Developer Funding For New Flight Simulator

[IAF747 8]

Instead of having petitions to a company that won't do flight simulator, why not launch a fundraiser to hire Aces devs to make a new flight simulator for us?

 

I know there are lots of fundraisers for these efforts (like the Wing Commander series) have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars plus they raise above what is needed.

 

And then we can work out with Microsoft about ensuring the new FS11 would be compatible with FS10 Addons, especially payware aircraft. I don't know the legalities but having access to FS10 for new FS develop might infringe on Microsoft rights and it would be generous of them to get those rights waived.

 

I would suppose the main reason for developing FS11 is to take advantage of the performance available with today's video cards and CPUs and 64 bit OS. It would be great to refine the code so that FPS can be achieved similar to games like the First Person Shooters which have very smooth running.

 

This is one option.

 

We could even include a scenery design package and object and aircraft design package which would be easy to use in the final release, it would then make it very attractive to us who want to add our own local scenery, objects and aircraft.

[HughesMDflyer4 470]

Seems like a good idea, but we know it won't happen. Enough money to pay the developers full time would have to be raised (between 20-50 people). Also, most of the ACES team are either in other parts of Microsoft Studios, with Cascade Game Foundry, or working on Prepar3D. The likelihood of recruiting enough of them back seems very low.

 

Realistically, I don't think Microsoft will want anything to do with this. They don't see a flight simulator as profitable. Flight showed them that the way that they wanted to enter the market was not a viable solution, and they saw the previous financial model as unrealistic in today's market.

 

I do sincerely hope that I am completely wrong about all of this and things work out, but I really do not see it happening.

 

On a side note, a 64 bit platform would also break compatibility with any aircraft relying on DLLs (so, majority of aircraft?), since all DLLs compiled for MSFS currently utilize a 32 bit architecture.

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

Also, most of the ACES team are either in other parts of Microsoft Studios, with Cascade Game Foundry, or working on Prepar3D.

This is the problem. CGF is where they are. I don't think they would want to resume working on a project that they were laid off from...

[japascoe 98]

Instead of having petitions to a company that won't do flight simulator, why not launch a fundraiser to hire Aces devs to make a new flight simulator for us?

 

I know there are lots of fundraisers for these efforts (like the Wing Commander series) have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars plus they raise above what is needed.

 

 

Raising hundreds of thousands of dollars is pretty great, but where is the other $9.5 - $19.5 million you need going to come from? Even Star Citizen (the Wing Commander 'successor' you mentioned), which is one of the most successful crowd-funding initiatives ever (raising $7 million) only raised half the total amount of money needed. The other half had to come from traditional investors.

[IAF747 8]

Raising hundreds of thousands of dollars is pretty great, but where is the other $9.5 - $19.5 million you need going to come from? Even Star Citizen (the Wing Commander 'successor' you mentioned), which is one of the most successful crowd-funding initiatives ever (raising $7 million) only raised half the total amount of money needed. The other half had to come from traditional investors.

Ok. I must be wrong because I remember reading somewhere that some crowd funding had raised extremely quickly the money needed for some particular ventures/games.

 

Anyhow, more comments welcome. Thanks so far.....

[RWFeldman 159]

:fool:

[goates 576]

Raising hundreds of thousands of dollars is pretty great, but where is the other $9.5 - $19.5 million you need going to come from? Even Star Citizen (the Wing Commander 'successor' you mentioned), which is one of the most successful crowd-funding initiatives ever (raising $7 million) only raised half the total amount of money needed. The other half had to come from traditional investors.

Star Citizen has raised $14 million out of an (estimated) requirement of $21 million so far.

 

[ohsirus 241]

Star Citizen had some really lofty goals and they just kept throwing meat to a rabid beast for more money. I just logged into my hanger and seen an option for a 110 dollar ship. Cmon 10 million wasnt enough?

[FlyVFR 58]

I would contribute a couple hundred to a kickstarter with a lofty multimillion dollar goal. I'm afraid the likelihood of getting that funded is very low and not worth the effort to start it.
I know I don't have the energy to do it.

I think we would be better off rallying behind Laminar, DCS, AeroflyFS or someone else already in the the industry.
I really like what Aerofly has done so far. If that kind of quality can transition to the world. =P~
Flightsim utopia!

Robert from PMDG is confident about the future of flightsim. He is an industry insider and I trust him when he says don't worry about the hobby.

[goates 576]

Star Citizen had some really lofty goals and they just kept throwing meat to a rabid beast for more money. I just logged into my hanger and seen an option for a 110 dollar ship. Cmon 10 million wasnt enough?

 

Not if you want a modern AAA level game. And especially not when he is trying to fund it independently of any of the major publishers, most of whom don't see any value in a space sim.

[mgh 89]

Star Citizen has raised $14 million out of an (estimated) requirement of $21 million so far.

What happens if it fails to reach $21 M?

[goates 576]

What happens if it fails to reach $21 M?

 

According to this page, Chris Roberts estimated that it would take $12-14 million to develop. The $21 million number above came from the Wikipedia page, so not sure which is more accurate.

 

As stated in the commercial terms on the official website, the money raised is non-refundable if they aren't able to deliver the game.

 

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/commercial-terms

[flyforever 267]

I don't get it.  FSX is a great sim, and it meets 99% of simmers' needs.  What are people looking for?

tc

[FlyVFR 58]

Stirring a pot? eh.

 

I bet you said the same thing in FS 5.0 when textures were first introduced. Everything evolves. Flight Sim has long way to go before it catches up to the hardware. There is plenty of room for improvement. Just look at what Orbx is doing in the 32-bit environment compared to default.

I can't even imagine if it was 64-bit.

 

Flight sim is going to stay looking like it does today (Drzewiecki Design is trying to push the limit with New York X but is not doing too well) while other genres like FPS and RPGs are pressing full steam ahead. There is no reason other than funding that flight sim can not rival in graphics with games like Crysis, Skyrim or Witcher.

 

If it ever got to that point then I think it could attract more people to the hobby that may have a small interest in aviation but not yet serious simmers like us.

 

The only reason I started playing Skyrim was the graphics blew me away. I had no interest in role playing games, Elder Scrolls or any of that before. Now I'm hooked and can not wait for the Elder Scrolls MMO (I can not believe I just said that). :lol: