OMG Jonathan, that's *funny*!  Thanks for posting it.

 

I wonder if stack ranking is going away now.

 

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/2012/08/microsoft-lost-mojo-steve-ballmer

 

Hook

Dillon, I find it quite interesting that you seem to put all of Microsoft's woes at Ballmer's door. I can think of quite a few major products Microsoft have rolled out in the pre-Ballmer days that didn't hit the spot.... Vista, Zune, Bing, GFWL... in the case of the last three they were MS reactions to successful products launched by others.

 

The problems began at MS long before Ballmer was in charge.

 

The notion that the departure of Ballmer now opens the door for MSFS to make a miraculous resurrection is very far fetched. They've got much bigger fish to fry. Besides, the video game entertainment industry has moved on. The major driving force nowadays are consoles, that's where the big money is and where the lion's share of investment goes. What makes its way to PC is mostly cross platform. Triple A PC exclusives have become very rare, and are increasingly turning out to be huge design flops... witness Total War Rome 2 and X-Rebirth. Most of the PC exclusive genres - flight sims included - are now done by much smaller specialist publishers/developers.

 

I hnoestly can't conceive a situation where MS would feel it worth their while to resurrect MSFS.

Actually no, the console market is dying a rapid death, too. Xboner One is a huge flop (pun intended). PS4 is barely crawling out from under a rock, and Sony's only profitability is in financial services, aka, gambling - they're selling off their audio and TV and PC stuff as fast as they can.

 

The current, final phase of the "big" games market, I'd like to think of it as The Second Napster Implosion, is with free-to-play mobile and FB games, which are both mainly just one small step away from being legalized Internet casinos. Yes, folks, why go to Las Vegas when you can bankrupt yourself from the comfort of your own foreclosed home playing Crappy Bird and Candy Crush?

 

It's all in the rear view mirror at this point; digital arts and crafts by small teams doing it for the fun of it, not to serve some desperate profit monster, is the future. Which means FSX and P3D Version Maybe are the platforms for future flight simulation, unless a consortium of digital craftspeople pool a big enough range of talent and ten years of investment in the hope something as full-fledged and comparable to FSX can be cooked up. Highly unlikely, as not just the code base but the expertise and scale required for such an effort would significantly exceed all but the deepest pockets with the most patience in scope, and I'm not even sure Billie Himself would have enough of both (especially the latter) to sustain such a venture.

 

Plus, the kids prefer Crappy Bird. And a small, dedicated audience, Crusader Kings 2.

 

Oh, and the corporate fascist US government (regardless of party, the results are the same) will continue to appreciate the churning out of a few FPS to lure the less bright among us into a life as cannon fodder for their military protection and surveillance needs, forgot that other market. MS will make big bux there.

 

 

 

 

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http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/02/gates-spends-entire-first-day-back-in-office-trying-to-install-windows-81.html

LOL

 

But during Bill Gates' AMA (Ask me anything), he repeatedly praised Windows 8:

 

 

I finally scored a 10 in Flappy Bird. It was a momentous occasion.

Dillon, I find it quite interesting that you seem to put all of Microsoft's woes at Ballmer's door. I can think of quite a few major products Microsoft have rolled out in the pre-Ballmer days that didn't hit the spot.... Vista, Zune, Bing, GFWL... in the case of the last three they were MS reactions to successful products launched by others.

 

The problems began at MS long before Ballmer was in charge.

 

The notion that the departure of Ballmer now opens the door for MSFS to make a miraculous resurrection is very far fetched. They've got much bigger fish to fry. Besides, the video game entertainment industry has moved on. The major driving force nowadays are consoles, that's where the big money is and where the lion's share of investment goes. What makes its way to PC is mostly cross platform. Triple A PC exclusives have become very rare, and are increasingly turning out to be huge design flops... witness Total War Rome 2 and X-Rebirth. Most of the PC exclusive genres - flight sims included - are now done by much smaller specialist publishers/developers.

 

I hnoestly can't conceive a situation where MS would feel it worth their while to resurrect MSFS.

 

All I can say to most of that is you've drunk the coolaide on technology that to me was a rushed diagnoses versus a carefully thought out assessment of the trends. I would more so say XBOX may be dying thanks to how Ballmer and his staff tried to market games for it, the margin of sales is 2 to 1 as gamers haven't forgot what Ballmer tried to pull with it (just like how he tried to market Flight add-ons). With every major business in the world using PC's they are far from dead. Go into any office around the world look at what people are using. Only the most bleeding edge environments are trying to use IPads and Tablets exclusively. Heck you can't even get a decent docking station that will support more than three monitors let alone the other options a PC can afford you a tablet can't. Microsoft has one card to play and that's the card of enterprise solutions. Google and Apple have the tablet market plane and simple. Seeing every office uses PC's and most people still have PC's in their homes along with tablets making PC entertainment titles is not that far fetched if MS wants to expand the world they have the best footing in. For the record Steam games aren't doing too bad if that's any marker to this so called dying PC market.

 

Concerning failures in software, Bing was under Ballmer. Vista under the hood needed to be more refined as with all new software. That's totally different than an interface that needs to be thrown out completely. Peaks and valleys are a fact of life with software development but in the case of Ballmer he killed off profitable departments to go head on with Apple, Playstation, and Android. The whole games department was basically dismantled, solutions that worked like Silverlight were cut, he sold a 64bit OS yet all tools developed by MS are still 32Bit, he put Metro on the server OS which makes no since as Server will never be installed on a tablet. The list goes on and on. He was the head and the buck stopped with him that's why he was fired the other day.

I finally scored a 10 in Flappy Bird. It was a momentous occasion.

My high score is 1 lol. I'm sure its harder on an android then an iPhone.

All I can say to most of that is you've drunk the coolaide on technology that to me was a rushed diagnoses versus a carefully thought out assessment of the trends

 

There's no need for references like that.

 

If you'd read again what I wrote you'll see that nowhere did I say PC gaming - nor indeed the PC itself - is dead. Steam proves that as you quite rightly point out.

 

If you want to talk about trends, then here's a good one for you.... please tell me how many PC exclusive triple A titles have been released in the last year or two? Not many at all. This is because video game development is now driven by the console market. Nearly all the triple A releases on PC are cross platform with the consoles. Those triple A PC exclusive releases that have happened in the last year have been less than successful. Now take a closer look at two traditional PC genres - strategy games and flight sims. In the fomer big publishers have all but deserted the genre, in the latter there are now no longer any major publishers left.

 

In the case of flight sims all of the current development is by smaller specialist outfits.

 

Starting with news of the departure of Ballmer and then arriving at the conclusion that the MSFS franchise might be resurrected is such a gigantic leap of both reason and logic that it flies in the face of what's been happening in the industry. Right now it's wishful thinking at best.

 

As for Xbox dying.... really? Are you serious? Selling 2.6 million units up until the end of 2013 (so just over a month since launch) is dying? You've come to that conclusion a scant three months after the Xbox One has been released?

There's no need for references like that.

 

If you'd read again what I wrote you'll see that nowhere did I say PC gaming - nor indeed the PC itself - is dead. Steam proves that as you quite rightly point out.

 

If you want to talk about trends, then here's a good one for you.... please tell me how many PC exclusive triple A titles have been released in the last year or two? Not many at all. This is because video game development is now driven by the console market. Nearly all the triple A releases on PC are cross platform with the consoles. Those triple A PC exclusive releases that have happened in the last year have been less than successful. Now take a closer look at two traditional PC genres - strategy games and flight sims. In the fomer big publishers have all but deserted the genre, in the latter there are now no longer any major publishers left.

 

In the case of flight sims all of the current development is by smaller specialist outfits.

 

Starting with news of the departure of Ballmer and then arriving at the conclusion that the MSFS franchise might be resurrected is such a gigantic leap of both reason and logic that it flies in the face of what's been happening in the industry. Right now it's wishful thinking at best.

 

As for Xbox dying.... really? Are you serious? Selling 2.6 million units up until the end of 2013 (so just over a month since launch) is dying? You've come to that conclusion a scant three months after the Xbox One has been released?

 

I agree that I'm making a leap of faith based on Microsoft's apparent need to shore up the PC market for it's enterprise solutions. As far as XBOX One is concerned I was only making a reference to how it was selling compared to the latest Playstation offering which is far lower than it did when the last two iterations went up against each other.

 

Just because PC games have been discontinued doesn't mean the market isn't there. Many have been waiting for the next Age of Empires, Train Simulator, Flight Simulator. Without those titles why buy a new PC? Some idiot has been going to every major developer he can find selling mobile and developers have bought into it. Games drive hardware and if you stop selling games for hardware there's no incentive to buy hardware hence the downward turn we have been seeing with PC's. Business buy in cycles so you won't see a rush of business purchases for the holidays... Whatever jerk/jerks that's been selling the cool-aide can't do this with the business market which Microsoft has sowed up. If Microsoft started selling PC games again people will buy especially if the specs to run it requires a hardware upgrade. This is how it's always been done. No software no sale on hardware. Honestly I haven't seen a tablet solution that can replace Flight Simulator and all we can do with it. Same goes for a host of other abandoned games for the PC. It's not a market shift but rather a universal decision based on shady data that's been shoved down our throats like so many other things in our society. It's a shame software developers bought into this with no upgrade path to their software just discontinued franchises leaving consumers/fans hanging in the process...

I think you misunderstand the current mass-market move to mobile and f2p games. It is not driven by one guy going around "fooling" all the publishers into doing it. It is the result of a qualitative and quantitative sea change in the global gaming market, first apparent in Korea and China, now finally coming to the rest of the old-fashioned world still stuck on PCs and consoles.

 

PCs are very much dying. Recent rumors suggest Dell may be laying off 15k employees soon. It's a tiny, shrinking market, viable for small players like Steam.

 

Consoles are very much dying. Increasingly only a fraction of the market will spend $300-$600 for the platform, and $80 a pop (US currency) for "Triple A" games. A few FPSes are all that's really left in that market. It's a genre that works better on PC but has moved almost 100% to consoles, simply due to the platform price point, and the convenience both of development and digital online distribution for the platform. That market has basically hit its peak audience, which is going to drop significantly over the next three years, as mobile systems become more powerful.

 

f2p mobile games are the business model that works, and they don't need even the kind of publisher overhead an EA, MS or Sony represents. They are also easier on consumers, who only have to pay for as much as they play, instead of buying 4GB of expensive, 3D content 60% of which they will never see, and thus was never worth wasting so much money (that they no longer have, in this global depression economy) on.

 

 

It's that simple.

I think you misunderstand the current mass-market move to mobile and f2p games. It is not driven by one guy going around "fooling" all the publishers into doing it. It is the result of a qualitative and quantitative sea change in the global gaming market, first apparent in Korea and China, now finally coming to the rest of the old-fashioned world still stuck on PCs and consoles.

 

PCs are very much dying. Recent rumors suggest Dell may be laying off 15k employees soon. It's a tiny, shrinking market, viable for small players like Steam.

 

Consoles are very much dying. Increasingly only a fraction of the market will spend $300-$600 for the platform, and $80 a pop (US currency) for "Triple A" games. A few FPSes are all that's really left in that market. It's a genre that works better on PC but has moved almost 100% to consoles, simply due to the platform price point, and the convenience both of development and digital online distribution for the platform. That market has basically hit its peak audience, which is going to drop significantly over the next three years, as mobile systems become more powerful.

 

f2p mobile games are the business model that works, and they don't need even the kind of publisher overhead an EA, MS or Sony represents. They are also easier on consumers, who only have to pay for as much as they play, instead of buying 4GB of expensive, 3D content 60% of which they will never see, and thus was never worth wasting so much money (that they no longer have, in this global depression economy) on.

 

 

It's that simple.

 

Then explain how this is going to work in the business world? Companies have abandoned even looking at Windows 8 and 98% of the world business offices use PC's. As long as the business world uses PC's over mobile devices the PC is no where near on the brink of extinction. You put that on top of the fact that hobbyist can configure their PC's to do whatever they want to achieve the best performance, how is mobile going to take over this completely (they can't even give us mobile alternatives to the best PC titles we've lost)? Next is Graphic design that needs the robust performance and specific upgrade options only a PC can provide (graphic cards for example), a tablet and laptop can't compare. All of your Hollywood computer generated special effects are created on desktop computers. I know because I have a friend that works for ILM and another for Pixar in Oakland.

 

I'm just looking at basic common since as I've never blindly believed what CNN Reports and third party online news outlets say. The social engineering is not working here. You can't just tell people this is how it is and it becomes reality. You can get away with this with social issues and the music industry but in technology everyone going to mobile just doesn't make since and I'm not seeing the business, military, government world jumping on board as it's not practical for day to day work. Only home/entertainment use and that's not universal.

Every time Microsoft's name is mentioned in the Press, our Community starts with the "Do you think MS will revive FlightSim" posts, and the invariable debates ensue, trying to 'armchair analyze' what Microsoft's profits, forecasts and internal machinations mean to the FlightSim market at large.

 

Just because FlightSim has the name "Microsoft" attached to it doesn't mean that MS has some sort of 'ancestral obligation' to keep the FS fires burning and to nurture the embers. The Boardroom at Mt. Redmond is very aware and attuned to the results the last time they 'tried' to re-visit the Flight Simulator market; they were vilified by the Press and the Gaming Community at large, and DO NOT want to repeat it.

 

It's time to FINALLY smell the roses, and realize that Microsoft has left the FlightSim business behind.

 

Alan 

 

 

Honestly, does anyone really think that MS would consider bringing back flt simming when their last attempt failed.

 

Flight did not fail, it was sabotaged from within. Three years of groundbreaking work that has yet to be duplicated just killed by a management decision.

 

Steve

Every time Microsoft's name is mentioned in the Press, our Community starts with the "Do you think MS will revive FlightSim" posts, and the invariable debates ensue, trying to 'armchair analyze' what Microsoft's profits, forecasts and internal machinations mean to the FlightSim market at large.

 

Just because FlightSim has the name "Microsoft" attached to it doesn't mean that MS has some sort of 'ancestral obligation' to keep the FS fires burning and to nurture the embers. The Boardroom at Mt. Redmond is very aware and attuned to the results the last time they 'tried' to re-visit the Flight Simulator market; they were vilified by the Press and the Gaming Community at large, and DO NOT want to repeat it.

 

It's time to FINALLY smell the roses, and realize that Microsoft has left the FlightSim business behind.

 

Alan 

 

My question to you is how do you know this? Just like we can debate one way how does your pessimistic view override ours? I'll be looking for you if an announcement is made by Microsoft. Many around here are closer to the MS camp than you realize. People aren't just shooting off at the mouth with nothing but popcorn, soda, and a nice easy chair to back it up. Just the same this is a forum for discussion so let's discuss. Many are like me in the IT industry and have an insight as to what's going on. Some here are former/current Microsoft employees. There's nothing wrong with discussion everytime Microsoft does something. The machine most of us are typing on is Windows based. 90% of your work environment is MS Server based. Microsoft plays a big role in all of our lives with or without Flight Simulator. I'd like to er on the side brighter days are in store for our community and Microsoft with Bill Gates involved again. A half baked Ballmer attempt at controlling our hobby through Flight shouldn't be the marker MS uses for the franchise's viability. A better route is for them to look at Lockheed, Flight Sim's competition (XPlane), Avsim, and the various other sites and add-ons built around their platform. With Bill involved you never know what will happen. It's like having Steve Jobs back at Apple and you saw how that went, we got the iPhone/iPad which brought that company back from the brink of bankruptcy.

 

 

Flight did not fail, it was sabotaged from within.

 

MS Flight failed because nearly everyone here tried it and turned away, it was a commercial flop so Microsoft killed it off.

Face it, from day one the flightsim community slated it for its limited gameplay area, limited weather themes, lack of any Ai and its empty world.

Had Flight been embraced by the community and the wider gaming audience that MS was pitching it at, the project would have carried on for longer.

What were those Devs were doing for three years to come up with such a limited product ? , no wonder MS senior management were annoyed with what they delivered.

 

And yes, it still annoys me that they thought Flight! could be an adequate replacement for FSX.