4 hours ago, Shack95 said:

Hello everyone,

 

I’ve got to admit I’m rather excited about this new sim. I’ve been excited since the news broke and after today’s good news I’m even more thrilled. It feels very similar to back in 2006 before FSX was released. I really hope this is going to be a true state-of-the-art flight sim with enough depth to please hard-core simmers and at the same time with the user friendliness that is needed to attract a broader audience.  

 

 

I do think some sort of career mode is viable. Something a bit like project cars where you start off in something slow and simple and gradually move into faster and more complex aircraft as you progress. There could also be several choices throughout that journey where you can branch out in different directions. 

Just heard the news. Great! Made my day. Gib now!

8 hours ago, simmerhead said:

To be skeptical and cynical is certainly justified, but lets face it, only a trillion $ company can create a truly great flight sim. 

X-Plane is still a cottage industry product which still hasn't got mass appeal.

Lockheed Martin have done some great things, but it is still just a dressed up version of FSX as far as I'm concerned. To me it seems like LM has put limited resources into the P3D devlopment and are satisfied with the ESP engine for their needs. 

Aerofly FS 2 is also a cottage industry product. Great at what it does, but it's a "dead world" with limited functionality. 

So all I can say is, welcome back Microsoft! 

I welcome Microsoft back too, but let's be careful about managing our expectations. This isn't everyone at Redmond throwing their weight into the new platform.

According to the latest info in the "What we know" sticky here, the developer is Asobo Studio of Bordeaux, France. Unless that's a MS-owned subsidiary (is it?), it means they're outsourcing the new MSFS to a cottage studio, using your definition above. 

The new MSFS will still have MS's funding behind it for tech support and promotion. But with this news, it doesn't look that much different to me than how XP and AFS2 are developed. LM is in a different category, of course.

No skepticism here, just a little caution about expectations. On the positive side, a smaller studio might be more "agile," and do a better job than a large effort managed by corporate committee. I'm excited to see what they can do. 

3 minutes ago, Paraffin said:

I welcome Microsoft back too, but let's be careful about managing our expectations. This isn't everyone at Redmond throwing their weight into the new platform.

According to the latest info in the "What we know" sticky here, the developer is Asobo Studio of Bordeaux, France. Unless that's a MS-owned subsidiary (is it?), it means they're outsourcing the new MSFS to a cottage studio, using your definition above. 

 The new MSFS will still have MS's funding behind it for tech support and promotion. But with this news, it doesn't look that much different to me than how XP and AFS2 are developed. LM is in a different category, of course.

 No skepticism here, just a little caution about expectations. On the positive side, a smaller studio might be more "agile," and do a better job than a large effort managed by corporate committee. I'm excited to see what they can do. 

I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of months we hear MS acquired Asobo. LOL

They are on a spree of buying smaller studios.

50 minutes ago, Rob_Ainscough said:

That’s where the ecosystem and 3rd party content providers come in ... the same ones that kept flight simulation alive all these years.  AirHauler, TacPak (for combat users), GSX, PMDG, Orbx, Aerosoft, and much more.

Cheers, Rob.

I totally agree and I’m glad they’ve planned to open it for 3rd party developers. For me that’s particularly important with regard to quality aircrafts and detailed airports.

In my post I was thinking more about what it might take to reach out to a large new audience (e.g. console gamers), i.e. the ones that haven’t been attracted to flight sim yet, no matter how many add-ons there are or how good the sim is but who still have a thing for aviation. When I started with flight simulators it was realism and immersion that motivated me to acquire the knowledge to fly an aircraft. I didn’t want it to be a game, I wanted it to be a simulator. But I’m sure that for many potential sim pilots it’s different. They want some sort of career mode or challenges. Although I personally don’t need any gameplay features, it might make the sim more attractive for people who are wired differently than the classic simmer.

10 minutes ago, ca_metal said:

I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of months we hear MS acquired Asobo. LOL

They are on a spree of buying smaller studios.

Look at this list of companies that it is rumoured Microsoft have either acquired or are in the process of acquiring. 

OK, now we know AS-MGS stands for ASOBO and MICROSOFT GAME STUDIOS.

I checked all games made by ASOBO, and the one that comes closest to MSFS2020 looks like "The Crew 2"

 

Check this out. Some parts look familiar to the MSFS trailer... no ?

 

 

Hey, at least there's a helicopter in that Crew 2 trailer. It gives me hope for one in MSFS now!  😄

23 minutes ago, Superdelphinus said:

Look at this list of companies that it is rumoured Microsoft have either acquired or are in the process of acquiring. 

I would believe this rumor has a high chance to become reallity. I've been seeing Microsoft buying a lot of studios lately, because they need to beat sony on the exclusive titles.

I've never heard about Asobo, even though I have played a lot of their games without even knowing they were behind it (as we usually connect the games to the publishers, not the developers).

Edited June 21, 20196 yr by ca_metal

Please.....................Just get it released before I die.................Many thanks

1 hour ago, Paraffin said:

it means they're outsourcing the new MSFS to a cottage studio, using your definition above.

I'd hardly call Asobo a cottage studio. Have you seen some of their work - A Plague tale: Innocence, for example? They're right up there with the big boys!

Edited June 21, 20196 yr by vortex681

4 hours ago, bonchie said:

My suspicion is that it's still got traces of ESP in it, although it's clearly completely redone and brought to next-gen standards.

I mainly think that based on seeing some autogen pop-in in the trailer. Also, the seams on the snowy mountain scene and that ugly river on top of the ortho in one shot look very familiar.

If they're only just putting some Eye Candy lipstick on the pig ESP one then I ain't going nowhere with FS2020. Stick with XP forever. Sorry MS.

5 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

I'd hardly call Asobo a cottage studio. Have you seen some of their work - A Plague tale: Innocence, for example? They're right up there with the big boys!

All game devs are cottage studios compared to giants like Microsoft and Lockheed Martin. That was the point of the quote I responded to. Let's not get hung up on semantics.

1 hour ago, ca_metal said:

I wouldn't be surprised if in a couple of months we hear MS acquired Asobo. LOL

Well this is the normal manner how bigger companies grow. They normaly don't grow in their departments, they simply buy new companies. But this normally not an advantage since there is a lot of infighting between departments. This is a good way to test if a program has a chance. It could simply become something in a way of Flight Sim World 2.0. Although you mustn't read too much in the presence of a FSW developer. He probably was looking for a new job and now they accepted from Microsoft a contract for a flight simulator. But we don't know their real budget and what the expectations of Microsoft are. The real problems of Microsoft Flight were simply overexagerated expectations.

It's going to be a long rest of 2019, that's for sure