16 minutes ago, HughesMDflyer4 said:

Why do people keep bringing this up? It would have been insanely foolish to announce a game that will make them millions at an expo of 1500 people, or at an airshow. Doesn't matter who the target audience is. This gave them the best of both worlds, as a large number of flight simmers play other games as well (and even if they don't, they found out about it anyway). The work of reaching millions of people was already done by E3. Really smart move, as it exposes MSFS to many existing fans, and also shows potential newcomers how far the genre has come and may encourage them to check out our hobby. And the more people who buy it, the more resources go into developing the game.

Right?

Why would they prefer to show it on a small niche convention instead of presenting it on the largest gaming convention in the World?

Edited July 31, 20196 yr by ca_metal

45 minutes ago, WarpD said:

They have always made money from sales of FS.  It was never, to my understanding, an actual financial loss.

As I understand it, ACES Game Studio was shut down in 2009 as part of a larger group of layoffs and restructuring because the game division was losing money (or not making enough money, which can also be the kiss of death). Some of that was due to the "Red Ring of Death" issues with Xbox 360 over the years, but it was all wrapped up together divesting or spinning off other divisions like Bungie (Halo) and FASA (Mech Warrior), not just the Flight Simulator series.

The point here is that FS was never treated as a Golden Child that would be protected at all costs. Back then, as now, it's folded into the Microsoft game division's overall business plans.

4 hours ago, nas123 said:

Why did MS started up MFS again? 

 

 

I do not know, but it must be something about believing their new technology would revolutionize the game and make it superior to the other Flightsim games we have today. 

I believe it is all about Asure and AI technology that the other do not have. 

What do you think? 

So now Microsoft is just 'M' like the head of MI6? It slightly irates me when people are putting MFS - I can see what they've done but you don't go out and buy M Word or M Office, rant over! 😉

However the post is a good one. I think a number of technologies have come together at the right time a bit like VR and somebody just had the good sense to pull it all together. The clouds, realtime reflections, photogrammetry, cloud computing etc. They clearly didn't develop all of that for a new flight simulator but never the less thats whats powering this new sim.

Edited July 31, 20196 yr by dtrjones

1 hour ago, Paraffin said:

As I understand it, ACES Game Studio was shut down in 2009 as part of a larger group of layoffs and restructuring because the game division was losing money (or not making enough money, which can also be the kiss of death). Some of that was due to the "Red Ring of Death" issues with Xbox 360 over the years, but it was all wrapped up together divesting or spinning off other divisions like Bungie (Halo) and FASA (Mech Warrior), not just the Flight Simulator series.

Much of it was economic, but there were other factors at play. Microsoft was trying to get into the online gaming world, DLC and other ideas, and was pushing their gaming studios to go this way. At the time it sounded like there was some disagreement about how this would work with the next flight sim, and the whole thing was dropped. Microsoft then followed up with Flight being lead by someone who figured that including 20,000 was too confusing and including aircraft without cockpits was a good idea. We all know how that ended.

 

One note regarding Bungie. They left because they wanted to do something new and not just make Halo games forever. As they had made Microsoft a lot of money and cemented the Xbox as a major gaming platform, Microsoft agreed to part ways on friendly terms.

Edited July 31, 20196 yr by goates

 

Why did MS restart MSFS?

Because it's the right thing to do! 

That's why!

 

Edited July 31, 20196 yr by SpiritFlyer

    One Microsoft business decision that they wisely made was investing in cloud data storage: It almost single-handedly saved their bacon.  Their stock went from years in the doldrums of $40 to $50/share to today at about $135/share.  So is it any wonder that they would probably apply cloud computing to a new and much more sophisticated MS flight sim...

Lot of good points. But I think everyone will agree that the real "why" is because Microsoft is the only firm on this planet to have both the experience and the technology ! So they want to take benefits from that.

All the reasons above played a part in the decision. Im sure this roundtable discussion of their business plan for the next 10 years happened at least 5 years ago, to reinvigorate Xbox, native MS games, financial revenues, and a game sim title that has always been synonymous with Microsoft over 30 years ago. 

But just to be different, im going with, because we deserve it!   After so many of us have supported flight simulator since its inception, and being left in the dust for 13 years, it finally looks like we have a flight simulator that looks like and likely feels like its 2020 and not 2006.

And the other way out in left field unlikely reason but 1% chance..... Bill Gates spear headed the project to go back to his early Microsoft roots and his love for FS. 

12 minutes ago, Noooch said:

Lot of good points. But I think everyone will agree that the real "why" is because Microsoft is the only firm on this planet to have both the experience and the technology ! So they want to take benefits from that.

Well... Having  a major aeronautical defense contractor behind our simulation, for their own needs and the needs of their pro customers,  ain’t bad either I would think  😇

Why they started up again?

A combination of believing in a new business model(subscription based, XBOX and PC users), a new superior technology platform( cloud computing, AI) and their legacy code(ESP). This combination is unmatched in the game industry.

2 hours ago, domkle said:

Well... Having  a major aeronautical defense contractor behind our simulation, for their own needs and the needs of their pro customers,  ain’t bad either I would think  😇

I am not saying it is a bad thing, but they are in stoneage in comparaison. They simply don't have 2 petabytes of data.

I reckon they started it up again because they were fed up of me moaning about rubbish default terrain graphics in FSX and P3D. Thanks, Microsoft!

Just now, Noooch said:

I am not saying it is a bad thing, but they are in stoneage in comparaison. They simply don't have 2 petabytes of data.

To be accurate, MS "has" not 2 petabytes of data. They licence the use of imagery from providers. They don't have satellite or aircraft. Actually they even sold few years ago their ground imagery collecting company.  Another thing isthat  2 Pb is not much, GE is said to be around 20 Pb.

LM in stone age ?  Their business lines include building imaging satellites at sub-metric level and developping AI model for imagery analysis. Their P3D division has actually formidable in-house resources at its disposals. The issue is, will they be allowed to use them ? That I am not sure. 

The true advantage that MS has over LM, is that they may understand better the need for the gamey dimension of flight simulation 😂  !

Edited August 1, 20196 yr by domkle

2 hours ago, roarkr said:

new business model(subscription based, XBOX and PC users

The assumption of MSFS being subscription based was justified and not unimportant, but at this time I feel it's redundant. A lot of people still believe the Xbox Game Pass inevitably means having to pay monthly fees for your game - which is wrong. You can still buy games for the full price and then own your license 'forever'. It by no means proves there will be subscription involved.

Apart from that, they give quite a hint in the recent update. I'm well aware of the fact that this kind of hint doesn't necessarily have to have some profound meaning and that it may also be misinterpreted, but I dare to say it's close to certain that MSFS is a one-off purchase. Putting the words "no subscription" in that joke text message about the purchase method of the sim would be completely nonsensical if it didn't actually mean what the words say.

20 hours ago, HughesMDflyer4 said:

Why do people keep bringing this up? It would have been insanely foolish to announce a game that will make them millions at an expo of 1500 people, or at an airshow. Doesn't matter who the target audience is. This gave them the best of both worlds, as a large number of flight simmers play other games as well (and even if they don't, they found out about it anyway). The work of reaching millions of people was already done by E3. Really smart move, as it exposes MSFS to many existing fans, and also shows potential newcomers how far the genre has come and may encourage them to check out our hobby. And the more people who buy it, the more resources go into developing the game.

I agree 100%. Could you imagine what the forums would have been like if FlightSim Expo published their list of presenters and Microsoft was listed to be the final presenter of the weekend.