Multiplayer ?

[andrewiltn 0]

I cannot think of the exact wording but in FSX my mate and I could be in the same aircraft (B737) left and right seats and fly the aircraft together as in real World.   Does anyone know if that feature is going to be in MSFS2020 ?    Really looking forward to trying it out on or soon after 18th August but this feature was great in FSX and would make the new FS just brilliant.

[Dermot McClusky 494]

Shared cockpit functionality was, at one time, something they were planning to add, but couldn't give a timeline (I believe it wasn't in the initial plans, but they changed that based on early feedback). I think the event they held w/ various content-creators in September 2019 is where folks were told they'll add it to the to-do list.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong or my info is out-of-date.

[Chock 17,769]

What you have to bear in mind is that one of the issues MS had with the Flight Simulator franchise which made them kill it off back a few years ago, was that they'd made a base sim which didn't earn them much in the way of continuing revenue, instead being something which brought in some cash once every two years or so when a new version came out. And you can't blame them in some ways; it must have been quite annoying to sit back and watch TPDs raking it in off their product for two years in repeating cycles, whilst they only got cash for the first month or so.

So when they came up with MS Flight, the idea was that it would have micro transactions, which many TPDs didn't like, and when Dovetail also mooted it with FSW, once again many TPDs voiced objections to it although in fairness, some of them did come around to it, but not enough to give it the traction necessary to continue development.

Nowadays I think people are more receptive to it simply because it is the way things go, and the mechanism for it will be a bit different too, with room for many different sales models as evidenced by what happens with FSX-SE, but alongside the TPDs, MS want to have a continuing revenue stream, and they have said that the new sim has an initial ten-year plan, so you can expect things which add functionality to be added. Thus if there is enough demand for a function to make it a profitable enterprise, then it will be added, because doing this will just be good business sense for MS, and that is part of their plan.