FS2020 Information you "may"not be aware of.

[tweekz 2,165]

1 hour ago, olderndirt said:

When the dust settles, keep in mind Microsoft is in this to make a buck - as many as they can.

ingame shop, marketplace...

Plenty options with a genre that heavily relies on addons and a grown up (financially strong) audience.

All they gotta do, is attract people and make them stay. That's a pretty common strategy in the gaming industry nowadays.

Edited February 15, 2020 by tweekz

[Wildblue 245]

I don't think we have to take a subscription but it won't spoil my for-pleasure for the coming product either, for what could the price per month be? Maybe 10 dollar a month or so? I surely can do without Netflix or any other monthly-subscription for a very nice and maybe close to perfect flightsim.

[Anthracite 131]

13 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

This is a good approach, keeping the forum clean from blatant misinformation instead of asking users to censor it for themselves only. I shall report such posts from now on.

On the topic of the thread, a marketplace is all but confirmed after those job listings and a leaked menu screenshot that clearly mentioned it, so that's one definite source of income so far. While they did say part of the reason they greenlit the project is to fulfil a quota of more niche titles to give the Xbox Game Pass a broader appeal, it is clear that they've invested a lot into the engine so they'll want some good earnings. Unless they plan to use the engine in other projects as well.

I suspect it will be used for other projects, Asobo did a lot of work with MS with hololens and it seems MS were happy with what they achieved together so moved onto this. I imagine they're already working on other things together that they're not ready to share publicly.

[GlideBy 324]

13 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

Unless they plan to use the engine in other projects as well.

They did say the have been overwhelmed by requests to use the engine and technology in other projects.  

[Bob Scott 7,721]

Admin note: I took this topic offline last night, and have now relisted it after cleaning it up. 

Note in my pinned post near the top of this forum that we are not going to get into the business of censoring people for their opinions, unless there's a TOS violation. 

In a forum where the entire raison d'etre is speculation on an as-yet unreleased product, no user's speculation is more or less worthy than another's.  If we removed every thread and post that offered speculative opinions about Simzilla after parsing and reading into every nuance of every word and every frame of every posted video, there would be very little left here to read.

If mSparks or any other user is so annoying to you that you can't bear to read his opinions, then the answer is also contained in the aforementioned post at the top of the forum.

 

[kevinfirth 1,396]

56 minutes ago, w6kd said:

Admin note: I took this topic offline last night, and have now relisted it after cleaning it up. 

Note in my pinned post near the top of this forum that we are not going to get into the business of censoring people for their opinions, unless there's a TOS violation. 

In a forum where the entire raison d'etre is speculation on an as-yet unreleased product, no user's speculation is more or less worthy than another's.  If we removed every thread and post that offered speculative opinions about Simzilla after parsing and reading into every nuance of every word and every frame of every posted video, there would be very little left here to read.

If mSparks or any other user is so annoying to you that you can't bear to read his opinions, then the answer is also contained in the aforementioned post at the top of the forum.

 

how does this work on mobile devices where 'mousing over' is impossible? I almost exclusively read avsim on a phone...

[decker89 110]

I don't understand how people are still debating the subscription vs. purchase option. The delivery system for the game already exists, and has existed.

It's called XBox Game Pass for PC. Look it up, you can join today. If you choose to subscribe it's $10 per month, and you can download and play all the games that are part of the program at no additional cost. Or you can outright purchase the game and own it forever with no subscription. 

Simply put Flight Simulator will be part of Xbox Game Pass ecosystem, allowing you to either buy it outright or if you are a subscriber simply download at no additional cost.

I am already a subscriber of Xbox game pass for both console and pc, it's called game pass ultimate at $14.99. This allows me to download all kinds of games on both systems. So when Flight Simulator is released I won't have to pay anything additional for it. 

Lastly there currently is no example of a game on Xbox Game Pass that can't be bought outright. There is also no example of a game where the purchased game has less features then the subscription. There is no example and no precedent for it with Xbox Game Pass.

So rest assured, whether you buy it outright or you subscribe to the Game Pass Services, it will be the same game with all the same features.

[mSparks 2,086]

34 minutes ago, decker89 said:

There is also no example of a game where the purchased game has less features then the subscription. There is no example and no precedent for it with Xbox Game Pass.

But there is a question around whether MSFS2020 online features will be available free via an XBOX Live subscription, or require paying for a gamepass subscription.

The only people "making stuff up" are the ones saying it must be an XBOX Live game. 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by mSparks

[martin-w 3,235]

On 2/15/2020 at 5:27 PM, noob123 said:

Where do you get this idea? Microsoft games on PC don't require you to pay for multiplayer, that's only for x box. I don't see why they would change that with the flight simulator, especially when they confirmed that you don't need a subscription for just the flight simulator

 

Yes this is all very weird isn't it. 😁 MS/Asobo specifically tell us that... and I quote. "The subscription is for those who want to have access to other games for Xbox or PC" There's no speculation at all, its there in black and white. And yet we still get those who seem to think otherwise. I guess they think the developers are lying.

 

As we say in the UK, "there's none stranger than folk". 😉

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by martin-w

[sanh 823]

The subscription comments are nonsense in my view. Everything we see will be included in the price. I do think ms will create paid for addons though. Not scenery or weather or anything default in the flight sim but things like missions. They may add customised voice, specific local scenery and animations with custom conditions, sound and maybe an aircraft. Lots of games now have additional content for a small fee.  A mission could be fighting wild fires somewhere.

Addons like these would not inflame the fs community (excuse the pun) and provide additional revenue post release.

Edited February 16, 2020 by sanh

[martin-w 3,235]

22 hours ago, olderndirt said:

When the dust settles, keep in mind Microsoft is in this to make a buck - as many as they can.

 

Yep, they certainly are. And all the details regarding the pricing are yet to be finalised. But when they consistently keep telling us there wont be a subscription for JUST the simulator and that we can purchase the simulator as a one off purchase, its pretty certain that is the case.

It's a good point though, and I would speculate that the one off purchase of the product will be higher than we are used to for flight sim. I wouldn't be surprised if Asobo will continue to develop add-on aircraft for the sim, and additional profit will be gained via that mechanism. All speculation at this stage of course. 

I stared this thread primarily to highlight the other information, for example how low the internet speed required is. 10 mbs for the full experience is excellent in my opinion, I was expecting higher. It seems people are more interested in the "no subscription" conversation though. 😁

 

[Krakin 5,765]

The people convincing themselves that MS will charge a subscription are the people convinced they know exactly what this project is costing MS and how many units they'll need to sell to break even at least.

[b737800 470]

3 minutes ago, Krakin said:

The people convincing themselves that MS will charge a subscription are the people convinced they know exactly what this project is costing MS and how many units they'll need to sell to break even at least.

They might charge for downloading the best quality textures and they might not. None of us know this yet.

A post that I might take note of would be worded along the lines of "Microsoft have said that a one off purchase will be one of the options to get you the sim and they have stated that it will also be available as part of the Game Pass. What they haven't said is whether all the streamable data will be free of charge to those who choose the one off option. I think they will likely charge for it as it has a cost to them... etc etc. etc."

rather than...

"Microsoft will 100% charge for the data even if you have purchased the game as they are only in it for the money".

That second statement is, as usual, painting the worst case scenario when the same point could so easily be made without the clear bias and continued negativity.

Personally I think it would be totally reasonable for them to make a charge for the data and it will be a pleasant positive to me if they don't. Bear in mind that the data included might well include FAR more than just textures. They have already stated that live weather is available and who knows what other data might also be available. Data that some of us ALREADY pay a subscription to access. Of course, because it's Microsoft they have to be painted as the big, bad corporation.

[tweekz 2,165]

2 minutes ago, b737800 said:

Personally I think it would be totally reasonable for them to make a charge for the data and it will be a pleasant positive to me if they don't. Bear in mind that the data included might well include FAR more than just textures. They have already stated that live weather is available and who knows what other data might also be available. Data that some of us ALREADY pay a subscription to access. Of course, because it's Microsoft they have to be painted as the big, bad corporation.

As someone esle already stated. Living in an age of subscriptions (Amazon prime, Netflix, mobile phone contract, internet, cable, IPTV...) I would have no problem with saving somewhere else and pay those 10$ a month for a great flying experience.

[Krakin 5,765]

1 minute ago, b737800 said:

They might charge for downloading the best quality textures and they might not. None of us know this yet.

A post that I might take note of would be worded along the lines of "Microsoft have said that a one off purchase will be one of the options to get you the sim and they have stated that it will also be available as part of the Game Pass. What they haven't said is whether all the streamable data will be free of charge to those who choose the one off option. I think they will likely charge for it as it has a cost to them... etc etc. etc."

rather than...

"Microsoft will 100% charge for the data even if you have purchased the game as they are only in it for the money".

That second statement is, as usual, painting the worst case scenario when the same point could so easily be made without the clear bias and continued negativity.

Personally I think it would be totally reasonable for them to make a charge for the data and it will be a pleasant positive to me if they don't. Bear in mind that the data included might well include FAR more than just textures. They have already stated that live weather is available and who knows what other data might also be available. Data that some of us ALREADY pay a subscription to access. Of course, because it's Microsoft they have to be painted as the big, bad corporation.

That was something I was going to get to. That data is readily available from various sources for free. FSX has real world weather for free. I get what you're saying but everything so far points towards this being a regular ol' purchase with paid add-ons from MS in the future which is fine.