Early Access doesn't mean "Isn't finished yet, but will be finished at release", it just means "Doesn't yet have all features intended for release". Lots of games - especially sims - get updated with new features and tweaks to existing features after release, and sometimes long after release, in particular for sims. It often doesn't make sense to talk about a sim as a "finished" or "feature complete" product, as sims can always be improved and expanded.

I do believe that when MSFS is released on the 18th it will have the features that the developer intended to be present at release. And in that case, it wouldn't make sense to release it as an Early Access game.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by JacquesBrel

1 hour ago, ThomseN_inc said:

I have the impression that either people don't get the point of the OP right or don't WANT to get it right. I have never stated that i don't want to buy MSFS at full price nor have i stated that i expect it to be the first Sim without any issues. I just asked why its not called early access.

And why should be? Everybody have to understand, that simulator with whole Earth range can be completelly  finish never 🙂 . I beliveve, that at most of basic functionalities (like autopilot, flight dynamics etc) can be fixed before release. But many bugs in scenery, what are created by AI, can be removed never with existing technology. Sure, we will see some gradually improving in the future, but it isn't possible fix everything. So why they can mark MSFS as final version, not only early acces? Simply because there will be present every functionalities, what they promised for start and i'm sure, that some more too. And one more reason, why not early acces? They needs so many users, as is possible, but many of PC gamers never buy games in early acces, because they expect missing some of basic functionalities and it isn't a MSFS case.

I think a lot of people here have never bought an Early Access game at the start of the dev cycle. They can be very, very rough.

MSFS does not look like early access.

5 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Think about it...you wouldn't buy any other product knowing there will be important things missing.

Try telling that to Electronic Arts. 🤣

Really, the point of an Early Access game is not so much that you get early access, or that it goes out of the door unfinished, it's that the company making it gets a cash injection to allow development to continue, so they can actually afford to pay wages whilst developing it. For which, in return for showing a bit of faith, you get the finished thing at the lower price (eventually). So it's somewhat akin to things like Kickstarter crowdfunding.

MS is literally the largest company in the world, they do not need a Kickstarter campaign to get a product going. Like Lockheed Martin, if they forgot to put the cost of developing the flight sim into their account book, the auditors would barely notice the difference!

Beyond this, it's a fact that well over half of all Early Access games never make it to being finished, so it's not a tag which has a lot of traction with people. I've bought and still do buy quite a few early access games, but I know it is a gamble. The new FS sim/game is not a gamble, it's got some cash and drive behind it.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by Chock

Maybe it is because Asobo is the developer and MS is the publisher. There needs to be a water tight  contract between the two parties and when Asobo delivers the release they get the final payment. 
 

If it is a smaller project where the developer and publisher are the same company it is much easier to call it early access. 

7 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

But a thing like a properly working autopilot shouldn't be an extra which comes along somewhere in the lifetime of the game. It should work right at release.

how do we know that it will not be? your basing this opinion from what you have seen in Alpha/Beta video, they may not show what the game is going to be like on release - hence the NDA for testers, so yea even still there may be problems on launch as well but if (like almost all new releases) they patch out any real issues soon after launch its on par with any new release game

really i think the difference is about what you can expect from support, in early access devs rely to heavily on the "its still in alpha", MS does not want those training wheels attached to this product, it will be a full release game not a beta build like you see on steam thats Full of bugs that may never be addressed - simply put, they want people that buy the game to feel comfortable its complete
most if not all of the features not already in the game are Extras that are not usually found in base sims - the base game is already "more complete' feature wise than any other sim out there

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by AirWayMan

I think games launched in early access are still missing significant parts closely related to their main use-cases. MSFS launches with a very convincing base package, which may then be expanded with DLCs.

Sure, there are bugs, but that is inherent to software anyway...

I think some kind of early access release would have been smart, but the time has passed now. The game is too feature complete (not to be confused with not buggy, because it's buggy) to call it early access now. The need to fix the AP and weather issues and call it a release. The scenery will always have bugs from here unto eternity.

What we just don't know is how many of the major bugs will be or already have been quashed in the final release version or a via release date patch like so many games get. I'm not gonna break the NDA by giving details (I already skirt it enough as it is), but if you are in the beta forums and haven't checked the Q&A thread, there's some interesting information in there on that front.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by bonchie

55 minutes ago, AirWayMan said:

your basing this opinion from what you have seen in Alpha/Beta video

Thats right but that footage is what MSFS is advertised with. So relating to that material is just consequent.

Edited August 6, 20205 yr by ThomseN_inc

20 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

Thats right but that footage is what MSFS is advertised with. So relating to that material is just consequent.

No, it's wrong. MSFS is advertised by official trailers, pictures and pre-order informations only. Every other videos are marked as an alpha or beta preview builds from the developing time. So it's sure, that there must exist some more complete build for an internal testing, what will change to release version on 18. august, and what nobody will see before (except MS/ASOBO). Not even Aerosoft can saw a final version on DVDs, which he producted, because also instalation from physical DVDs will be update on-line before user will can play 18. august. So ASOBO may proceed fixing bugs until the last hours before release.

A program as complex as MFS is never "done", there will always be features to tweak, bugs to fix, things to improve.  Asobo could have worked on this for another year and it still would not be "perfect".  I'd rather jump in now and enjoy what is working while the updates come rather than wait another year to fly in it.

I don't mind buying games in "early access" or alpha/beta, IF the game's current state is fun and compelling to play, AND if future support is rosey and promising.  MFS qualifies easily so I don't mind paying $120 for the ability to fly in it NOW rather than later.

"A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow."

Everyone must make their own choice on this, not everyone will agree or be happy with anything less than perfection.  I'm more realistic than that I guess.

1 hour ago, ludekbrno said:

MSFS is advertised by official trailers, pictures and pre-order informations only.

But these show a perfectly composed world that starts to fade when watching the stuff made by "real" users...

Autopilot better be stable on ALL included aircraft on launch, if not......boy oh boy I guess we will all get practice with out manual hand flying <-----hong kong to anchorage cargo run anyone? pffffff

10 hours ago, ThomseN_inc said:

But a thing like a properly working autopilot shouldn't be an extra which comes along somewhere in the lifetime of the game. It should work right at release.

Modern sims don't work that way. Look at DCS. The F18 is still incomplete, and it came out 2 years ago. The F16 is even lower on the functionality scale, having only released a bit over a year ago. On the one hand, I don't like it either, but on the other, it's been fun to fly the F18 and F16, even incomplete, rather than waiting 5+ years for them to be fully kitted out.

Also, I have some suspicions about that "autopilot tried to kill me" video. I skimmed some of it because I ran out of time, but I saw him make several mistakes. I don't know if those mistakes contributed to the autopilot oddities (some of them like not turning standby power on didn't, but others, like not aligning the INS, might have depending on how the thing is modeled, which we still don't know). He seemed confused about setting the altimeter, and seemed to skip some steps (hard to tell because there were cuts in the vid, so he might have performed them off camera) in setting up the flight and autopilot. The vid wasn't clear enough to read the gauges well, especially on my phone where I was watching it, but if you don't do the setup right, the autopilot can do "strange" things that are actually pilot error. Happens in the PMDG plane too - happened to me several times when I first got it and didn't know what I was doing.

 

Go ahead and try the default 737 FMS in x-plane  ... and change you arrival mid flight you may get sent to space.  (Zibo mod will handle this pretty well but despite being free is NOT part of the sim)  ...and xplane is not called early access. (I've flown the default 737 before I knew about Zibo mod on pilotedge. I've had to disconnect abruptly) And yes  you can hand hold the auto pilot to compensate  .. but you can do the same in mfs.  And as stated earlier the release build isnt out yet.  But even if we assume the autopilot will be no better . They would not be breaking any precedent . 

 

I have no problem with it being called a full release. And I'll enjoy every 'update' that comes after release