11 minutes ago, Slides said:

Because they make a lot of money from hobbyists. More than you would assume. They don't even do a good job of hiding it.

Do you have stats to show this or are you just guessing? If they aren’t hiding it then provide us with facts. Otherwise everything you claiming is just based on your opinion. I’m really interested as I’m sure others would be too. Wasn’t there already a topic on the amount of xPlane vs FSX vs P3D users there were in the market?

I agree hey make money off hobbyist but to clam they will be laying off team members is another thing. How many people are on the P3D team? 

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Wise87

There was an official Xbox blog post as well, with an accolades trailer too.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/03/microsoft-flight-simulator-is-the-biggest-game-launch-in-xbox-game-pass-for-pc-history-with-over-1-million-players-to-date/

Quote

Launch marks the beginning of a journey for us and this is just the start. There is plenty more to come on our flight itinerary including world updates, sim updates, and future themed DLC. Microsoft Flight Simulator is the ticket for anyone who has ever dreamt of flying or exploring the world. The sky is calling.

This feels quite reassuring considering the review bombing that took place due to the problematic client and several players wanting a refund. I still don't think they will fulfil the 10-year development plan, but coupled with the recent interview from the game's lead it looks like the first one or two years of full-on development is guaranteed.

11 minutes ago, Slides said:

Why would you suspect that? I suspect that they will cut down their team soon once the non commercial market dries up for them.

It will be interesting to see what LM will do with v6, which should be slated for 2022/3. I would think that most of the "consumer" (professionals and academic licenses) purchases (I could be wrong, but would guess 60 -70%) have already been made for v5. I would also think that the number of v5 purchases has to be less than v4, which saw a lot of FSX converts finally opt for a 64-bit platform. 

v6 would probably see more consumer market erosion as MSFS matures and the PMDG's of the world eventually work in MSFS, and P3D holdouts continue to warm up to MSFS.

I do think LM makes a lot of money that pays a good portion of P3D development costs from the consumer market, but we all know that the purpose for P3D is related to revenue generation on the defense and industry side of the company. I don't necessarily think LM will cut the development team, rather I think they might prioritize their feature sets a bit differently. It will be interesting to see what happens with the v5.x updates in the next couple of years too. 

5 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

There was an official Xbox blog post as well, with an accolades trailer too.

https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2020/09/03/microsoft-flight-simulator-is-the-biggest-game-launch-in-xbox-game-pass-for-pc-history-with-over-1-million-players-to-date/

This feels quite reassuring considering the review bombing that took place due to the problematic client and several players wanting a refund. I still don't think they will fulfil the 10-year development plan, but coupled with the recent interview from the game's lead it looks like the first one or two years of full-on development is guaranteed.

They can still fulfill the 10 year development plan by cutting down the team in the latter years.  A lot of games are updated and maintained but with a team size that is a fraction of the original team. For example, Starcraft 2 has been going for 10 years, but the team dedicated to it is a small fraction the size of the team that was used to develop it.

If Microsoft does get revenue from other sources such as commercial purchases and their commission from the marketplace, it will be enough to maintain a small team from years 5 to 10 of MSFS.  That will still mean updates and fixes to MSFS, but albeit, with a much smaller team, and the period between updates to MSFS will be a long longer (ie. Asobo is saying they will release an update every month but I assume that is only for the first 1 or 2 years of MSFS ... past year 1 or 2, they can start reducing the team and then it will be more than one month between updates, etc).

Only half-way yet....

 

"Based on the assumption of a sale of 2.27 million units of Flight Simulator 2020 selling over the next three years, JPR estimates that in that time frame $2.6 billion will be spent on hardware with the specific intent of improving the game's experience. Much more will be spent over the title's complete sales cycle."

This really should help TPDs'

18 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

They can still fulfill the 10 year development plan by cutting down the team in the latter years.  A lot of games are updated and maintained but with a team size that is a fraction of the original team. For example, Starcraft 2 has been going for 10 years, but the team dedicated to it is a small fraction the size of the team that was used to develop it.

They will certainly start scaling back on the development team and perhaps not too long from now, though I have the feeling that any sort of development will stop completely after the first few years considering the massive budget that has already gone into it. StarCraft II continues to have a strong userbase I believe, and the simulator will likely fall out of fashion once its visuals are considered outdated. Which is the same story as the current simulators.

Still, if we could get one or two more years of development it would be absolutely amazing so I'm not complaining. But it would be even greater if the overall reception and sales allow for a future relaunch/expansion or a possible Microsoft Flight Simulator II with whatever innovative new technology becomes available then. I have no faith in the other simulator developers to provide us with an up-to-date product with the proper AAA treatment that was sorely needed all these years.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by ChaoticBeauty

8 minutes ago, ChaoticBeauty said:

They will certainly start scaling back on the development team and perhaps not too long from now, though

Complete lies.. lol sometimes I think I am in steam forums or something..

 

 

They are adding , just with-in the past week they have opened up more job postings. They are hiring more people not cutting back. 

Think I will just stop feeding the trolls. it's getting old

It might be really popular, but it's a tough sim!

Boss storm clouds in level 6 are harder to jump over, navigation spells take lots more wizard credits, and free landing tokens parachute by really fast :(.

15 minutes ago, SirDan said:

Complete lies.. lol sometimes I think I am in steam forums or something..

That does not mean they will not scale back on the overall size of the team. They have different priorities now compared to a few years ago, when they had to get the engine and core simulator started. Once they finish with the DirectX 12 update and adding more core elements like VR and seasons, they will focus more on content like scenery and missions (those job listings have existed for almost a year by the way), but those working on the engine will be moved to other projects or laid off.

As for when that will happen, I made it clear that this is speculation on my part. If you have more definitive information to share, please do so. I am not trying to troll, I really want the simulator to succeed and grow, but I'm trying to be realistic. I've seen many game franchises die off when they "meet expectations" but do not make massive sales. Similar to Flight Simulator X, for example.

1 hour ago, Wise87 said:

Do you have stats to show this or are you just guessing? If they aren’t hiding it then provide us with facts. Otherwise everything you claiming is just based on your opinion. I’m really interested as I’m sure others would be too. Wasn’t there already a topic on the amount of xPlane vs FSX vs P3D users there were in the market?

I agree hey make money off hobbyist but to clam they will be laying off team members is another thing. How many people are on the P3D team? 

Of course it's my opinion. Based on observations. Look at the interaction from the P3D team. AMA on reddit. That's not targeting commercial users. Look at the features they have added. Many of them are of no interest to commercial users. On their homepage, one of the airplanes in spotlight is an F-22. I'm reasonably sure that they are not using P3D for F-22 commercial use for the USAF.

13 minutes ago, Slides said:

I'm reasonably sure that they are not using P3D for F-22 commercial use for the USAF.

Well..  Since You like quoting tweets from Asobo CEO's.

Spin this one: Educating the Engineers of Tomorrow or this one The real deal.

Quote

By 2012, Prepar3d was being used not only by the U.S. Air Force for cockpit familiarization and procedures training, but also in high school classrooms as a novel way to teach math and trigonometry and as the centerpiece of the National Flight Academy’s new in-residence program. At the Pensacola Naval Air Station, students camp in a mock aircraft carrier, learning the various duties required above board and below. 

 

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by RamonB

Just now, RamonB said:

Well..  Since You like quoting tweets from CEO's.

Spin this one: Educating the Engineers of Tomorrow &

 

What's their to spin? When did I say the USAF does not use P3D at all? You're confusing me with someone else here who likes to make claims without proof.

But I bet you a fiver that the F-22 model that is being promoted on their website as a default aircraft is not what the USAF uses for training.

33 minutes ago, SirDan said:

Complete lies.. lol sometimes I think I am in steam forums or something..

 

 

They are adding , just with-in the past week they have opened up more job postings. They are hiring more people not cutting back. 

Think I will just stop feeding the trolls. it's getting old

As someone who wants MSFS to succeed badly (because X-Plane and P3D are really sims from one or two generations ago), it's natural for there to be staff reductions after some time.  It doesn't mean that Asobo will stop updates on MSFS altogether, it just means that they can't spend as much money on MSFS because a large bulk of the revenue has been spent producing the game.  The hiring may be for specific positions that their other resources can't switch to, or for cheaper positions that they want to fill so that they can move their more experienced people to a new project.  

For a lot of successful games, the staff reduction happens naturally over time, as companies shift resources on new projects to get more revenue.  I mentioned Starcraft 2 as an example of a game that is 10 years old but it is still updated. However, the team that is left for Starcraft 2 is small.

My guess is that in the first year for MSFS, most of the staff will still be dedicated to the game to fix the bugs, and add flesh out the features that the players want the most.  After year 1 or year 2, there will probably be a reduction of staff.  But since this game is looking like a success, it will probably still be updated from years 5 to 10, just with a smaller staff in years 5 to 10, and the updates may be a little more spread out.

 

3 hours ago, tpete61 said:

Considering most are probably casual gamers and others that will lose interest quickly.

It's quite hard to predict the future or how add-on development will be effected.

Hopefully for real sim pilots we will see quality add-ons and not more rushed garbage!

 

 

If they maintain just a quarter of those 1 million as long term "casual gamers". It's a win/win.. 

We were all once just "casual gamers" when discovering flight simulator, years later, defaulted credit cards, and bill collectors later we're still here addicted and striving to learn..