29 minutes ago, Shack95 said:

 

Four of my friends are passionate gamers but no simmers. All of them were blown away by the trailer but none of them are going to buy it. 

I‘m sure the new sim will attract new people but I doubt that it‘ll be earth-shattering. Stunning visuals and user-friendliness alone won‘t do the trick. Simming just isn‘t for everyone. Of course I might be completely wrong (I hope I am). This is just my gut feeling.

Edit: On second thought, many Game Pass people will probably give it a try. But will that be sustainable?

I didn't say 'every gamer' would.  I said there is a significant untapped market which P3D and FSX simply did not appeal to.  Many tried it and left it.  Many will come back to try FS2020 at the very least.

Edited October 31, 20196 yr by ErichB

@ErichB I hope you're right. As I said, I too do believe that new people will be attracted. I'm just not so sure about how many, i.e. how many will stay with it. We'll see.

3 hours ago, spesimen said:

i think the potential sales numbers are possibly much higher than you are theorizing . the new one looks so amazing that it has been getting tons of press over the mainstream gaming sites not just on enthusiast ones like avsim..

And that's the thing, of course.

For years, the general narrative on sites like this one have been essentially that there is no broad-based market for civilian aviation, thus any efforts in that direction must of necessity be narrowly focused towards the super-technical hard core.

The failure of FLIGHT was an oft-used example to support this claim of disinterest by the general public and buttress the there's-nobody-but-us narrative.

Yet on Steam, FSX, which was unapologetically game-like and accessible, has been a roaring success, (Well, it's also cheap)

I've recently seen many speaking with excitement of Microsoft's current community oriented marketing spin about the focus of this new effort being towards "Serious simulation" but if by that they mean the dry, technical, study-level type experience lauded in the current arena, there's little evidence (I think) that such a thing would draw much much more than the current relatively anemic numbers.

Considering the level of resources going into this, coupled with the references to game pass and Xbox scarlet (And Microsoft not being a charity) I expect this new sim to have very strong gaming elements, via missions, simple and colorful interfaces, theme music, cut scenes, personal avatars and tons of the type of general audience oriented fun that has over time pretty much been almost surgically removed from the genre.

That's the only way I see this (beyond the visuals) attracting the millions of possible purchasers likely necessary to make this a true AAA best seller.

Of major interest to me is a possible influx of new blood into the genre if this is successful. The metaphorical victorian smoking parlour (complete with walrus mustaches and heavy pipe-smoke) that's been my mental image of the general tenor of the greater community might fairly soon be overrun with rambunctious gamers and even kids.....

How refreshing would that be?

Finally.

12 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

  rambunctious gamers and even kids.....

How refreshing would that be?

 

I am all for it if I don't see them anywhere close, Heaven forbid ! 

   I have not been a kid for many years:  But I just don't see kids wanting to play a flight simulation "game"  on XBox that is strictly, well, flight simulation. (I think a game more likely involving aerial combat)?   Perhaps Microsoft believes many more adults will be eager to sign-up for XBox for FS?  

Edited October 31, 20196 yr by overspeed3

The total claimed investment into Microsoft Flight amounted to 0.0002 (that's 2 ten thousandths) of their revenue for the two years prior to release.  If the claims of investment levels for the MSFS2020 is close, it ends up being only 0.004 (that's 4 ten thousandths) of their revenue for the year 2019 alone.  The investment levels aren't really that great when you look at the total picture.

30 minutes ago, overspeed3 said:

   I have not been a kid for many years:  But I just don't see kids wanting to play a flight simulation "game"  on XBox that is strictly, well, flight simulation. (I think a game more likely involving aerial combat)?   Perhaps Microsoft believes many more adults will be eager to sign-up for XBox for FS?  

One of the phenomena accompanying the release of microsoft FLIGHT were people on this forum writing about their children suddenly expressing an interest in simulation. I remember clearly one particularly heartfelt post regarding that, and when I was playing the sim, the built in voice-coms was full of young people, including one little girl that made me laugh for days as her plane ended up in treetops on a regular basis and people struggled to help her out.

She had such a high, squeaky little voice. "Hep!! i'm inna tree again!!" 🤣

I also remember with much less favor several grumpy simmers turning up in voice chat haranguing players to go try a real sim. I and others quickly learned to boot such people from the servers instantly, but it left a really bad taste, for me.

I really have always felt the interest was there, just not for sims so narrowly focused towards certain tastes as to almost automatically repel anyone not matching an extremely narrow demographic.

7 minutes ago, WarpD said:

The total claimed investment into Microsoft Flight amounted to 0.0002 (that's 2 ten thousandths) of their revenue for the two years prior to release.  If the claims of investment levels for the MSFS2020 is close, it ends up being only 0.004 (that's 4 ten thousandths) of their revenue for the year 2019 alone.  The investment levels aren't really that great when you look at the total picture.

But that conversely means that the revenue they gained from it probably amounted to even less of a percentage of their yearly income, which is probably why they lost interest and killed it quickly.....

I mean jeez, if they were willing to abandon the zillions invested into windows phone due to not meeting financial expectations, dropping flight simulation and never looking back would be simpler than sneezing.

I tip my hat to them, (even while looking at them askance) for bothering to try again.

11 hours ago, Drumcode said:

As the trailer made some massive waives around the world, I'm already seeing a ton of old school simmers coming back to track the development and the overall feedback have been jaw dropping. They're going to make a killing on this thing if they'll target the right markets. I really wouldn't worry about them making money, especially with a revolutionary product as this.

More views than Halo Infinite. That says a lot.

2 hours ago, overspeed3 said:

   I have not been a kid for many years:  But I just don't see kids wanting to play a flight simulation "game"  on XBox that is strictly, well, flight simulation. (I think a game more likely involving aerial combat)?   Perhaps Microsoft believes many more adults will be eager to sign-up for XBox for FS?  

Kids or young teens. Sure, most people of all ages would rather watch sports and shoot things on TV. That doesn't mean there aren't people who don't like documentaries or trying to fly planes realistically. (Or enjoy both sports and documentaries.) What kid isn't fascinated by jets and airliners?

Let's get things straight for a minute.

Asobo have created a world simulator which in its first guise is just a flight sim. There are 65 million XBOX Live accounts (across XB and Windows 10) which if only 1 percent of them buy this sim at $60 will generate $39m, and that is before any DLC is released.

The main thing people don't realise is that MS will use this world engine for all sorts of apps to further monetize Bing (which is already earning well over a billion dollars a year in advertising and license fees alone for MS).

So things like world exploration, farming, train, marine, driving and many other sims. Other apps like town planning, real estate, energy management - the potential is endless. So why not pump $100-200m into this world engine to really add many more features and systems? MS is a trillion dollar company, do you really think they are worried about budgets and costs when the bigger picture has likely already been discussed at CEO/board level a long time ago?

Perhaps our egos here at AVSIM make us think we're the most important audience for MS2020 - we're not.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

2 hours ago, fta2017 said:

Let's get things straight for a minute.

Asobo have created a world simulator which in its first guise is just a flight sim. There are 65 million XBOX Live accounts (across XB and Windows 10) which if only 1 percent of them buy this sim at $60 will generate $39m, and that is before any DLC is released.

The main thing people don't realise is that MS will use this world engine for all sorts of apps to further monetize Bing (which is already earning well over a billion dollars a year in advertising and license fees alone for MS).

So things like world exploration, farming, train, marine, driving and many other sims. Other apps like town planning, real estate, energy management - the potential is endless. So why not pump $100-200m into this world engine to really add many more features and systems? MS is a trillion dollar company, do you really think they are worried about budgets and costs when the bigger picture has likely already been discussed at CEO/board level a long time ago?

Well sure....

That's very assertively articulated and all, but unless you work for MS or something, I have to assume you are guessing just like the rest of us?

1 hour ago, fta2017 said:

Let's get things straight for a minute.

Asobo have created a world simulator which in its first guise is just a flight sim. There are 65 million XBOX Live accounts (across XB and Windows 10) which if only 1 percent of them buy this sim at $60 will generate $39m, and that is before any DLC is released.

The main thing people don't realise is that MS will use this world engine for all sorts of apps to further monetize Bing (which is already earning well over a billion dollars a year in advertising and license fees alone for MS).

So things like world exploration, farming, train, marine, driving and many other sims. Other apps like town planning, real estate, energy management - the potential is endless. So why not pump $100-200m into this world engine to really add many more features and systems? MS is a trillion dollar company, do you really think they are worried about budgets and costs when the bigger picture has likely already been discussed at CEO/board level a long time ago?

Perhaps our egos here at AVSIM make us think we're the most important audience for MS2020 - we're not.

Sorry to burst your bubble.

Everyone is wrong , this virtual world will be your matrix

6 minutes ago, HumptyDumpty said:

Everyone is wrong , this virtual world will be your matrix

... to be utilized as batteries, for a race of intellectually superior machines?

(Sorry - couldn't help myself...)

Looking how quiet is this forum (considering the worldwide hype on MSFS, the Tech Alpha got definitely rolled out.... good luck guys !