers show why Microsoft has been so keen to think PC and XBox at the same time.

They might have moved down the list in recent years, but in 1999 official figures (just after the release of FS2000) were over 21 million copies. I highly doubt any other franchise surpassed that up to 2006/07 when FSX was still fresh, but you are probably right that today there are a few titles above FS.

 

The sales figures for FSX in 2007 are known, 280,000 over the whole year.

 

There's very little chance of that having ballooned into 'millions of copies' in the 5 years since, and certainly nowhere near 21 million. I think it's fair to say that if those fs2000 figures are correct, that that was the golden age of MSFS, but I'd guess they were total sales of the MSFS franchise, perhaps even including SubLOGIC's figures.

 

 

The sales figures for FSX in 2007 are known, 280,000 over the whole year.

 

There's very little chance of that having ballooned into 'millions of copies' in the 5 years since, and certainly nowhere near 21 million. I think it's fair to say that if those fs2000 figures are correct, that that was the golden age of MSFS, but I'd guess they were total sales of the MSFS franchise, perhaps even including SubLOGIC's figures.

 

Of course the '99 figure are total for all version of FS. The sales figures for FSX are not know and a highly guarded secret. I have from credible sources been told that total FSX sales to date are ca 2 million - although there are no proof of these numbers. Add to that the sales of FS2002 + 2004 and we are probably looking at total sales of 25+ million.

 

Edit: Actually, 21 million sales was reached before FS2000 hit the market! http://fshistory.simflight.com/fsh/downloads/chapter1.pdf

As mentioned above, Microsoft has exited the Flight Simulator business and is not

likely to re-enter it, no matter what we all believe to be the potential.

 

"Flight" was their last effort, and unfortunately, they screwed it up..

 

Luckily, we have a pretty stable FSX platform to use for the next while, with fresh add-ons appearing all the time.

 

And, LM is working away at P3D - so there may well be a future migration path..

 

I imagine going foward MS will only support "apps". I kind of question if it is possible to create an FS using the apps api's?

 

scott s.

.

FSX has sold millions of copies, and was among the most popular game titles when released. In fact, for a niche product it has done extremely well. The entire flight simulator franchise is the best selling game series ever.

 

Can you please provide me numbers and sources to back that statement up? How many copies did FSX sell and where did you get that information? Or, is it just conjecture on your part?

The writing on the wall is pretty clear...I don't think we'll see another major flight sim from Microsoft, at least, not one that appeals to the authenticity-hungry aviation simmers rather than the more casual flight fans.

 

There's definitely a hole to be filled, and who will fill it? I fervently hope for an open source project. FlightGear is a start but it has a long way to go to get up to where FSX is now. I need to download it and take a look and see where I can help with it.

 

I don't really like the idea of a company with a proprietary code base having the keys to the kingdom again. It's so easy for them to walk away if the profit isn't there.

 

But for now it looks like FSX extended by addons and fixes, Prepar3d, and X-plane are our choices.

 

I'm with FSX but thinking seriously about the other two.

 

Dutch

Can you please provide me numbers and sources to back that statement up? How many copies did FSX sell and where did you get that information? Or, is it just conjecture on your part?

 

Conjecture! As I stated ca 2 million (all versions, including Acceleration) is what I've gotten from a credible source a couple of years ago. As I also said, there is no proof of these numbers since Microsoft never denied or confirmed them.

 

I got numbers and info from some European online retailers, but never enough to make credible statistics out of them. Useful when compared to sales of other titles. Surprisingly FS2004 sold pretty good even in 2008 - when I did most of the research.

 

I also kept track of online activity on 100s of FS websites (like AVSIM) in many different countries where statistics were available, and since 2008 traffic slowed down in many places. In many contries that had thriving online FS communities before FSX, the interrest is now almost zero.

 

I worked as a consultant for a group considering buying into a FS community and web shop site. I told them to invest their savings elsewhere.

The FS franchise 1 to 11 was but a button on the Blazer of Microsoft. Serving the needs of a small minority of Aviation Enthusiasts and PC tinkerers. No more no less. MSFS is "dead", longlive LM.

The FS franchise 1 to 11 was but a button on the Blazer of Microsoft. Serving the needs of a small minority of Aviation Enthusiasts and PC tinkerers. No more no less. MSFS is "dead", longlive LM.

 

I so love it when folks speak with such authority as you have. Sounds good, but... I have been doing this for 16 years plus, and I would never make that statement. But, if it works for you... Define "button".

I 100% agree.

 

It should be re-written as a 64 bit program, and use the latest version of DirectX.

 

It should support as many cores as your PC has.

 

It should have every airport in the world, and all the navigation information should be up to date.

 

It should have 100's of GOOD aircraft included with the product,

 

It should have regular FREE Updates.

 

The new version should be a FREE update to FSX.

 

Isn't it great that you and I think the same .. seems obvious .. One has to wonder why Microsoft or P3D has not thought of this, and done this already. ?

 

Sounds so easy, one you think about it -- really Obvious.

 

I just have one question for you ..

What world do YOU live in ?? ( I want to live there too !!)

 

-----

Just had another GREAT Idea, Why don't Microsoft BUNDLE this new Flight Sim with "WINDOWS 8" .. would be far better than bundling their IE Browser, and imagine all the sales, and all the people that could then play with Flight Sim. at work, instead of wasting their time with MS OFFICE.

 

I should be PAID for these great ideas !!

 

I didn't say any of that!!! I just said about how the simulator uses hardware!! You have started to talk about loads of planes etc. I don't expect the simulator to be perfect. I said that the base product is good and that I really like FSX and the platform it is on, I just thought that it would have been a good idea to make it into 64bit.

 

I also never said about anything being free, if you read my post correctly I said I would be happy to pay good money to get a newer version and I know that majority of programs written in 32 bit don't take a lot to make into 64 bit otherwise companies wouldn't do it, or they would only make it into 64 bit in the first place.

 

Maybe before posting a ridiculously sarcastic comment back you should read what I actually said instead of just brushing over it. It was just a point of discussion I didn't suggest that it would be amazingly easy but they developed flight in a 6 year time frame and a 64 bit upgrade wouldn't take that long.

 

 

 

As to all you other people that have posted constructive comments back, I agree that it is a shame that MS have dropped out of the market. However, when I had the thought I was mainly thinking that the option to do that would have been around the time they chose flight. The only shame is that MS couldn't get enough due to the fact the 3rd party addons were really the revenue stream of flight sim. Maybe a commission for developing and on every sale would have been a possibility for them to make money, but then maybe the 3rd parties wouldn't have gone for this. But I am just speculating and just wondered what other people thought on this.

... Define "button".

 

Small component object contributing to the composition of the whole.

My point is that I think that the best option would be to improve an already good product by making it use multiple cores effectively and it being 64 bit.

 

When FSX was made most of the computers were 32 bit. Auto parts stores would not sell spark plug 8-packs if there were no V8's, only 4 cyylinders.

 

FSX, with SP1, will handle up to 256 CPU cores, though not virtual ones. That's why Hyperthreading should be turned off. SP1 also moved certain functions to the threads. This is why AffinityMask=14 works so well on 4 core, and AM=62 on 6 core, CPU's. Core 0 is used for the threads and everything else is on the other cores. On my system, HT adds about 8C to my CPU temp even though they are not used.

 

Dave

Seems like the golden age of FS was some 10 years ago now and it's been dying ever since. I wonder if there will even be a community in another 5 years. Been thinking about this a lot today. Now that MS is gone will either Xplane or P3D ever get the momentum to become true successors?

There will be Microsoft Flight Simulator forums for a long, long, time. Falcon 4 died in 1998 and is still going strong with new mods and tweaks. What will really hurt is when the Windows system no longer runs it and you can not install it. Or, maybe the hardware will no longer support it. Then.....

 

Win8 going to a tablet format. I think I got a whiff of the future and it didn't smell good!

 

Dave