All the details aren't yet worked out, but the devs confirm that no subscription is required. In addition, you won't need a games pass for the full experience.

 

 

 

Edited February 12, 20206 yr by martin-w

I was beginning to think he wasn't going to do the video after all lol. I'm the tubeloobs (I have way too many different usernames) guy that brought his attention to the article. Nice chap and channel. We actually started off on the wrong foot but he took the time to message me and we sorted things out. Its crazy how he's able to put out well edited vids right after the weekly updates.

This article is a bit old and was shared in here by the time it was published. But still people kept saying we would need to pay a subscription fee to have access to the online scenery.

The missinformation machine will keep running until the final release I'm sure.

This might shut certain people up who are claiming otherwise, well for a few hours at least.

https://fselite.net/news/unconfirmed-microsoft-flight-simulator-will-be-available-as-a-stand-alone-title/

While I tend to believe this, it's still amazing. You buy the game once and for all for, say 80 $, and will get streaming scenery, real-time air traffic, and real-time weather for free all the time. Notably the real-time air traffic has always been said to be impossible to provide for free (see the subscription schedules for RealTraffic).

Kind regards, Michael

I expect to see something along the lines of the LM Prepar3d solution. A good example is how they have the Developers $9.95 per month keeps you up to date with all new releases/updates and you have control over when and if you move to a new release. No clue as to price of course. They may have an option that you buy the program with say a years updates after which you buy the updates. 

My prediction is that base software will be one time purchase, but additional services such live traffic and etc could be optional subscription based. 

I expect their future revenue option may include something like that and probably a sizeable cut from third party app developers.

1 hour ago, pmb said:

While I tend to believe this, it's still amazing. You buy the game once and for all for, say 80 $, and will get streaming scenery, real-time air traffic, and real-time weather for free all the time. Notably the real-time air traffic has always been said to be impossible to provide for free (see the subscription schedules for RealTraffic).

Kind regards, Michael

As you know, things are bundled in a way or another inside the price we pay for a product based on agreements the product company makes with the providers.

When big companies make agreements, we get, as end-users a product with what we see as "free" subscriptions as the result of these "agreements".

Even the old versions of FS had agreements with aircraft companies/manufacturers for specific models as well as interactive training and we did not pay any additional subscription.

Same as when we get a "free" anti-virus in your branded PC or Laptop etc.

I got a mobile app as a remote starter for my SUV, 5 years ago. This service requires usually a subscription but not in my case. 

Here in Canada, we get "free" winter tires with most of the new car brands we purchase at car dealers...

 

Edited February 12, 20206 yr by Claviateur

Gee, both the youtuber and FSElite picked up this info from an interview dated 28th December which was also posted on this forum by @Krakin 

Asobo or Microsoft said multiple times even before that, while all details were not figured out, an option to buy the game without a subscription would definetely be available. 
Of course there could be limitations, like no live traffic or who knows what
 

 

MS will come out and say it officially with lawyers present and fireworks going off in the background and people will still talk like they know the financial inner workings better than them and insist there will be some kind of mandatory sub lol

2 hours ago, pmb said:

While I tend to believe this, it's still amazing. You buy the game once and for all for, say 80 $, and will get streaming scenery, real-time air traffic, and real-time weather for free all the time. Notably the real-time air traffic has always been said to be impossible to provide for free (see the subscription schedules for RealTraffic).

Kind regards, Michael

Nothing surprising when all these things have been available for free for years now!

Scenery: google maps, openstreetmap and bing maps are all available for free.

Real time air traffic: flightradar24 is available mostly for free (at least all the information needed to show an aircraft in the sim), and even if the API were to be paid, 20 seconds on google show that there are free services available for air traffic data.

Real time weather: windy.com immediately comes to mind, along with metars and the plethora of free aviation and civil weather services available

Edited February 12, 20206 yr by nikita

23 minutes ago, nikita said:

Nothing surprising when all these things have been available for free for years now!

Scenery: google maps, openstreetmap and bing maps are all available for free.

Real time air traffic: flightradar24 is available mostly for free (at least all the information needed to show an aircraft in the sim), and even if the API were to be paid, 20 seconds on google show that there are free services available for air traffic data.

Real time weather: windy.com immediately comes to mind, along with metars and the plethora of free aviation and civil weather services available

Exactly why it's entirely possible that we won't have to pay for the streaming of data, income could come from other sources that we haven't even thought of yet apart from the obvious commissions from addons etc.

I can't believe MS will offer what amounts to cloud computing without a monthly fee or, rather, a subscription.

But I think the $$$ amounts (or other currencies) will be very reasonable, so as not to deter a portion of a large user base.  I myself would rather pay a substantial one-time fee:  I abhor on-line money transactions. 

17 minutes ago, overspeed3 said:

I can't believe MS will offer what amounts to cloud computing without a monthly fee or, rather, a subscription.

But I think the $$$ amounts (or other currencies) will be very reasonable, so as not to deter a portion of a large user base.  I myself would rather pay a substantial one-time fee:  I abhor on-line money transactions. 

Phil Spencer has said Azure is relatively cheap for the Xbox division and he would know better than any of us. They are just piggybacking on infrastructure already set up by their parent company. Do you think youtube has made $60 from the untold gigabytes of data you've streamed from them?