November 4, 201213 yr 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? Yes there will most probably be a small but thriving community even in five years, but what all these optimists don't seem to get is that to get new people into the hobby a game (FSX) from 2006, X-Plane or P3D just isn't going to cut it. Flight simming as a hobby will fizzle out when most enthusiasts are grand old men. Unless FS11 is made I am using my last Windows based desktop computer. I'm allready using a Macbook and iPad for all my other computer needs. The only reason I bought a new Windows 7 based PC was because I was overly optimistic about Microsoft Flight which turned out to be a disaster. Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
November 4, 201213 yr Edit: Actually, 21 million sales was reached before FS2000 hit the market! http://fshistory.sim...ds/chapter1.pdf That's eqivalent to about 1 million a year. Also those figures are 13 out of date and of practically no value in making decision now about the future. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 sold more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom on its first day of release. Times have changed and are still changing. Gerry Howard
November 4, 201213 yr Times have changed and are still changing. Indeed they are, and not always for the better. Flight Simulators used to be mainstream products, but are now a niche. But niches can be higly profitable and surprisingly popular. While titles like Super Mario, FIFA and Call of Duty are predictably successful, titles like the Sims and Minecraft show that there are millions of nerds out there falling in love with unique and different games. Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
November 4, 201213 yr I don't need another platform. What I really want is a faster and more affordable CPU. MSFS
November 4, 201213 yr 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. ... Not really, 64 bit consumer chips had been sold for 3-4 years already at that time. The vast majority of the chips sold was actually 64 bit in 2006. vatsim s3
November 4, 201213 yr Not really, 64 bit consumer chips had been sold for 3-4 years already at that time. The vast majority of the chips sold was actually 64 bit in 2006. Yep, but development and coding of FSX was begun years before the actual game was released! Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
November 4, 201213 yr The first 64 bit consumer chip was released even before MS released MSFS 2004 and top developers had been receiving ES versions of the chips long before release anyways vatsim s3
November 4, 201213 yr The first 64 bit consumer chip was released even before MS released MSFS 2004 and top developers had been receiving ES versions of the chips long before release anyways Yep, but developers have to think about the average user, and I can assure you that 64-bit OS and software was not common in 2004-2006. The tech was there - I had a 64-bit AMD CPU, but consumer software and hardware didn't embrace the tech back then. I still have a lot of hardware that I can't use with WIN7-64 because 64-bit drivers were never made. Simmerhead - Making the virtual skies unsafe since 1987!
November 4, 201213 yr Moderator The first 64 bit consumer chip was released even before MS released MSFS 2004 and top developers had been receiving ES versions of the chips long before release anyways That makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. Until the market saturation for x64 comes into ascendency (which interesting enough still hasn't happened), software will remain targeted to the lowest common denominator. Hm, I just noticed that I'm three posts short of hitting the 10k posts milestone... :lol: Fr. Bill AOPA Member: 07141481 AARP Member: 3209010556 Avsim Board of Directors | Avsim Forums Moderator
November 4, 201213 yr This makes for interesting coffee talk - but lets face it... this is all about rehashing history. Edit: Not aimed at you Bill, you managed to sneak in as I was writing this.. MS is out of the flightsim business, and no amount of "Monday-after Quarterbacking" will bring it back.. :huh: Now, lets make the best out of FSX, with all the great help in these forums and with all the great add-ons that are still coming out, and lets keep an eye on LM to see what they can do with the P3D platform! :rolleyes: Bert
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