For Years to Come .... Maybe ....

[Neutrino Flux 64]

I hear people saying the sim will get better and it will be the Flight Simulator platform for years to come ..... I hope it does and I hope it will ...

The sim is Cloud based ... What do you think will happen if it doesn't generate enough money for Microsoft ?

Do you think they will keep the Servers running for ' The Community' ?

It's a different beast to FSX ... If Microsoft pull the plug I guess at best you would be down to the most basic of scenery.

Food for thought ....

 

[Chock 17,769]

I shouldn't worry about it, the streaming map technology which the new MS Flight Simulator benefits from, is gonna make a bucketload of cash for MS, and they once again are back to realising what good PR Flight Simulator is for their corporation.

In ten years' time, who knows what computer technology will be around. We'll probably be laughing at how we though the new sim looked fantastic by then. Just watch a movie from five or six years ago and see how dated the CGI looks compared to contemporary efforts.

Edited August 19, 2020 by Chock

[sanh 823]

They will keep the servers running to avoid damaging their reputation. Most games are increasing online. Nothing new here.

[Neutrino Flux 64]

3 minutes ago, sanh said:

They will keep the servers running to avoid damaging their reputation. Most games are increasing online. Nothing new here.

Really ? I disagree. 

[OHN767 82]

21 minutes ago, Nick_h said:

I hear people saying the sim will get better and it will be the Flight Simulator platform for years to come ..... I hope it does and I hope it will ...

The sim is Cloud based ... What do you think will happen if it doesn't generate enough money for Microsoft ?

Do you think they will keep the Servers running for ' The Community' ?

It's a different beast to FSX ... If Microsoft pull the plug I guess at best you would be down to the most basic of scenery.

Food for thought ....

 

They will be making tons of money on this, nothing to worry about.

[sanh 823]

5 minutes ago, Nick_h said:

Really ? I disagree. 

So you think in the next 3 or 4 years they will just turn off their servers and leave people who paid $120 for a game high and dry? If they did that they would struggle to sell future games which are increasingly online. Most of my games right now only allow me to save progress on the cloud - not locally. GTA5 is a great example. 

Millions of people use satellite pictures on Bing maps for free. I dont think a few hundred thousand people streaming flights here or there will bother them.

Edited August 19, 2020 by sanh

[norman_99 209]

9 minutes ago, sanh said:

They will keep the servers running to avoid damaging their reputation. Most games are increasing online. Nothing new here.

Yep, but they'll just start charging a subscription for the data........ (joking)

[Neutrino Flux 64]

17 minutes ago, sanh said:

So you think in the next 3 or 4 years they will just turn off their servers and leave people who paid $120 for a game high and dry? If they did that they would struggle to sell future games which are increasingly online. Most of my games right now only allow me to save progress on the cloud - not locally. GTA5 is a great example. 

Millions of people use satellite pictures on Bing maps for free. I dont think a few hundred thousand people streaming flights here or there will bother them.

Well let’s hope so eh ? 🙂

[Ixoye 1,812]

In about ten years, you can probably download the whole world maps to your petabyte hard drive and play the game offline.

[Dominique_K 10,133]

To say that  MS will make a ton of money with FS20 over the long time is unproven as we have a new commercial paradigm with this simuIator. That the new idol of our tiny hobbyist world, the YouTube-influenced gamer, Discord regular, Xbox gamer playing on the Pass will be a large customer of DLC is unknown, not to say doubtful. 

Whatever the money coming in, it will be assessed anyway against the cost of maintenance and updates. In absolute and relative terms against how much investing the same money into a newer game could bring to the coffers,

If FS20 is an average money maker over several years, the plausible scenario is a progressive end of the MB and NB partnerships and the end of map updates. Closing the streaming  servers will more difficult akin to a breach of contract. Interesting to check whether the EULA says anything about that.

As to Microsoft wary of giving up on FS20 for fear of damaging its reputation within the gamers world, it is so far the best joke I have read in 2020.

Don’t make me wrong, I do not predict the future here. And my middle name is not Cassandra anyway. This  is just another scenario, the doomsday scenario, to balance some rather  optimistic and respectable views of the above fellow simmers. Food for thoughts.

It seems, by most accounts, that MS has pulled a v5 on us. Lets see if they understand the need of strong and fast corrective measures. 

A last thought. A very important parameter is to know how much money MS plans to make in pro-simulation markets and the extent to which the Asobo Project of a Digital Earth will be a money maker in non-game non-training  related markets. I am pretty optimistic and that would be a life saver for the game.

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

I just hope over ten years they manage to remove squished cars from the roads, and baked in waves and boats 🙂

[Neutrino Flux 64]

28 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

To say that  MS will make a ton of money with FS20 over the long time is unproven as we have a new commercial paradigm with this simuIator. That the new idol of our tiny hobbyist world, the YouTube-influenced gamer, Discord regular, Xbox gamer playing on the Pass will be a large customer of DLC is unknown, not to say doubtful. 

Whatever the money coming in, it will be assessed anyway against the cost of maintenance and updates. In absolute and relative terms against how much investing the same money into a newer game could bring to the coffers,

If FS20 is an average money maker over several years, the plausible scenario is a progressive end of the MB and NB partnerships and the end of map updates. Closing the streaming  servers will more difficult akin to a breach of contract. Interesting to check whether the EULA says anything about that.

As to Microsoft wary of giving up on FS20 for fear of damaging its reputation within the gamers world, it is so far the best joke I have read in 2020.

Don’t make me wrong, I do not predict the future here. And my middle name is not Cassandra anyway. This  is just another scenario, the doomsday scenario, to balance some rather  optimistic and respectable views of the above fellow simmers. Food for thoughts.

It seems, by most accounts, that MS has pulled a v5 on us. Lets see if they understand the need of strong and fast corrective measures. 

A last thought. A very important parameter is to know how much money MS plans to make in pro-simulation markets and the extent to which the Asobo Project of a Digital Earth will be a money maker in non-game non-training  related markets. I am pretty optimistic and that would be a life saver for the game.

Excellent post 🙂

[F737MAX 5,511]

I have to laugh when I read comments from the ''Asobo are here to develop and improve MSFS for the next 10 years" crowd.
Yes, that's what Jorg Neumann (IIRC) said, yet it's nothing but marketing spiel.

If MSFS doesn't do as well as envisaged, if the anticipated market doesn't develop, if the next product from Asobo needs more resources to develop, we would see a paring back of the ambition and scope of future updates.

Not to mention 10 years is a long time, economic circumstances change, people come and go, the passion for flying shown by those in charge at Asobo and MS could disappear with a change of those in charge.

I have my fingers firmly crossed that the biggest problems highlighted by alpha & beta testers are corrected and the platform matures before the Xbox crowd get hold of it. They are less emotionally invested than we are as fans of flight simming, so will have a lot less patience for setup issues, autopilots not working properly, carrier-style take-offs of the 787...

I want MSFS to succeed in every way. It is the breath of fresh air our hobby needed and there's plenty to be encouraged about. My concern right now is that the launch was rushed. There's some exciting new tech already in the base product, however there are lots of aspects not working as well as we'd hoped, nor even present.

Hyperbole aside and despite what some would have you believe, MSFS is neither terrible, nor is it the sim to end all sims.
IMO, the progress made by the developers come the Xbox series X release date is key to whether MSFS succeeds or not.

[Slides 1,552]

1 hour ago, Dominique_K said:

A last thought. A very important parameter is to know how much money MS plans to make in pro-simulation markets and the extent to which the Asobo Project of a Digital Earth will be a money maker in non-game non-training  related markets. I am pretty optimistic and that would be a life saver for the game.

This might be the key in many ways. I can think of multiple military and commercial industry applications for \the Digital Earth technology. Plus. MSFS could even be a loss leader for MS, as long as it promotes Azure cloud services and MS's brand equity. Can't measure that in dollars easily. 

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

31 minutes ago, F737NG said:

I have to laugh when I read comments from the ''Asobo are here to develop and improve MSFS for the next 10 years" crowd.
Yes, that's what Jorg Neumann (IIRC) said, yet it's nothing but marketing spiel.

If MSFS doesn't do as well as envisaged, if the anticipated market doesn't develop, if the next product from Asobo needs more resources to develop, we would see a paring back of the ambition and scope of future updates.

Not to mention 10 years is a long time, economic circumstances change, people come and go, the passion for flying shown by those in charge at Asobo and MS could disappear with a change of those in charge.

 

Exactly. I think people forget FSX and the DX10 mode........