Due to my jubilee started here to think about things that happened 10 years ago and then just came to my mind. Would 23. January be the 10. anniversary of end of Microsoft Flight Simulator?  Aces Studio was closed on 23. January, ~100 people were RIFed...

Microsoft put their faith in the XBox and they were correct. Too bad that they didn't Port a flight simulator.

LM took the sim to the new levels...and will be taking it higher as with each version backward compatibility drops.  MS did a great job - Aces team truly helped create Simulation software ecosystem - they had vision, and FSX still amazes me at times....(though hate the VAS issues)...They did create the stage for LM to improve on for which I am grateful.

10 years ago MS, was run really bad....they missed entrance to key industries...and they were all over the map with horrible priorities...but today's current CEO did turn around the company.... 

So many divisions got changed then.....Aces team under pressure did amazing the FSX updates and left an amazing legacy to build on.  Kudos to the team

Edited January 22, 20197 yr by Skywolf

Gone but not forgotten! 🍻

Most certainly was NOT the end of Microsoft Flight Simulator..

A check on the sim sites & forums will show how alive the various MS sims are, & how much they are still being supported by both freeware & payware developers.

It was a simple business decision to close down ACES Studio. The directors of Microsoft, like any other large company, are responsible to their shareholders, and as their sim gaming side was lacking, it got pruned. A simple financial business decision.

I don't have a problem with Microsoft thanks to them they had the wisdom to give it to the flight sim community to carry on the support for the platform, but for them we may not be were we are now.  

I'm grateful for what the ACES team did, sad that MS ended their flight sim line, happy that LM has a license to develop the FSX engine and has turned it into a 64-bit version.

LM needs to get a hold of the FLIGHT engine.  That was a truly evolutionary path forward that Microsoft gutted to make it more of a game (ATC, weather, etc).  An Ace member stated it started out as FS11 and it was impressive what that engine was capable of.

WE will, in all probability never see a flight simulator game from Microsoft again. Their whole product range & marketing has moved on from sim gaming, & they do not have the infrastructure, interest nor staff to develop sim gaming any more.

Stan, Lockheed Martin NEVER got the licence to the FSX engine.... That went to Dovetail!

FLIGHT was a gaming engine, & the gaming side of simming from Microsoft went to Dovetail.

In 2009 Lockheed Martin announced that they had negotiated with Microsoft to purchase the intellectual property (including source code)Microsoft ESP (Enterprise Simulation Platform) product. Microsoft ESP is the commercial-use version of "Flight Simulator X SP2". On May 17, 2010,^[14] Lockheed announced that the new product based upon the ESP source code would be called Lockheed Martin Prepar3D. Lockheed hired members of the original ACES Studio team to continue development of the product.

On July 9, 2014, Dovetail Games announced that Microsoft had granted them rights to develop the next Flight Simulator in the series. Dovetail Games also announced the release of Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition on Steam for late 2014, named Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition. Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition was released on 18 December 2014, and is a re-release of the FSX Gold Edition, which includes the Deluxe and Acceleration packs and both Service Packs. It includes "all standard Steam functionality", and replaces the GameSpy multiplayer system with Steam's multiplayer system.^[16]

Flight Sim World[edit]

In May 2017, Dovetail Games announced Flight Sim World, which released later that month.^[17] Only a year later, on April 23, 2018, Dovetail announced end of development of Flight Sim World and the end of sales effective May 15, 2018.^[18]

 

 

Interesting that Dovetail did the proverbial oops we bit off more than we can chew....got all kinds of folks excited and then pulled the rug just after release.  Left a bad taste as many people simply got jacked!   I think that is why FSX still endures because of people like Dovetail.  We simmers are a niche market with just enough purchase power to keep some of it going but always remember that the share holders hold the keys to any vehicle (I.E. X Plane/ Prepare) past history doesn't bode well for them.

Dovetail did pull the plug and users felt robbed, but for what it cost a few quid it pales into comparison when compared to what the hardware manufactures are doing, even Nvidia are now in a round about way admitting the 20 series price is putting punters off and have downgraded there forecast, and it would not surprise me if the AIB partners are limiting production after getting burnt with the mining fallout.    

23 hours ago, fsusem36 said:

We simmers are a niche market with just enough purchase power to keep some of it going but always remember that the share holders hold the keys to any vehicle (I.E. X Plane/ Prepare) past history doesn't bode well for them.

I disagree. For one thing, P3D and X-Plane are part of a diversified series of products from their respected developers. Lockheed-Martin makes scads of taxpayer money in other areas, and Laminar makes money from the pro version of XP, private contracts with the aerospace biz, and the XP phone app.

Neither of these two companies needs to operate the same way a game developer would. They could afford to subsidize their respective PC sims if they had to, although I suspect both sims actually do turn a profit.

Also In the case of X-Plane, Laminar isn't publicly traded so there are no shareholders. It's Austin's pet project as sole owner and CEO. I do worry about what might happen if Austin leaves the scene for whatever reason, but he may have structured Laminar in a way that the company could survive him. And Lockheed Martin sure isn't going away any time soon. I suppose the big worry is that at some point, they might decide to develop an entirely new sim platform that wasn't open to the public, and let P3D die off. No sign of that yet, though.

6 hours ago, Paraffin said:

I do worry about what might happen if Austin leaves the scene for whatever reason

We'll have aircrafts that handle better in crosswind, probably. 😈

Actually, it's the add-on developers that keep our hobby going! Yes, Laminer, Lockheed, Microsoft gave us the sim engine, BUT it's the developers that has made our hobby what it is.

So what if Austin leaves.. his legacy will still remain, & developers will still develop. 

Look whats happening with FS2004.. After 16 years, there are still great aircraft being developed. Have a look at Nigel Richard's Avro that has just been released. So unique & good that the FSX & P3D'ers want it as well.