I don't know if it was seen before, but I find it very interesting and informative,

"Please allow me a personal comment I have been cropping up for close to a year.

 

We learned about the new sim at the same time as everybody else. It is utterly incredible Microsoft and Asobo managed to keep this such a secret for over two years. But very soon after the first announcement was done we were called by Microsoft to see if we had any interest in working with them. Uhhhh.... yeah! 

 

Now we had some luck. The development team, Asobo, is based in Bordeaux and I live close to Bordeaux. So we could set up a quick meeting (this is all before Corona, when we still could shake hands etc). At that moment we already understood that the team from Microsoft was very willing to coordinate with 3rd party developers, but they also wanted some of the experience Aerosoft gathered in the last 27 years. It was bloody amazing to be honest. We had questions, we got questions, we met people in every part of the project. Utterly different from any team at Microsoft that worked on FS. They started with the question "what can we do to make your addons work?'. 

 

And then I visited Asobo for the first time. Now remember this was a good while ago, I think it was August 2019. We were all (and I mean everybody) assuming the videos we seen were rendered on some high end server farm. But here I was, stick in hand, on a rather modest machine, in meeting room, seeing  the sim at 50 fps on a 4k screen. My yaw hit the floor. And I have seen a lot of yaws hit the floor since then. This was default sim, no add-ons, and the aircraft were pretty solid and the world was alive and looked totally amazing. Not just Frankfurt airport, but also my house. In the default sim. No add-on in FS or P3d has my house.  I mean this is very rural France. A village of 300 persons. Looking even closer I noticed that even the trees were accurate. They have a tree database. Not kinds of trees, but actual locations of trees around the world. Mind blown.

 

We have been working with Asobo ever since. I visited them many times and have been always received with grace and friendship. No question was too weird, no comment was ignored. Super kind people. I wish I could share what information was exchanged, just take my word, what we asked, we got or got an explanation why it could not be done (yet). This is a very very cool team of developers. They get FS, they understand it, they read forums.

 

Next to this technical exchange (remember there was no SDK yet and Asbobo and our devs were still very much discussing what a high end, complex add-on needs), we started commercial discussion with them. We wanted to bring the product in boxed form to customers.  Keep in mind that in many parts of the world boxed FS add-ons still do very well. The boxed version of X-Plane we handled did extremely well and we are super proud of that. As we learned that MFS was a very large product (over 80Gb) we knew that there would be alot of people who could use a boxed version. And after a lot of discussions we got the deal. Aerosoft would produce the boxed retail version, starting with the European market. This is a big deal for us. Believe me.

 

Enter Corona. Try to get hundreds of thousands of DVD's pressed and boxes made while Asia was unreachable and most of Europe in lockdown. It was not easy. It was stressful. But it is done and we are able to start shipping soon. As we reach this next milestone in this project, I can tell you I have never met any team working on MFS that was this nice, this responsive and this focussed on what this sim really is. It's a platform,  MS and Asobo make money on selling it, others make money on expanding it and yet others expand it because they love it. I have been working flight sims for 20 years and I can tell you this is different.  This is a new start. Is it done? Nope, nobody will claim that. You never complete a flightsim. But is a very stable new base to work on. MS and Asobo are not delivering this and step back. They understand it needs enhancements and optimizing. They understand that of the world changes the base sim needs to change. They understand it need accurate weather andt AI traffic. They are in it for the long run.

 

And that, my friends, is all that counts.We can make the Airbusses, my friends at PMDG can make the Boeings, Carenado will make the smaller aircraft, others will make the airports. But what we all need is the base. A solid, reliable base. And I think we just got that. A platform. It needs to grow and P3D and X-Plane are far from defeated, but boy do they have some competition. 

 

To show our dedication to this new platform, we have hired a new top class support guy who will support this sim ('Thomas' The Flash' Flashman) and are hiring development staff to increase our production for the new platform. As we were (are?) one of the very last companies to stop development for FSX and it clones) you can rest assured that existing platforms as X-Plane and P3D will be stay supported. We love all serious sims. Always have, always will. You decide the best platform and we'll make the add-ons."

https://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/154700-aerosoft-official-retail-partner-for-microsoft-flight-simulator/&tab=comments#comment-989186

 

His comments about seeing no improvement from p3dv4 to v5 are much clearer now aren’t they considering his companies distribution deal? 😉

Edited July 16, 20205 yr by micstatic

It sure sounds promising, which bodes well for MSFS as a platform. Keep in mind though that the SDK is still under development and I hope that study-level addon developers will share in that enthusiasm expressed by Mr. Kok.

5 hours ago, penta_a said:

They have a tree database. Not kinds of trees, but actual locations of trees around the world. Mind blown.

This sentence alone helps me put that whole post into perspective.

Sure. Every tree in the world in a database. 😂

I think he means that they have the location of every type of tree, which can go into acres, and not every tree.

13 minutes ago, Janov said:

This sentence alone helps me put that whole post into perspective.

Sure. Every tree in the world in a database. 😂

Nowhere does He say "every" tree. 

But a database that is accurate enough to tell individual trees outside of forests. 

Edited July 16, 20205 yr by Farlis

5 hours ago, penta_a said:

"We can make the Airbusses, my friends at PMDG can make the Boeings, Carenado will make the smaller aircraft, others will make the airports"

I really find this sentence a little arrogant....along with many posts bashing p3d over the last 3 months. 

5 hours ago, penta_a said:

They have a tree database. Not kinds of trees, but actual locations of trees around the world.

He is just excited and among other things he is very much a promoter which is fine. To put this bit of PR work into context just go on line and find out who you report the news that you planted a new tree in your back yard yesterday! Not a bad thing...He is just doing his job. LOL

The enthusiasm I love.  I respect that part from him.  The other pieces where he bashed P3D I find poor form however.  He literally said in a post on his forum that he didn't see anything better with V5 over V4.  That's an interesting comment considering what we now know about aerosoft and microsoft. 

I have a funny feeling Microsoft is going to become a major ADD-ON competitor to all of these 3rd party companies making FS products...

 

Just look at the Deluxe and Premium Editions of the game at release as an example of extra ADD-ON AC and Airports Microsoft is already developing.  I see no reason for them to stop making ADD-Ons for MS themselves and getting 100% return on their money.  Just makes good business sense for them as everything is going to go through their marketplace anyway.

Based on the aforementioned, I can see why MS is not running around reaching out to 3rd party developers at this time.

 

The more competition the better for us as consumers as long as MS doesn't take a huge cut from these 3rd party developers...

 

 

22 minutes ago, Kilo60 said:

I have a funny feeling Microsoft is going to become a major ADD-ON competitor to all of these 3rd party companies making FS products...

Just look at the Deluxe and Premium Editions of the game at release as an example of extra ADD-ON AC and Airports Microsoft is already developing.  I see no reason for them to stop making ADD-Ons for MS themselves and getting 100% return on their money. 

I never understood why the stopped making add-ons for the former MSXX. They had excellent addons like New York, Southern California Extension Pack, Las Vegas, and more. And they had all the development tools and knowledge available.

Kind regards, Michael

 

27 minutes ago, Kilo60 said:

I see no reason for them to stop making ADD-Ons for MS themselves and getting 100% return on their money.

After reading this I'm tempted to buy the Digital Age DLC for Capitalism Lab and sim the creation of MSFS.

Hook

37 minutes ago, Kilo60 said:

I have a funny feeling Microsoft is going to become a major ADD-ON competitor to all of these 3rd party companies making FS products...

 

Just look at the Deluxe and Premium Editions of the game at release as an example of extra ADD-ON AC and Airports Microsoft is already developing.  I see no reason for them to stop making ADD-Ons for MS themselves and getting 100% return on their money.  Just makes good business sense for them as everything is going to go through their marketplace anyway.

Based on the aforementioned, I can see why MS is not running around reaching out to 3rd party developers at this time.

 

The more competition the better for us as consumers as long as MS doesn't take a huge cut from these 3rd party developers...

 

 

I doubt that they will keep the quite large staff  they have now on the sim, after release. They have said that they would work on VR and seasons post release. So the smaller team would have plenty in its plate for months. I also suspect that the « Earth’s Twin » will be put at good use in the forthcoming years for other applications/games

1 hour ago, ttbq1 said:

I really find this sentence a little arrogant....along with many posts bashing p3d over the last 3 months. 

Yup, I think he'll find FSL might have something to say about the notion that they can make the Airbuses. 🤣

Don't get me wrong, I have the Aerosoft ones as well as the FSL ones, and even the Black Box Ones too, but yup, Lefteris and his lot can wipe the floor with the lot of them and not even break a sweat.

56 minutes ago, Kilo60 said:

I have a funny feeling Microsoft is going to become a major ADD-ON competitor to all of these 3rd party companies making FS products...

 

Just look at the Deluxe and Premium Editions of the game at release as an example of extra ADD-ON AC and Airports Microsoft is already developing.  I see no reason for them to stop making ADD-Ons for MS themselves and getting 100% return on their money.  Just makes good business sense for them as everything is going to go through their marketplace anyway.

Based on the aforementioned, I can see why MS is not running around reaching out to 3rd party developers at this time.

 

The more competition the better for us as consumers as long as MS doesn't take a huge cut from these 3rd party developers...

 

 

Where did you read that everything goes through marketplace ?