Today's paper featured the specifications for the next generation X-box from Microsoft:512 Meg memory3x3 Gig Processors20 Gig Hard Drive Combine that with the questions in Microsoft's current User Survey, and the possibility of FS10 appearing on both X-box 360 and regular PCs, and with Multi-Processor support built in seems quite likely...Just Bert's prediction for now...

Heres some more specs:An IBM PowerPC based CPU with 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each, packing the most-advanced artificial intelligence and physics processing availableA custom ATI Graphics processor and more than 512 MB of memory for high definition games and entertainment applicationsAll games optimized for 16:9 aspect ratio, HD Output (720p and 1080i); multichannel surround sound outputDetachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive to download demos and trailers along with new game levels, maps, weapons, vehicles, skins, community-created content, and more; to rip music for playback and to listen to custom play lists in every gameA wireless controller with Microsoft-patented wireless technology; Xbox Guide Button on every controller, the launch pad that instantly connects gamers to their games, friends, and music and to power on or power off Xbox 360 without leaving the couchGamer Profile software that remembers what players have achieved in gamesInstant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live, including: a built-in Ethernet port for connectivity; Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content; a Message Center to receive voice and video messages from friends; ability to talk to friends, even while watching movies or listening to music; and an Xbox Live Headset3 USB 2.0 ports for Xbox Live Camera peripheral; to plug in wired game controllers that are also common for Windows PCs; to stream media from any portable media device, digital camera, and Windows XP PC Progressive-scan DVD movie playback out of the box; DVD and CD music and photo playback out of the box; support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CDWindows Media Center Extender built in to access recorded TV (including high definition) and digital movies (including high definition), music, video and photos stored on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360Support for up to four wireless game controllers and an optional Universal Media Remote with Windows

You guys can really keep mess yourselves. OHN you sound as if you work for the X-Box division of Microsoft. What if I wanted a NVIDIA card instead of an ATI??? All that you have wrote puts everyone in a box (X-BOX) instead of the free open source platform we have now. Which by the way Makes Flight Simulator so great. One of the last true platforms that can equally be so much to so many. Everyone uses Flight Simulator in a different way. Some for training and observing real aviation and others for fun (there's really countless ways you can use this sim). Flight Simulator is not your classic Half Life or DOOM franchise that works with such a limiting setup that only a console offers... Joe Blow has the freedom to build a custom PC that blows mine away in performance and thereby creating a better experience (for him) with FS9 than me. You can't do that if everyone is using the same setup with very basic upgrade options. You can't merg a system that was designed for children ages 11-25 to a group of people 30-75. Many of us in this community are far more advanced computer users that your typicle gameing crowd. We have a large group of real pilots and IT professionals in this community. People that know how to take a computer apart and/or build something that blows the socks off of FS performance above and beyond the rest of us. This is why one day the line is going to have to be crossed as to what Flight Simulator actually is. As long as you say game, users like OHN and Bert are going to feel perfectly justified coming in here talking 'XBOX' jorgon. Nothing about FS is fire shoot and forget, this is what killed sims like Falcon4 and EF2000... These gamers among us are relentless in their lack of understanding about the differences in Ace Combat 5 and Flight Simulator 10. What if someone wanted to build a full size simulator in their basement only to find the X-Box limited in what can be accomplished. A PC platform gives everyone more freedom. Try putting your servers at work on an X-Box... That's about as much since as your making. My home setup for FS rivals the computers and storage capacity at my work (if you factor in the many add-ons I've accumulated), and I work for a sizable government agency... Servers are running at the speed of my home computer. I use more or about the same space on my various HD's as does the computers at my job. This is all for FS. There is no way I want to be limited to a consol, I don't care how many cool bogus options it claims to have. Give me something I can take apart and upgrade at my local computer store... I'm sure no one here want's to even think of Microsoft releasing the next version of FS on a console like the X-Box. That would be the beginning of the end for Flightsim and this community as we know it. I would diffidently convert to X-Plane if that happened...I wish some of you guys would leave well enough alone. You can't deal with and/or appreciate Flight Simulator in its current incarnation. Some of you constantly have to spread rumors of, 'FS9 being the last version' and/or 'Flight Simulator 10 being released for the X-Box'. You don't realize how easy it would be for Microsoft to do this instead of giving us the sim we have today. If you keep bringing this mess up, Microsoft may very well grant your wish as that option would be far cheaper and require less effort from them.I'm so happy with the stance Flightsim.com has taken with post like this. If enough people keep posting crap like this Microsoft may very well discontinue the series or transform the series. Executive suits are constantly trying to save money. Take a look at this,http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/13/technology...dex.htm?cnn=yesInstead of

Wow... I seem to have hit a nerve...If you re-read my post you'll see that my "prediction" was that FS10 might come out on both X-box and regular PCs.I'm not sure if that would be a good or a bad thing..

It would be bad... :-boom Just think, 'Executives' trying to save money and cut cost...

I couldnt care less who makes the hardware, as long as it works. The pc is a piece of crap has always been and will always be. Thats one of the reasons games perform so bad these days, the developers has to make it work with thousands of different pieces of hardware. If you want to stay in this mess good luck to you.

Not being a "console" type I am at a loss about just how "real" it will be flying a complex aircraft with a hand-held X-Box controller. As it is now with PCs, joysticks, control wheels and keyboards give us the most effective and realistic interface with the simulated aircraft experience IMHO. I have absolutely no interest in sitting in my livingroom flying a 3 hour flight with a hand-hend controller. The interface just seems and "feels" wrong. How do you enter flightplans and type in waypoints or interact with the various config files for tweaking the sim?To me, and this is just my opinion, going to the console will be a major step backward and if eventually the PC version is scrapped, the end of my association with MS FS. If there'll always be a version for the PC AND the X-box then fine... I'll be able to keep enjoying the experience on the PC.Please don't flame. If you can constructively present the case on how an X-Box controller is a suitable replacement for a mouse, joystick, and keyboard then I welcome your comments.DougDell XPS Gen3 (3.6GHz/800FSB)2GB DDR SDRAM74GB SATA, 10k RPM (C: ) & 120GB SATA (D: )256MB ATI Radeon X800 XT (Catalyst 5.4)Audigy 2 ZS SoundMS Force Feedback 2WindowsXP Pro (SP2)DirectX 9.0c

I agree. The only way FSxx can ever get much beyond where it is today is to get it off the PC and on to a dedicated gaming/simulator/callitwhateveryouwant box. The desktop PC, no matter how hard we try to tweak it, will never be able to handle what the developers are capable of delivering. No use keeping our heads in the sand, the capabilities of the gaming/simulation world have moved far beyond the amdintelatinvidiaplugitintothemotherboard scenerio we have now.Doug

Wow! Forget your meds? :-) .

And I wish you well with your score totals with Half Life and Ace Combat 5.For your information all these companies you talk about work closely together. Microsoft is the standard everyone has to go by if they want their product to sell... The headache is not with Microsoft, it's with ATI and NVIDIA. Those two companies have to make their stuff work with Flight Simulator. That's the beauty in Microsoft publishing Flight Simulator instead of Sierra. You can't have a perfect trouble free setup for a Sim like Flight Simulator. That's why children play with X-Box's and adults play with Flight Simulator. X-BOX is designed for children to have fun and the tech stuff to be hands off while Flight Simulator is trying to simulate real aviation which requires annual advances technically. Pushing the boundaries of hardware and technology requires all of us to jump in and learn something. Flying the LDS767 requires you to learn something so the two play hand in hand. If your not into learning I could see why you would want a more consol experience and therefore FS may not be for you

But you can plug a joystick or whatever in to the xbox too, it has USB ports, so i see no probs there. xbox certainly isnt just for children, i play LINKS golf online on the xbox, and theres not many children there.

I certainly would be interested. Right now my four plus year old PC does EVERYTHING I want it to do EXCEPT run FS9 with sliders full RIGHT. It edits 8 meg pictures in Photoshop fster then I can think of the next command. It does take time to render video from my dvd camera and that is the only application I need more computing power for. An "xbox" will run fsxx better then anyone's pc ever has because the developers are not having to make a "one-size - fits all". Nor would they have to grandfather in all of the previous versions. Maybe the fisrt step is pitching the grandfathering of the past for the last non-xbox version. I have seen my grandson's PS2, not an Xbox, but same idea, and in a game, Madden football for example, I can only wish for such emersion into the game. As mentioned, gamecontrollers plug into Xbox via USB, pedals/throttles/yokes/sticks currently available and just waiting for the xbox version. Yes, it would delight me to see FSxx on XBox.It would be best for me and for MS.