Quiet after the storm........

[JSkorna 137]

DTG did not purchase a Flight license, only one for FSX, so don't look for Flight on any Steam servers.

[Air1 136]

Gee, thanks Jim, always a ray of sunshine!

 

Steve

[KavindaJD 31]

DTG did not purchase a Flight license, only one for FSX, so don't look for Flight on any Steam servers.

 

No solid proof there Jim! 

DTG has aquired a "global licensing deal with Microsoft, granting them the rights to develop and publish all-new flight products based on Microsoft’s genre-defining flight technology." They have also "acquired the rights to distribute the multi-award winning Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition"

 

     To be honest, we can't really tell what DTG has in store for us... but its FSX and something else, and that something else could be Microsoft Flight Technology.

 

We Flight players are keeping out hopes up!

[HiFlyer 9,358]

DTG could end this back and forth speculation with one simple statement.......

 

But they haven't.

 

Yet.

 

Why?

[JSkorna 137]

 

 

Why?

 

No need to because once you remove emotions from the equation is it clear what was purchased by DTG. Now, what becomes of things is unknown, possibly even by DTG.

[HiFlyer 9,358]

No need to because once you remove emotions from the equation is it clear what was purchased by DTG. Now, what becomes of things is unknown, possibly even by DTG.

 

The whole problem with that is that business-wise, for the big bucks they reportedly paid for nearly decade-old tech (and given their previous business model) and the fact that they apparently have no permission to significantly modify the FSX code, it seems to make no logical sense at all without flight being somewhere in the picture.

 

Hell, If that's the case and I was them I would have just as soon have tried to grab Outerra instead.

[KavindaJD 31]

DTG could end this back and forth speculation with one simple statement.......

 

But they haven't.

 

Yet.

 

Why?

 

       It keeps possible customers on their toes... if they released any information they could lose out on some sales!

[rhumbaflappy 113]

It would take some time for Dovetail to create a new sim based on the technology from Microsoft. Also, it's unlikely they have access to the data Microsoft has used... just the means of creating a game from it. So, some time and money would be needed for a nice sim to be developed.

 

Meanwhile, Stonelance (Steve) is making progress on utilising FSX scenery and airport data within Flight. Eventually, objects and aircraft will be added as well. And the means of adding new content (scenery, planes, missions, aerocaches...) is very close.

 

Of course, there are some things Flight will never have, like 'heavy iron' passenger jets, and AI. If Dovetail is going to compete for this usage, then it has P3D to compete with, for educational puposes only .

 

Dovetail would need to hit a real homerun to get a significant customer base in flight sims. And from what little I read about them, that's not likely.

 

I think Jim is right, there's going to be no Flight on Steam. Just a discounted FSX and some content. (Hopefully Dovetail will get their costs back, or a new sim won't make it out the door before bancruptcy).

 

Dick

[KavindaJD 31]

I think Jim is right, there's going to be no Flight on Steam. Just a discounted FSX and some content. (Hopefully Dovetail will get their costs back, or a new sim won't make it out the door before bancruptcy).

 

 

     If Dovetail is going to release FSX this year and release another version of it again... what would be the point? FSX is being cared for by P3D so why recreate it and have even more competition?  Competition between these two firms are good for us consumers (i.e. lower prices, better innovation), but simply tweaking the same sim and putting it out there might backfire (i.e. in sales and consumer numbers).

 

     In my mind, instead of a “discounted FSX,” they will produce a tweaked Microsoft Flight with loads of DLC expansions and SDK... wouldn't that be the better option?

[stonelance 136]

They did get a license to Flight.  Whether or not they do anything good with it remains to be seen.

 

Regarding not developing FSX, I don't know if that is an issue with their license with Microsoft, or the fact that developing it further constitutes a new product and would require renegotiating the license of the other rights holders used by FSX, which is a much bigger surface area than it was for Flight (most Flight aircraft are free domain, and the number of data sources, manufacturers, etc are all lower, and generally cheaper for Flight).

[rhumbaflappy 113]

To avoid any misunderstanding, all technology related to Microsoft's flight simulators has been licensed to Dovetail. The FSX part was simply the right to redistribute (resell) FSX. Nothing was announced publically about redistributing Flight, unless Steve has some inside info about that. But I imagine they might be able to sell Flight Addons, and certainly have the technology to do so. Remember that Flight was free. Not much reason to pursue redistributing that sim. And Steve's tools will shortly allow 3rd party addons for Flight, so no monopoly on the limited market there.

 

Dovetail has stated they will develop a new flight simulator (or game) based on Microsoft's technology, which they have licensed. That new sim will not be Flight or FSX, but may have file compatibility with some aspects, much like Flight has some compatibility with FSX. It will use the technology from FSX and Flight.

 

Aircraft and scenery are not part of Microsoft's technology... so the new sim will either need licensing from those owners, or will need to use public domain data, as Steve indicates above.

 

Any new sim will have competition. A traditional sim will compete with FS2004, FSX and P3D, which would be tough.

 

A GA "fun" sim will compete with Flight. Flight was free, and soon addons should also be freely available.

 

A combat sim could have a market, but WWI and WWII have been done over and over, and modern war aircraft might just be too complicated for the average end-user to manage.

 

I think Microsoft made an error by trying to break out of the limited market of flight simulator fans by making a fun game with Flight. There just were not that many buyers for the addons. They were essentially competing with Candy Crush and Minecraft and PS4 and XBox for the young people's attention and dollars. Old-school flight simmers were just left scratching their heads, then started moving on to P3D.

 

Dovetail could recapture that old-school flight simmer market, but they would have to beat P3D and have a WOW factor to seal the deal... FSX-like attention to details for the simmers' needs, and use the Flight technology to provide the WOW. And an SDK to get 3rd party developers involved. But I'm a bit pessemistic about whether Dovetail could do it, or would do it.

 

On the other hand, there's nothing stopping Microsoft from creating FS11, but I'm not holding my breath for that.

 

But, we have FS2004, FSX, P3D, and Flight. Addons are still being made. Lot's of fun left in this simulator format.

 

As far as Dovetail's entry? We'll see.

 

Dick

 

 

 

 

[KavindaJD 31]

As far as Dovetail's entry? We'll see.

 

     Agreed. Only time will tell....

[KavindaJD 31]

Stumbled upon an interesting article...

 

"Yes, I’m assuming the new sim by DTG will be based on FSX. Why not MS Flight? Because Microsoft literally could not give that sim away. It was available as a free download and Microsoft, with all their marketing power, could not give it away. MS Flight was available on the market for only 13 months before it was shut down. Why would anyone want to license a product with that kind of a track record? FSX is the current king of flight simulators and LM has proven with P3D that you can license FSX, make a great new sim from it, gain a following and make money. Which one would you license?"

[HiFlyer 9,358]

Stumbled upon an interesting article...

 

"Yes, I’m assuming the new sim by DTG will be based on FSX. Why not MS Flight? Because Microsoft literally could not give that sim away. It was available as a free download and Microsoft, with all their marketing power, could not give it away. MS Flight was available on the market for only 13 months before it was shut down. Why would anyone want to license a product with that kind of a track record? FSX is the current king of flight simulators and LM has proven with P3D that you can license FSX, make a great new sim from it, gain a following and make money. Which one would you license?"

 

Tunnel vision.

[Air1 136]

I did read the article, very interesting. I would see where backward comparability would be very important to a lot of people that have huge sums of money tied up in FSX  add-ons to make it look good. I for one do not, only the Seabee and A2A Cub. I have bought every rendition of the MS Flight franchise since day one. I still have the last three on my hard drive. But every time I go back to FSX I always find myself coming back to FLIGHT, it is just so much better doing what I am looking for these days, fun and the real sensation of flight that for me is very much lacking in FSX and others. And I don't mean flying through hoops and collecting coins. Just my humble opinion. Still hoping to see something good from Dovetail or Aerofly FS.

 

Steve