New dovetails Flight simulator due in 2016 on both Xbox One and Windows 10

[tf51d 284]

Flight's business model didn't fail, the decision to discontinue it was made in a broader context.

 

Let's not engage in history revisioning! Flight's business model failed big time. By attempting to keep addon development in house, it was too narrow focused, started out with a too limited environment, where they couldn't keep up with DLC fast enough to keep the platform interesting to users. To the point they had to release external view only aircraft. In the end they only ended up with 2 scenery areas Hawaii and Alaska, hardly enough to keep the user base satisfied and stay profitable!

[spesimen 135]

 

 

I predicted this when dovetail came along. I even remember someone saying I was bitter about another company taking on the ashes of Aces and giving it life again, I said exactly that this would happen and here we are. 

 

you predicted that there would be a lot of baseless speculation and angry outbursts before even a single detail or screenshot was posted?  

[Dirk98 354]

I really want to like X-Plane, i have installed it again and decided that the PMDG DC6 will be my first payware aircraft for it, but it's so unfriendly, it's like using a CAD program from the early 90s; not to mention the many missing features, present for a long time in MS sims.

 

I knew I would find something useful reading this thread.

Thanks for the comment, I'll hold off again and save some money and time (again).

 

Dirk.

[spesimen 135]

 

• The blogger says "Microsoft Flight technology" but then immediately says something about simmers have enjoyed "over a decade", so that should be a big clue that the blogger doesn't really know what he is talking about.

 

they are just regurgitating a press release, no big deal. and flight does still contain msfs elements, the scenery formats were similar or even identical for example.

 

• Also, why would a business pay a large sum of money to adopt a failed business model that the world's largest software company could not make work?

because they think they can make it work. and dovetail has already proven they can do it with a few other sim platforms. plus they don't have the margins or public stock prices or whatnot to worry about like microsoft where a marginally profitable project gets axed to focus on OS development..

 

 

• And if this was just Microsoft Flight, why would it take two years to produce when the former is already packaged and ready to go for distribution?

 

maybe they are adding all the features that were missing in flight that kept it from being adopted by the more serious sim community. maybe the console conversion is using a bit of time. hard to say really since we don't know exactly what it will or won't be yet.

 

 

• Why would they produce a Microsoft Flight when they already own the rights to redistribute a better, more complete simulator called FSX? FSX is regularly discounted by them (80%) in frequent sales, and FSX would cannibalize the sales of a Microsoft Flight product.

 

flight is a better platform than fsx, it just was not feature complete. if it had shipped with all the goodies that fsx had it's adoption might have been widespread. by moving their base product to the newer engine they will hopefully be able to leverage advances in tech without being tied down with fsx's terrible performance which is it's main weakness.

 

So from a business standpoint, if this is a Microsoft Flight reboot, it makes no sense to even release it on PC. There are potential sales on the Xbox One, but little to none for PC.

i think there's a much bigger market for serious users with deep pocekts for addons on pcs than on consoles. consoles probably appeal more to the casual market which probably isn't going to drop 75 bucks for a single plane. but we'll see...those numbers are highly speculative without some market research which presumably they have at least done a little bit of looking into.

 

anyway i'm curious to see what they come up with!

cheers

-andy crosby

[A340-4 4]

Dear PMB;

I definitely will!

How long did LM know about this problem? 5 Years? And they will only "A BIG MAYBE" will fix it before the new Sim? Im not sure, and you will have to pay the Licensing Fee Again LOL.

"I will fix what I have sold you that was broken, just pay me again"

[WotanUK 289]

Thanks for the comment, I'll hold off again and save some money and time (again).

 

You're welcome Dirk, but please take my comments in good humour, X-Plane actually has quite a lot going for it as well, i urge you to try it out and the more people on board, the more Austin might listen and start making changes that the community is wanting.

[AviatorMoser 353]

they are just regurgitating a press release, no big deal. and flight does still contain msfs elements, the scenery formats were similar or even identical for example.

 

because they think they can make it work. and dovetail has already proven they can do it with a few other sim platforms. plus they don't have the margins or public stock prices or whatnot to worry about like microsoft where a marginally profitable project gets axed to focus on OS development..

 

maybe they are adding all the features that were missing in flight that kept it from being adopted by the more serious sim community. maybe the console conversion is using a bit of time. hard to say really since we don't know exactly what it will or won't be yet.

 

flight is a better platform than fsx, it just was not feature complete. if it had shipped with all the goodies that fsx had it's adoption might have been widespread. by moving their base product to the newer engine they will hopefully be able to leverage advances in tech without being tied down with fsx's terrible performance which is it's main weakness.

 

i think there's a much bigger market for serious users with deep pocekts for addons on pcs than on consoles. consoles probably appeal more to the casual market which probably isn't going to drop 75 bucks for a single plane. but we'll see...those numbers are highly speculative without some market research which presumably they have at least done a little bit of looking into.

 

anyway i'm curious to see what they come up with!

cheers

-andy crosby

 

Good points taken, Andy! Thanks!

[cmpbellsjc 2,960]

So has it been stated somewhere that the PC version coming is going to be dumbed down and not comparable to FSX or P3D as far as features, or is it just speculation at this point?

 

I can understand if the console version is dumbed down, but can't find any info saying the PC version won't be similar to what we already have in FSX.

[majuh 14]

Would it be that impractical to port FSX, though?

 

FSX uses DirectX calls that Xbox One supports.

 

FSX already runs on the newest Windows, which is basically the underlying OS of the Xbox One.

 

FSX runs on the x86 CPU architecture, which is what the Xbox One CPU uses.

 

I know these are rather broad points, but my programming knowledge is limited to just scientific applications on HPCs, which are rather simple compared to a full-fledged graphical simulation.

Well, you have to consider that the Xbox One struggles to keep up with mediocre gaming PCs these days. And even on high-end machines the performance of FSX is just sad, especially compared to Flight.

 

Let's not engage in history revisioning! Flight's business model failed big time. By attempting to keep addon development in house, it was too narrow focused, started out with a too limited environment, where they couldn't keep up with DLC fast enough to keep the platform interesting to users. To the point they had to release external view only aircraft. In the end they only ended up with 2 scenery areas Hawaii and Alaska, hardly enough to keep the user base satisfied and stay profitable!

Actually they were actively approaching third-party developers before development was stopped. The whole business model was supposed to be profitable in the long term, not after 3 months.

[bonchie 2,305]

So has it been stated somewhere that the PC version coming is going to be dumbed down and not comparable to FSX or P3D as far as features, or is it just speculation at this point?

 

I can understand if the console version is dumbed down, but can't find any info saying the PC version won't be similar to what we already have in FSX.

 

The versions will likely be identical and shared so they can streamline DLC. 

 

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

And the speculative madness with no basis continues. Bunch of armchair developers in here and nothing else. 

[bonchie 2,305]

And the speculative madness with no basis continues. Bunch of armchair developers in here and nothing else. 

 

Blah blah blah. Who cares?

 

Some people are just willing to use their brain and attempt to make an educated guess at what they think will happen. What else is a forum for besides discussion and speculation?

 

The same people yelling "Wait and see!!! It'll be great!!!" are the same people who spent the year before FLIGHT was released insisting the entire world would still be modeled and there'd be no dumbing down of features. And that's not hyperbole. Literally, some of the posters in this thread are those people. 

 

Dovetail is smart. PS4 and XB1 have the computing power to develop a shared application compared to the previous generation of consoles. It's very unlikely that they'll develop two distinct games for different platforms. It would make no sense to do so and a limited base with DLC expansion is the name of their game. 

[TheFlightSimGuy 514]

Blah blah blah. Who cares?

 

Some people are just willing to use their brain and attempt to make an educated guess at what they think will happen.

How can one make an educated guess when they have no basis for that hypothesis? Because both Sims share the name flight even though it is a new developer? Or maybe to your point it will be a console port, even though we have never seen a non arcade flight simulator on a console? There is no basis to any of the assumptions that are being made so just like anyone who would start a statement with "blah blah blah", I don't hold anyone who would draw a conclusion out of thin air as educated on the matter.

 

You should go back to page 2 and read my reply there to see what a imperical hypothesis looks like based on facts.

[Mean Aerodynamic Chord 269]

Bunch of armchair developers in here and nothing else. 

Aren't all developers armchair developers?

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

This sucks. I wanted it to be available as an iPad app. That way I could have installed it on 20 iPads and built the ultimate cockpit