No subscription required seems to be confirmed"

[nikita 241]

54 minutes ago, eaim said:

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.

Advertising in the sim world would be interesting. There's going to be plenty of billboards in cities and airports themselves, Microsoft could sell them to advertisers. It could even be spun as extra immersion because of the changing ads of real life products.

[Tuskin38 6,491]

7 minutes ago, nikita said:

t could even be spun as extra immersion because of the changing ads of real life products.

Well adverts are usually tied to the region the person is from, so if you're Canadian you would see Canadian ads for example. So if they had an ad solution for the sim, you'd get ads for your region, in other regions of the world where it wouldn't make sense.

So it really wouldn't be extra immersion unless you're only flying where you live.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Tuskin38

[Casualcas 830]

3 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Well adverts are usually tied to the region the person is from, so if you're Canadian you would see Canadian ads for example. So if they had an ad solution for the sim, you'd get ads for your region, in other regions of the world where it wouldn't make sense.

So it really wouldn't be extra immersion unless you're only flying where you live.

But they can put coca cola billboards in the sim. Product placement and stickers all over your aircraft lol

[TechguyMaxC 516]

I don't care if MSFS is a one-time purchase of a thousand Dollars - it will still cost less than I spent on all those scenery add-ons over the years which will NEVER match the quality of the default scenery of MSFS.  

[threexgreen 3,139]

1 hour 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. 

Well, it's right up there in the article that has been posted repeatedly. There is no subscription, neither to buy the game (except if you use Game Pass) nor to use any of the streamed data like scenery, weather, AI traffic, etc. It's really time to drop the subscription discussion now.

[threexgreen 3,139]

21 minutes ago, TechguyMaxC said:

I don't care if MSFS is a one-time purchase of a thousand Dollars - it will still cost less than I spent on all those scenery add-ons over the years which will NEVER match the quality of the default scenery of MSFS.  

Don't forget tons of hardware to get current sims and their addons running acceptably while not even looking as good as MSFS. Carefully extrapolating from spec hints dropped thus far would suggest you get more eye-candy and better performance with lower system specs.

Edited February 12, 2020 by threegreen

[TechguyMaxC 516]

13 minutes ago, threegreen said:

Don't forget tons of hardware to get current sims and their addons running acceptably while not even looking as good as MSFS.

Yes, though I suspect MSFS will still take all the compute resources you can throw at it.

Quote

Carefully extrapolating from spec hints dropped thus far would suggest you get more eye-candy and better performance with lower system specs.

Updating my response to include your edited post content.

I agree.  By all accounts, MSFS is definitely delivering higher quality pixels, and at a higher frame rate.  Defintely implies the engine isn't just "leftover FSX code" as some people are fond of saying.  

Edited February 12, 2020 by TechguyMaxC

[Heli 66]

If Microsoft spent all that time and money on aerial photos and photogrammetry just for a single game, it would be subscription based, and they would have to charge $1000/mo or some crazy figure just to pay for it.  But Microsoft's maps are utilized in many ways.  MSFS is, rather, anchored onto it as another use of their mapping data.  It will not be subscription based, but i do see Microsoft making recurring revenue from addons, which i am fine with because they will be quality addons. 

Microsoft is a trillion dollar company.  Yes, with a T.  They can do big things like this.  Google Earth VR has no form of ads in it , and it is a free app that lets you view photogrammetry data with high bandwidth.

Edited February 12, 2020 by Heli

[vortex681 806]

Here's a thought... I'm just speculating wildly (which I've never seen in this forum before 😊) but it wouldn't surprise me if those who bought the sim outright didn't have to pay for subsequent major updates. For example, you can still buy MS Office with a one-off payment but you have to pay again for major version updates. With the subscription service, new versions are free.

[Scottoest 1,561]

1 hour ago, vortex681 said:

Here's a thought... I'm just speculating wildly (which I've never seen in this forum before 😊) but it wouldn't surprise me if those who bought the sim outright didn't have to pay for subsequent major updates. For example, you can still buy MS Office with a one-off payment but you have to pay again for major version updates. With the subscription service, new versions are free.

My guess is that you'll see Asobo transition post-release into putting some of their people on creating add-on content they will sell, while everyone else still on the sim continues to work on the core experience and stuff for free.

Considering how much high-end 3PD aircraft can cost, Asobo could make their own, sell them at half the price, and still be making profit margins that most game developers could only dream of for DLC content.  And even better, you have a community of flight simmers who are entirely used to paying these kinds of prices for the last decade or more.

This is very much in keeping with Microsoft's strategy for some of their more recent "live service" games, of not balkanizing the userbase based on who owns what expansions, but instead keeping that stuff free and selling cosmetic stuff.  They did it for Sea of Thieves and Gears 5.

[OHN767 82]

On 2/12/2020 at 3:57 PM, 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

 

Is there still a 10 min delay for the real time traffic in the US.