The third party developer FUD is going to only ramp up as the year goes on here.

I won't be surprised if some bluff a bit even and make it somewhat seem they "might" be under NDA.

Never underestimate what some may do to attempt to maintain sales revenue before what could be basically "the end".

 

... all that said

 

For all we know, MS realizes how much 3rd parties have kept FS alive all these years and they fully plan to allow things to be as wide open as in the past.  I'm not sure I'd bet on that, especially in the subscription era we are now in, but one never knows.

Edited June 13, 20196 yr by irrics

8 minutes ago, TechguyMaxC said:

Quite frankly,

at this point I consider your posts in this thread to be FUD.

This is reflecting really poorly on Lockheed Martin.

Quite right. Beware FOD on the Runway from the previous aircraft departing (in bits)

I like the idea of developers having to work through Microsoft's marketplace.  We've already seen that Flight had third party developers (read the credits) and all evidence points to MSFS having them as well.

If you get a developer whose attitude is "All I want is my fair share and my fair share is 100%" they aren't going to like the setup.

What happened?  PMDG used to be Gods who could do no wrong.

Hook

Edited June 13, 20196 yr by LHookins
spelling & punctuation

@LHookins 

Bravo to that. 

The third party marketplace could use some cleaning up, a bit of standardization of expectations and pricing and the bar being raised just generally.

This thread is heading  south with all of the 3rd party dev bashing.  If we do not like them taking advantage of us, then simply don't purchase the stuff.  Maybe it has gotten "Parasitic", but without demand, they would not exist.  I'll buy this new sim on day one, maybe even pre-order.  Then I am going to need a CRJ-200 and KCLT, for sure KGSP.  Where am I going to get it if the suggestion is to whack all of the 3rd party developers? Granted, I won't spend the $100's that I did back in the day but I'll selectively purchase the couple of items that I need for my region and the experience that I wish to have.

13 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

If this is accurate then it’s a dead-end product before release IMHO

I can't help feeling that comments like this have an underlying sentiment of "Microsoft are just a bunch of idiots who have no business sense and have dived into this without giving it a moment's thought".  I don't really know why people find it necessary to believe they can give MS management lessons on how to run a business, but it seems from just this thread alone (fun and speculative though it is) there are a lot of people who really believe they find it so.

Isn't it just amazing what a bunch of idiots can do, though, when you take a few moments think about it: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-1-trillion-market-value-reached-today/

Oh - and isn't the P3D simulator that many of us love a lot, basically a Microsoft creation? ….just wondering 🤔

2 minutes ago, CarlHill said:

Where am I going to get it if the suggestion is to whack all of the 3rd party developers?

I'm sure not advocating that they "get whacked" - but I would like to see them all competing in an organized and curated MSFS marketplace "store".

1 minute ago, irrics said:

@LHookins 

Bravo to that. 

The third party marketplace could use some cleaning up, a bit of standardization of expectations and pricing and the bar being raised just generally.

And some protection to the consumers. I've seen some nasty things happening on those sim stores (org store more precisely).

When I buy throught Steam and the product is cr*p, I have 2 hours of usage to ask a refund. In the sim stores you will just lose your money.

1 hour ago, tonywob said:

This was my observation as well. Only Portsmouth and Southampton in the UK, and absolutely nothing at all in some other countries I fly in compared to Google Earth. Perhaps they'll do something similar to Dubai for these other cities (so we get generic autogen versions of them), but I do think the initial 3D shots of the cities are giving people very high expectations.

If you are right, that would draw a quite sad picture. MS would have shown us a hand full of cherries on the cake while the rest of the world would look meh, perhaps OSM spiced with a bit of AI, perhaps even the old lanclasses.

I don't hope this but it can't be excluded at this stage either as no one of us has seen anything of the world beyond this trailer.

Kind regards, Michael

@CarlHill

Wouldn't you rather have a nice organized, curated and managed MSFS "store" for great add-ons?

It'd be better in basically every possible way.

 

I don't have a desire for absolutely no 3rd party add-ons - I'd just like to move on from the wild west design of the past.

The truth is, I *like* third party developers.  I've bought enough of their products over the years.  I don't mind spending a bit for a good sim, and a bit more for a good study level sim.  But I don't fly jet airliners.

I currently prefer to buy through a developer's website but it gets to be a hassle with updates and such from a variety of developers.  Having a one-stop shop would simplify a lot.  And with Microsoft having some say in quality control, I don't expect too many regretted purchases.

Hook

 

4 minutes ago, irrics said:

I'm sure not advocating that they "get whacked" - but I would like to see them all competing in an organized and curated MSFS marketplace "store".

I wasn't pointing the finger at any one particular post, sorry if you took it like that.

No matter the assumptions, technical comments or the final result .It's been my best Sunday.Since this amazing day P3D and XP will not be the same.

1 minute ago, LHookins said:

Having a one-stop shop would simplify a lot.  And with Microsoft having some say in quality control, I don't expect too many regretted purchases.

And reviews all in one spot too!  Would be really really nice.

1 hour ago, stripealipe said:

If I was a huge company moving forwards wanting to stamp my mark, up against the likes of Sony and throwing a lot of money around and pushing many ideas about in terms of gaming, right across the board, i'd def actually look at least briefly at what's currently out there and driving the current fad forwards.

If Microsoft have decided to push a new MS Flight Sim to the fore, do you honestly think they've not at least dipped their toes into these and other forums and indeed looked at the 'competition' in order to make a satisfactory plan and throw money into, what's for sure a niche market, albeit a fanatical and indeed relevant market? 

Flight Sim has crazily always been there right at the start of home computing, when computing power was nowhere near what was needed for the task, yet it figured across many platforms and has been enjoyed immensely. Now? Finally some more acknowledgment for a very loyal and valid following.

That's one guess at their motives. Here's mine:

It would be nice to think they're doing this for the love of aviation and to regain their loyal support from the sim community. However, look at the timing of the announcement and the trailer. It coincides with the announcement of the new "Scarlett" Xbox in late 2020 and XBox Cloud service this October.

What would be a perfect tech demo showcase for this new approach to gaming by Microsoft? It's that new MSFS trailer. It sure looks a heck of a lot flashier than the trailer they showed for the new Halo game that's also designed to hype the system (unless you're a big Halo fan, I guess).

So I think the timing of Microsoft's reentry to the flight sim market might be more about pushing their gaming technology into the future. If it can bring improved flight simulation along with that, then great. But let's keep our eyes open about the timing and their possible motives.