The Subscription talk takes place towards the end of the video, say about 25 minutes in.

I don't want to put oil on the fire but what I heard (a caveat though : some parts are a little garbled at my end) is only that  "the team" doesn't like or want subscription. Do a designing team and /or a PR team decide the pricing policy in a large company like MS ?  I don't think so. The jury is still out IMHO. 

 

 

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by domkle

22 minutes ago, domkle said:

I don't want to put oil on the fire but what I heard (a caveat though : some parts are a little garbled at my end) is only that  "the team" doesn't like or want subscription.

Doesn't the team include a Microsoft representative (on the far right)? Wouldn't he have spoken up if that statement needed to be qualified?

4 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

Doesn't the team include a Microsoft representative (on the far right)? Wouldn't he have spoken up if that statement needed to be qualified?

yes, the PR team I think and I found him a little vague (againt the audio is not very good), leaving the door slightly open. An old professional reflex from me maybe. 

14 minutes ago, vortex681 said:

Doesn't the team include a Microsoft representative (on the far right)? Wouldn't he have spoken up if that statement needed to be qualified?

The MS rep on the panel is a project engineer/lead. They don't make the marketing/sales/pricing decisions. In over 25 years dealing with Microsoft as a partner, vendor, and support, I have seen more than one case where a great product was quashed by upper management OR a product that didn't fit the marketplace was promoted by upper management. This experience is the basis for my skepticism with MFS.....it's not the Microsoft engineers who ensure a product's survival. 

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by yurei

39 minutes ago, domkle said:

Do a designing team and /or a PR team decide the pricing policy in a large company like MS ?  I don't think so. The jury is still out IMHO. 

There isn't even a jury because no charges have been filed. 😀 This subscription model theory just started on AVSIM for no reason as far as I can tell. Maybe there's confusion because X-Box has a subscription service where you get access to multiple games at once or because some versions of Office focus on subscriptions now. But really there has been nothing from MS to even suggest this is in the air. It's like if I say MS hasn't denied that there will a 50% add-on charge for developers to give their pilots sunglasses. And then a panel suggests the team wants to have a game where developers can give their pilots sunglasses for free

Maybe some of the AVSIM worry is that it seems impossible for MS to stream so much scenery and make a profit? Or that the equivalent OrbX product would cost a million dollars? Azure AI is the game changer here. They have the bandwidth.

However, you are right that these guys can't make any promises right now. Pricing is not their department. But reading between the lines I think it's likely there will not be a subscription fee.

 

 

As there was not a clear declaration on this by MS, we cannot but read between the lines. This is my understanding

- The sim will be sold as a standalone that could be played at the basic level without connection 

- The sim could also be accessed with a subscription to the Xbox pass as any other game of the catalogue,

- Will the sim need a subscription to access all the streamed goodies ? Still not clear . The team may not like it but they are most probably not in charge of this.

I was just assuming a streaming service as the program will presumably stream large amounts of scenery data during use.  There has to be an ongoing cost associated with that service that has not been present in previous flight simulator versions.

I think Phil Spencer may have a say on this he is the head of the gaming studio, that it will be just one of the many titles on the platform.

He will be in London on 4th nov show, MSFS may be on that.

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by rjfry

I can not understand why you are all afraid of subscription.

The beauty and the size of this world does not fit on a hard disk we have at home. But MS still offers us the possibility of being streamed.

Servers cost money, and I'm glad to use this opportunity. That's why I'm ready to pay for it.

The question should be rather which price is appropriate.

2 minutes ago, Flamingpie said:

We still don't know if we will be able to buy MSFS for one price and use it until eternity or that we will have to pay monthly for it.

Add that to a long list of things we still do not know, and will not know for quite a while..

1 minute ago, Flamingpie said:

Because subscriptions cost more. We still don't know if we will be able to buy MSFS for one price and use it until eternity or that we will have to pay monthly for it. Regardless of the fact if MSFS is being streamed or not.

It has already been confirmed that no subscription is required. (Insider August)
Subscription is currently kept secret.

It was also confirmed that you can fly completely without internet connection, but with many restrictions.

In my opinion, I therefore come to the conclusion that I need a subscription if I want to fly online. So the data will be streamed.

Personally I hope they do propose some way to continually monetize.

The last thing I want is something that is not funded adequately and is on the chopping block after a couple years by the financial people at the company. 

We are lucky to even have another chance at a Microsoft Flight Sim, and the last thing I want is that it gets resource starved because they perceive the user base is cheap. 

8 minutes ago, Flamingpie said:

I understand your conclusion but doubt if it is the correct one. 😉 Streaming data doesn't necessarily mean you will have to pay for it every month. Could well be and sounds logical but it's not mandatory.

Do you think the servers are free for MS?

I just can not imagine that MS gives us these costs for free. I like to pay for good quality. Also monthly

Edited October 10, 20196 yr by Pitbull2504