It must be remembered that Microsoft is NOT developing the product. 

Unlike days gone by, when Microsoft had their own game developing division, ACES, they now contract out development to their 18 gaming studios that they have contracted with, for games developing. That was a big shift away from 'self' developing. Obviously, every large corporation is responsible to their shareholders, so, if any division is not performing, it must be reviewed, & action taken to correct this, hence the closing of the underperforming ACES Gaming Studios. Nothing personal to the niche gamerz that felt betrayed that Microsoft had dissed them, purely a business decision. Now, using 3rd party game developers is obviously better for their profits & bottom line.

 

7 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

They will gradually reduce the size of the team that develops/supports/maintains MSFS probably after 1 or 2 years.  There is no way they keep all 200 employees working full time on this game after a few years.  I suspect after 5 years, the full time team working on MSFS will be under 30 people or so, with continual further reductions (maybe with part time help from other employees).

According to the road map, we are getting 2 patches per month for the next few months. But don’t expect that to last forever. I can see it even becoming 1 patch per month and then maybe a patch every several months, in line with the manpower reduction for this game.

This way, they can still be making changes and supporting the game over a 10 year period.

But since MSFS is a commercial success already, the gradual staff reduction for this game may mean those staff will also be gradually shifted at some point towards the development of a future version of MSFS.  So I think the future will be bright for us flight simmers.

 

 

 

 

 

Remember, that Asobo started in 2002 and has developed about 23 games for various platforms, and to think that ALL of their staff are supporting MSFS is quite naive! They have a business to run, apart from supporting MSFS. 10 years? Mmmm, is that from initial development from the Hololens days, when they showed MS their technolgy, or from when the product was released? 

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by Wobbie

I very much believe there is absolutely no need to be concerned right now.

Lets face it guys, If MS/Asobo can just fix the basics, it will be the 3PDs who will make this platform the truly great sim it has the potential to be. I just hope that the updates continue to upgrade world scenery, ie like Japan. For the people who love the default aircraft, I genuinely hope that they fix the problems with those.  I would guess that I am in the majority of simmers, who will abandon default aircraft with great alacrity and reckless abandon in favour of 3PD aircraft, sceneries and utilities. In my mind, I see SDK improved and updated to the stage where 3PDs can use them to their fullest extent, and, please forgive me, a word not allowed manual. as the greatest priorities for the future of this sim. I am very confident that these will come in the fullness of time.  

This (3PDs) is what made P3D great, this is what made Xplane11 great and it is what will make MSFS2020 the ultimate sim platform. 

So, my message to MS/Asobo is ... fix the basics, sort out the SDK, continue the world sceneries (including seasons) and leave the rest to 3PDs. In the meantime we have a great scenery platform which exceeds all else out there with fair to middling default aircraft and even these are better than default aircraft in all other sims.

Rest assured, it will be the payware developers who will make this sim great and this has been demonstrably proven with every sim that precedes it.

Unfortunately, for some, what we have right now is not great because of bugs, but in 2 to three months, who knows. P3D and XPlane are STILL incredibly good, in the interim, for those who have them and who did not, prematurely uninstall them.

Tony

 

Fix the file looping (I finally got it re-installed this morning). I don't want to have to go through that again for one or two corrupted files.

Give me a 707, 727, DC10 and VC10 (needn't be full study level) and maybe a Level D 767 then I'll be happy as a pig in the mud.

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by Elvensmith

7 minutes ago, Elvensmith said:

Fix the file looping (I finally got it re-installed this morning). I don't want to have to go through that again for one or two corrupted files.

Give me a 707, 727, DC10 and VC10 (needn't be full study level) and maybe a Level D 767 then I'll be happy as a pig in the mud.

Complex aircraft is the new study level designation! 🙂

 

The model where MS gets a cut of third party products is the key. It gives them a vested interest to provide a robust platform for that development and to keep the lines of communication open with those third party developers. So, it is imperative that MS/Asobo continue to refine the product. The person who is not interested in (or can't afford) buying addons will still benefit from the improvements in the base game. The other alternative would be a subscription type platform that I don't think anyone wants ( I don't ) and would probably be doomed to failure. These interesting, and good, times in the flight sim world. It will be interesting to see how it plays.

Right, judging from the # of reviews on the addon markets, given reviewers account for less than 6% of purchases on almost every e-commerce site, if we go by that formula, there are some serious sales on some of those addons. Eventually, they'll have an entire fleet of planes in there presumably, that's going to make money. 

This is a worldwide game with many parts of the world actually being better than the US or England when it comes to aerial quality and scenery, so the game has a broad based appeal to not only pilots all over the world, but also just people who want to go sight seeing in a simulated aircraft.

Xplane engine has potential, but other than that, I don't see much competition if they get MOST of the issues sorted. Right now there are some issues with the way the planes land and take off, and the rudder controls. Heck, you cannot even get up a hill on some planes, like even a tiny small hill even with a plane that has a lot of horsepower.

So there are issues, but this game is definitely in a league of its own when it comes to certain aspects, so it's hard to predict the longevity, as there isn't much else to compare it to.

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by SceneryFX

3 hours ago, JDWalley said:

t's pretty much known that the original MFS was kept going for decades because Bill Gates was a big backer.  When he stepped down and Steve Ballmer took over, the ACES team was disbanded, along with a lot of other people developing games for Windows, as he decided that Microsoft should direct all its game focus to XBox.  It's no surprise that MFS, along with other non-console game development went into suspended animation while he was there.  After he retired, new management came in that was obviously more amenable to resurrecting flight simulation.  

Indeed.

What would be amazing is if they also resurrected the hardware that was also dropped  like the MS FFB2 because it was pretty much the stick to beat back in the day.

19 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

What happens if funding for further development is terminated? Do Microsoft say "bye, bye, chaps, it was nice knowing you", and disconnect the servers?

 

Yep. It's happened to many MMOs before , and it will continue to happen as long as games follow these models. That's the price we pay for an online only game.  

All you can hope is that the sim generates enough income that you'll get your fill prior to that event occurring!

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by Jose Munoz

Considering that one can buy MSFS outright for $60 US or buy it via a Gamepass subscription for $10/month (along with a bunch of other fairly worthless games) at some point a 2.0 version of MSFS will be released making the present version outmoded. Given the version life cycles of XP and P3d , I'll guess two years from the original release date for MSFS.

Nope, no version 2.0 at all, as MSFS is, and will be updated/upgraded on line, just as Windows 10 is. That's the software model used. So, no need to wait for a new VERSION 2.0

14 hours ago, SierraHotel said:

I think a better question would be,

"will the World as we know it allow development of FS to continue, will the internet still be functioning in two years, will people still be working for a living in two years?"

In 2020, these are more viable questions!

Or will people even exist in 2 years or submit to global warming?

Cheers

bs

10 years of support has been acknowledged.

 

Regards

bs

Edited September 26, 20205 yr by bean_sprout