To all the guys that rant about controller problems. There are already games that come with their own special controllers. For example the current X-Box has a Mech game (Steel Batalion) that has a matching controller just for that game http://xboxmedia.ign.com/xbox/image/steelb...ntrollein1r.jpgThe PS2 already has a HOTAS controller. So control is not a problem.My opinion is that it is possible to do a good FS X. Addons might not be a problem. They could be sold via Microsofts online service and the X-Box format could prevent the now widespread addon piracy.Most of the serious FS community is used to spend on hardware to get a good flying experience so FS X could be used to sell the X-Box 360 to us FS geeks. They just have to make the best looking FS ever. Put in some good default aircraft. Get a 3rd party to do a tie in controller set. Maybe promise addon aircraft/ scenery via the online service and they get 80% off us to try it out. That is a lot of sold X-Boxes. After a year you release FS X for PC and get the rest of your income. They already did it with the Halo game for the original X-Box.Looks like a good scenario for Microsoft. They increase the installed base of the X Box 360 and sell extra versions of FS X (we will buy both verions offcoure :-) )

Xbox doesn

I've long complained about the eye candy of FS2004 making real "simulation" take the back seat. For example, instrument panels stutter in turns even on the fastest CPU's and graphics cards, refresh rate is still about 18 fps on instruments, the outside window slows down gauge redraws, etc... I think what would be really neat (and certainly make me go out and buy an XBox), would be if you could connect the XBox to the PC. Using a datalink similar to FSUIPC, the PC could run all the serious simulation stuff, while the XBOX is dedicated solely to eyecandy exterior and out the window viewport rendering, in addition to audio. This should at least be an option, allowing maximum integration between the XBox and PC. Clearly this would provide a solid rendering platform for FS. In addition, it would help to increase the user base exposed to the *fun* and *simulation* aspects of FS. Enrique==========================Frequency change approved,Good day.

>>Most bugs that are found have to do with the multitude of hardware/software systems the customers now use.Take those away and you can eliminate a lot of code and development effort, making catching the rest that much<

Hypothetical XBOX 360 Hard DriveOk, if and I have no knowledge of this, but if the next fs comes only in xbox360, could this be why so many developers are charging what I see as ridiculous prices for their payware stuff.Now, take a look at your FS Folder, and look at the number of files and the size of them. Mine is only 10.2 GB (10,955,685,888 bytes). I've seen quite a bit higher in threads, and I don't own too many high mb add-ons.Take scenery for example.Can't load too much scenery on a 20 gb hard drive unless you never plan to load anything else on it for any other xbox360 game.I guess I would welcome the xbox 360 fs platform, if I can use my yoke and pedals, and do it on HD.I mean scenery is nice and all, but a 20gb hd won't go very far with msfs, so I wouldn't be looking for much improvement in scenery, but I would be happy if they gave us proper roads, rivers, railroads, mesh, and landclass.Plus if fs was on xbox360, that in itself would take up quite a bit of that hd. Well, I guess we'll see what happens, just something I thought of for further discussion considering the recent size of add-ons, both freeware and payware and the implications of a small hd for xbox360.Regards,JoeGrab My FREEWARE Voice recognition Profiles here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=58334]Cessna 172 Voice Profile[/a][a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=fs2004misc&DLID=60740]FSD Avanti Voice Profile[/a].You will need the main FREEWARE Flight Assistant program to use it, get it here:[a href=http://library.avsim.net/esearch.php?CatID=genutils&DLID=39661]Flight Assistant 2.2[/a]

If you seen the press conference and the specs you may have noted that you can remove the harddrive and replace it with a bigger/smaller or whatever ;).So HD if you have plenty of cash isn

Maybe there will be an FS available for XBox, but IMHO FS10 will definitely also be available for PC.Otherwise, for what reason should MS do the current survey? Last weekend I received an email update from MS upon this survey, in which they state, that I will receive the monitoring software within the next days. So why should MS want to monitor the performance of FS9 on as many different PC systems as possible, if they are not planning to make FS10 available for PC?Wolfgang

Joe mentioned..."Ok, if and I have no knowledge of this, but if the next fscomes only in xbox360, could this be why so many developersare charging what I see as ridiculous prices for their paywarestuff."Interesting hypothesis, but I think that if this were the case, the rumor mill would have been churning for a long while now. There certainly must be some developers who are a little "loose-lipped", and if they had advance notice of the PC version's untimely demise, I would image it wouldn't stay secret for very long. Not to digress off the topic at hand, but I think there are other factors involved in the state of payware - a testing of the market and pushing of the limits. :)I side firmly with those predicting some sort of simulator for the new X-Box platform and the continued development (for years to come) of the PC based platform. ==-----------------------------------------------------==NEW IDEA - Highly unlikely, but interesting nonetheless...Imagine, if you will, the ability to tie in the X-BOX *AND* the PC VERSION TOGETHER! Home cockpit builders, this would be for you...Use the PC for your cockpit, gauges, and other ancillary systems, but do the graphical rendering and scenery generation via the X-Box360's significantly hopped-up GPU's. Sure, the X-Box may not have the resolution capabilities of a modern PC GPU and monitor, but imagine leveraging all that raw power connected to a projector or big-screen TV to provide you with a utterly smooth, highly detailed environment. Maybe they can get clever and allow the X-Box to read in the PC version's addon scenery and store it on the local HD (barring any scenery-required copy protections like serial numbers and activation sequences). I'm just dreaming a bit of having my panels on the computer monitor with the TV/Projector displaying a picture as smooth in motion as a real Level D simulator, with the added bonus of a rich graphical environment a few notches better than MSFS's current appearence. If that were possible, I'd VERY quickly invest in a projector and X-Box 360. :) Ok - the dream is over.. :) -Greg

Coke didn't say..."Hey, Diet Coke is the way to go because everyone is diet conscious...and then ELIMINATE the original version. MS will not do so either.I agree with your sentiment - but bad example - also to the folks who say companies like Microsoft never do anything stupid.Remember New Coke?X-Box Flight Sim in my opinion would be aimed squarely at the Combat Flight Sim - Air Racer - and similar multiplayer roles.Though I'd find 20GB terribly small for my AI world. That's an easy one to fix.One thing I don't see on this thread and I might have missed is the piracy issue. I think that was a big reason behind the FS9 patch.A hardware specific platform which can include online verification of the license for the game is a big incentive.Microsoft has been spending as much or more money on developing verification technology in the past five years than they have spend on developing Flight Sim.

People,Microsoft has some experience in this area and I expect they will have learned from it. One of the closest examples of how they will move forward comes right out of their recent past with the acquisition of Access Software and the Links franchise.Microsoft brought it in-house, developed a version on the PC, did well with it and then infuriated the vast majority of that fan base by releasing the latest version ONLY for the XBOX where it could not be easily expanded like the PC version could. Extremely few of the fans bought an XBOX to play it and the product was then orphaned and Access was sold to Take Two.I'm at E3 right now and that reminds me that I need to go check out Take Two to see what the Access guys are up to.Anyway, FS is a vastly more complex product than Links was but it's still more like Links than virtually any other game you might compare it to in order to figure out how MS might move forward with it. I just don't see how Microsoft can possible think that people will buy an XBOX to play FS10. First of all they know that most people play XBOX on a TV in their living room or family room and compute in a computer room where it's not a big deal to have all sorts of peripherals just lying about. My wife would SHOOT me if I had my yoke and rudder pedals (and the rest) sitting around in the family room. Plus I'd have nowhere to put them. Are people supposed to use them with their LazyBoy's?Second, there's the whole development community that comes to a grinding halt. No more Ultimate Traffic. No more ActiveSky. No more PMDG. No more of a lot of things that make FS what it is. To my thinking it would be suicide for Microsoft to move this to the XBOX. Furthermore it adds to the price of the product substantially. We already have a PC and now we all need an XBOX and won't get a new version for 4-5 years until the next XBOX comes out (plus a year or so after that for development)???? It just makes no sense to me that they'd go down this path.

My computer is on a desk in the Living Room....That way, my wife can talk to me, as I fly, and she watches TV...

Hi Rich,I'm inclined to agree with your assessment. I strongly suspect that this XBOX nonsense is a complete red herring and is simply being fueled by frustration on the part of those who are promoting the idea (threat?).Mike

Yeah after thinking about this some more, what's probably gonna happen is that there will be an FS spinoff for XBOX360 but that the real deal will remain on PC...

Hi all!Red herring? I have no idea, since I rarely spend time going through the rumor/news of what's next. I simply don't care for aquiring tons of crap that I'll throw out the next year. Partly out of a concern for our consumer culture where everything just has to be bigger, faster, wilder, more dollar.. Yet, since since I'm a fs-nut I have a rather up-to-date computer so my sinceerity is only skindeep, or just at the same level of my everyday hypocrisy :) Still, a thread that disusses the greatness of connecting the supposed new marvel to a PC MUST in my opinion discuss the methods of near-monopoly companies to increase sales. I remember just ten years ago, here in Denmark, when someone said "Can I have a Coke, please?" they would receive a 1/4 liter. Now you can hardly get that anymore because the major softdrink producers (read=Coke) decided to make the standard size 1/2 liter. They pretty much doubled their sales simply by "forcing" the customer to buy more. (See the scary and hilarious documentary Super-Size Me for a fine illustration of this strategy.)If MS decides to make FS for X-box I simply cannot see this as anything but positive. Eg. if I had kids I'd want them to learn about eg. Vietnam by flying over its beautyful country rather than blowing it to shreds with napalm in some gory war-game. The overall larger customerbase would probably add up to more people interested, more addons coming out, how bad can that be for the game, really? BUT, if I am FORCED to buy an X-box to enjoy my former pc-game then I'd feel so manipulated and consumerized I'd probably (I don't dare say ABSOLUTELY...) not go for a new version. I just don't need more environmentally and otherwise unsound crap that I can throw away three years down. All that said, I think we can rest assured, folks, that cancelling out the PC version would be unbelievably stupid by MS for reasons that others have already pointed out. DONT WORRY, folks.. For now, anyway!If at some point they do scrap the PC version the solution is obvious:The community of AVSIM will make a foundation and buy the source-code for the last FS version and we'll make it 100% open source! Cheers, folks, keep up the passion!-Dasher7

>Second, there's the whole development community that comes to>a grinding halt. No more Ultimate Traffic. No more ActiveSky.>No more PMDG. No more of a lot of things that make FS what it>is. I wonder why people keep taking this as granted. Current Xbox games are already expandable right now, and it seems MS wants to push the concept even further with X360:http://www.gamespot.com/features/6124293/p-6.htmlTo get more and more Xbox Live subscriptions, they need additional content other than the bare and simple game you can buy in any shop, and that could be provided from Live and the FS community could fit quite well in the Marketplace concept.As a professional FS developer for the past 12 year, my ideal dreamwork enviroment would be being able to sign as a licensed developer, just like everybody have to do in the console world, getting in return full support from the FS team to do things in the right and reliable way, instead of fighting with the current badly written and unsupported SDK, working on a powerful hardware that it's all the same and it's the same your users have, withouth worring about different configurations.But I know, I'm dreaming...