So, somebody care to tell me who's investing millions of $$ in a new platform?

Plenty of military ones all around..... Not sure of civilian ones, and that right there is food for thought.

So, somebody care to tell me who's investing millions of $$ in a new platform?

....yeah that will be "Wishfull Thinking Inc." Alain :LMAO:

If we remain in the past, we may lose the opportunity to influence the future.

You think we've got influence? More wishful thinking perhaps? :lol: .....and in any case I didn't advocate remaining anywhere. Just developing with some compatability. It's been done with many things succesfully.

I would love to see it interact correctly with their regions while everything is activated. As it stands I cannot fly from NZ to Australia without having one of the sceneries deactivated otherwise there are issues with terrain and autogen.

 

On my ftx central I have Oceania selected. This now enables you to fly nz to aus.

MSFS stopped one generation too soon. The world changed and games became GPU-based. And gpus just keep getting better. The FSX engine is seriously ugly to modern eyes.

 

A stable sim with a fairly modern engine and the same open policies as MSFS is what is needed going forward.

MSFS stopped one generation too soon. The world changed and games became GPU-based. And gpus just keep getting better. The FSX engine is seriously ugly to modern eyes.

 

A stable sim with a fairly modern engine and the same open policies as MSFS is what is needed going forward.

 

and a much larger buying customer base ......

 

and a much larger buying customer base ......

 

I actually think the small customer base is a myth.

 

Fsx was top 10 software in both 2006 and 2007 - and going to the local comp store today i saw three copies of fsx still on display. I know they're still selling some copies even now...because i bought (another) one!

 

Check out the number of stores supporting this sim with software, or the steadily growing number of fsx iphone apps.

 

There's a solid market there if someone gets this right.

You think we've got influence? More wishful thinking perhaps? :lol: .....and in any case I didn't advocate remaining anywhere. Just developing with some compatability. It's been done with many things succesfully.

 

You don't believe companies looking to make money pay attention to potential customers? Of course we have influence.

 

As for retaining compatibility....... In this case I can't see a good reason for it that would outweigh the cost to innovation. FSX/FS9 are based on technical assumptions that proved to be incorrect. I think a new sim should feel free to start fresh. I think even P3D is carefully retaining the option to break compatibility if they feel the need to.

Oh, it isn't that I wouldn't like to see a new and amazingly realistic flight simulator for the PC. It's just that there is a part of me that breathed a big sigh of relief when it became clear that no successor to FSX would ever be forthcoming. I can just sit back and concentrate on completing my dream world........high resolution photoscenery coverage of the entire British Isles, together with detailed versions of the vast majority of the major airports and airfields....without having to worry about upgrading all over again. If only someone could convert the FSX code to run in 64bit form with full compatibility with existing addons....

 

** wakes up **

 

:(

I actually think the small customer base is a myth.

 

Fsx was top 10 software in both 2006 and 2007 - and going to the local comp store today i saw three copies of fsx still on display. I know they're still selling some copies even now...because i bought (another) one!

 

Check out the number of stores supporting this sim with software, or the steadily growing number of fsx iphone apps.

 

There's a solid market there if someone gets this right.

 

The world has changed since 2006/2007 .... game companies are now chasing numbers like $1B in 16 days for Call of Duty Black Ops. The 250,000 units/yr (FSX peak sales) target doesn't interest the big gaming houses any longer. Of the top 10 grossing games for 2012 ... Assassins Creed 3 was number 10 with nearly 400,000 units/yr sold.

The world has changed since 2006/2007

 

Indeed. With Cliffs of Dover recently being put out of its misery the last big publisher - Ubisoft - has left the flight sim genre. All current projects are being undertaken by independant developers or specialist publishers, with a smattering of community based efforts. I think it's potentially a very good thing as developers no longer have to make the sim that the publisher thinks will sell - they can make the sim they want.

 

I don't know about other countries, but here in the UK PC games are increasingly hard to find on the high street. The biggest retailer of video games - Game - went bust last year and most of the shops were shut. The few branches of Game that remain, along with the Game Station (owned by the same company) have a pitifully small PC games section. The other high street retailer that stocked video games was HMV and they have been in dire straits for some time now feeling the squeeze from cheaper online retailers. I honestly don't think the future of flight simulation in in brick and mortar retailers. The future is already digital distribution direct from the developer/publisher or a specialist online retailer like Simmarket of Flightsimstore.

Indeed. With Cliffs of Dover recently being put out of its misery the last big publisher - Ubisoft - has left the flight sim genre. All current projects are being undertaken by independant developers or specialist publishers, with a smattering of community based efforts. I think it's potentially a very good thing as developers no longer have to make the sim that the publisher thinks will sell - they can make the sim they want.

 

I don't know about other countries, but here in the UK PC games are increasingly hard to find on the high street. The biggest retailer of video games - Game - went bust last year and most of the shops were shut. The few branches of Game that remain, along with the Game Station (owned by the same company) have a pitifully small PC games section. The other high street retailer that stocked video games was HMV and they have been in dire straits for some time now feeling the squeeze from cheaper online retailers. I honestly don't think the future of flight simulation in in brick and mortar retailers. The future is already digital distribution direct from the developer/publisher or a specialist online retailer like Simmarket of Flightsimstore.

 

Whilst the retail PC game market may be down (whether just in the U.K. or globally), overall PC game sales are up and in fact broke records last year. Steam and other online retailers account for the majority of PC games sales now.

I'm a big fan of Steam and have migrated pretty much my entire game library onto it. As long as you have a fast Internet connection for downloading the games it's fantastic. The regular sales can't be beat either. Unfortunately there's still a huge amount of misinformation out there about Steam and how it works.

I'm a big fan of Steam and have migrated pretty much my entire game library onto it. As long as you have a fast Internet connection for downloading the games it's fantastic. The regular sales can't be beat either. Unfortunately there's still a huge amount of misinformation out there about Steam and how it works.

 

I concur. Steam is the best thing to happen to PC gaming since the internet, or perhaps even hardware graphics acceleration.