4 hours ago, dtrjones said:

Put it this way - do any of us actually believe Microsoft will provide this simulator fully featured for 60 bucks and then give us free updates for the next 10 years...? Who is going to pay for that extra development, Microsoft out of the kindness of there heart!

Who said that it's going to be the same version of simulator developed over 10 years?

Take a look at P3D or XP, ~10 years and 24 years respective continual development. We were charged whenever we wanted the next set of major improvements by buying the new version of the sim. That's the more traditional way of charging.

Then we get to subscriptions. Xbox Game Pass may work out as the best value proposition for a lot of simmers/gamers, there's a continued revenue stream for MS there.

Maybe we'll get loot crates and other in-game purchases?  Just imagine: $1.99 to unlock the landing gear, $2.99 if on final. $3.99 to reduce that 35kt crosswind and $4.99 to 'discover' Delaware. 

1 hour ago, carbonbasedlifeform said:

There aren't really service packs anymore. There are rolling bug fixes and new features. That's how it works for MS and most of the software industry.

Just to be clear there won't be three versions of the same sim. It's 3 free ways to have scenery in the same sim.

 

That's what I said same sim three ways to run it, as for service packs (addons) we will have to wait and see, I don't take much notice of what MS did in the past it`s the future that's important and it`s a new way of doing things.

Can we get a Special Edition with a Lionel Fuentes action figure wearing the FS polo shirt?

I’d take pictures of it on the flight deck and on layovers around the world.

6 hours ago, dtrjones said:

This opens up a can of worms about the pricing model. Put it this way - do any of us actually believe Microsoft will provide this simulator fully featured for 60 bucks and then give us free updates for the next 10 years...? Who is going to pay for that extra development, Microsoft out of the kindness of there heart! 🙂  

Something tells me we'll get more than just a 'standard' version. Maybe you pay extra for streaming higher quality scenery - that would be terrible by the way. The obvious answer of course is that they continue to develop new aircraft and scenery as purchasable DLC as they've put in the development pipelines and partnerships in place so why not use them.

And then what of the streaming data itself. If London gets the photogrammetry treatment, does that mean everybody gets it automatically or only those who have purchased it?

Simple, you break a plane, you gotta buy it again. From a
Xcub at 29.99 to a 748 at 349.99 bucks. Expensive ? No, because they will sell you an insurance policy for a cool 0.99 a month.

On 11/29/2019 at 8:18 AM, DaveCT2003 said:

Actually (and yeah, I'll have to admit this is pet peeve of mine), there was never an Gold Version.  There was a Gold Package, which contained Deluxe and Acceleration - the user had to choose between them.  Also this was not published at release, because the Acceleration version didn't exist for quite some time afterwards.

 

There was a standard edition also, (blue box) and the deluxe edition (gold box) on release.

Standard, Deluxe (2006), Acceleration expack (2007), Gold: Deluxe+Acceleration (2008)

On 11/30/2019 at 6:55 AM, F737NG said:

... Then we get to subscriptions. Xbox Game Pass may work out as the best value proposition for a lot of simmers/gamers, there's a continued revenue stream for MS there. ...

That's what I expect. I mean it works for other Sims like iracing etc. That's okay as long as it doesn't turn into the EA like rip off you described 😄

I see some fairly crazy ideas being floated here. Paying for insurance for a flight sim plane? The dystopian future I fear is perhaps closer than I thought. Be careful what you wish for.

The reports around XBOX are they have 5 million game pass subscribers and expect this to rise on the release of the new XBOX game catalogue, you never know Microsoft will give us full streaming MSFS for free and let the Xbox community to subsidies the simmers. 

🙄

Edited December 7, 20196 yr by rjfry

60 Bucks for a brand new serviceable a/c full of fuel AND zero insurance

You crash it on the way to the terminal, for instance , an absolute  "no blame policy"

The way some simmers land , including me, Boeing and Cessna will be guaranteed for work for the next trillion years