MS IS a desktop oriented company. What is the Windows OS? Realizing that Flight flopped like it did don't you think that the higher ups are considering reverting to what was the successful business model for many years AKA the FS franchise? Seems all to obvious I know.

 

Cheers

jja

 

When was it a successful business model for Microsoft? A decade ago, maybe? It certainly wasn't in 2006, when they finally decided to abandon the entire franchise.

 

It was a poor business model for them years ago. Despite that, they gave it a second chance anyway, and THAT gamble failed miserably. Games development has become an extraordinarily costly endeavor, even more so for something on the scale of the global FlightSim platform we all know and love. All signs point to the desktop market withering away and losing market share to tablets, anyway. Just look at what's been happening to Dell in recent years.

 

The only thing obvious (again, from their likely standpoint) is that they should probably not throw good money after bad. This franchise is just not a priority for them anymore. It's not a pleasant reality, but that would be a perfectly realistic *business* decision for Microsoft to make, despite what our relatively niche audience is clamoring for.

 

Hope someone else steps up to the plate.

Times they are a changin'.

 

Flight failed because it was a half hearted effort at best, and its development was derailed by an individual with no passion for flying or flight simming.

Another company has to fill MS flight sim void as MS cannot do it no longer, with the way market conditions are and the economy is worse than 2007 people losing disposable income every year since because of cost of living increases. Look at new Xbox and PS4 they just mid range pc and the demands of simmers are niche compared to Halo and COD series. Have to sell higher volume of software to make profit than 1998. MS gonna have massive lay-offs and restructuring as it surival at stake.

 

 

When was it a successful business model for Microsoft? A decade ago, maybe? It certainly wasn't in 2006, when they finally decided to abandon the entire franchise.

 

It was a poor business model for them years ago.

 

Sorry but how do you know that to be the case? The only factual information on that subject came from some of the old Aces team, who stated repeatedly that FSX did very well indeed, which is partially why they made an extension pack for it and resurrected the canceled Train Simulator project which is what they were working on when the axe fell.

 

The decision to discontinue the franchise was simply an attempt to improve their bottom line by decreasing the head count during the GFC. Flight simulation was never a core business for FS so they pulled the plug on that.

 

Don't get me wrong, personally I'm kind of glad they are gone since I'm hoping that someone a little more centered in the FS community will pounce on the void that has opened here, but claiming that FSX wasn't financially successful when in fact it was isn't going to improve our chances of getting a new sim.

The clouds will part and beam a light over Bellevue, Washington and Lake Washington will part like the Red Sea as he departs and the stock price will go up