https://www.madinfinite.com/news/2020/09/asobo-studio-says-it-will-maintain-content-support-and-updates-on-microsoft-flight-simulator-for-10-years/

The article originates from a publication in France, so I can't confirm the info firsthand, but this article summarizes the major points.

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A game that was made by 120 studio employees in its development, and that the company confirms that it will support content and updates for at least 10 years.

Seb Wloch also confirms that the sim has SOLD over a million copies (not just played via Game Pass).

They also surprisingly mention that the technical base for MSFS is apparently derived from the ForzaTech engine, which is the engine underpinning the Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon games.  Apparently Turn10 (developers of Forza Motorsport) gave them a lot of support during development.

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"It is not easy to answer this question. I would say that the first difficulty was to successfully deport 99.9% of the game data to the cloud with Microsoft Azure technology, which allows us to model the entire planet at a high level detailing. "

"Then, we had the great support of Turn 10 during all the years of development of the simulator to learn all the physics, photo-realism, density and base structure of the FTech Engine, which in the version we used, was slightly modified to support the large load of data. "

"In short, the visual rendering is calculated on the player's Windows 10, but all the 3D Textures and Data used come from the FTech Engine in a mix with Azure."

Wloch also mentions that the sim has been in development for 7.5 years in total (at least some of that just pre-production I'm sure).

The biggest news item from this, assuming it's accurate (anyone here read french?), would undoubtedly be that they are apparently contracted to support MSFS for at LEAST the 10 year window we often hear cited.  That's not a pie-in-the-sky "we sure hope" best case scenario thing.  Second biggest item for me, is that they've apparently actually SOLD over a million copies, in addition to people curious on Game Pass.

They also mention that they are apparently working on another project with Microsoft right now, though I suspect it's just a regular game, and thus maybe not that interesting to the crowd here, haha.

MSFS is already a commercial success, having sold 1 million copies.  The amount of free add ons from the community is overwhelming, given the game has been released for 1.5 months.  And the number of 3rd party commercial developers jumping on the bandwagon has crossed the critical mass already.

Critical mass has been achieved by MSFS. Unless P3D and XPlane have a very sophisticated graphics update coming up to match MSFS, it will be too hard for P3D and XPlane to catch up.  The only thing that is keeping P3D and XPlane alive are the "study level" 3rd party airliners.  But once the "study level" 3rd party airliners come in to MSFS, I think that will truly signify the end for P3D and XPlane.

I like to compare MSFS release to when IPhone was released back in 2007.  The writing was on the wall for other mobile phone makers like Blackberry when IPhone was released in 2007.  Blackberry knew it was just a matter of time until IPhone would overtake their market share.  And Blackberry's subsequent release could not match IPhone.  As for Blackberry, the rest is history.

Thanks Scottoest, very informative article, better than some lengthy (and hardly comprehensible) interviews. It also answers the question which graphics engine MSFS is based on.

Projections into the future for 10 years sure have to be taken with a grain of salt, anyway it's good to see strong commitment by all partners for the foreseeable future.

Kind regards, Michael

1 hour ago, Scottoest said:

They also surprisingly mention that the technical base for MSFS is apparently derived from the ForzaTech engine

Pretty cool. Perhaps why the reflections, lighting and atmospherics are where they are (things that always blew me away in Forza) 

1 hour ago, pmb said:

Projections into the future for 10 years sure have to be taken with a grain of salt

This.

Promises like this mean nothing if the financial side doesn't work out.

You see that when movies are released and the studio is so confident that it claims the sequel is already greenlit to show how amazing the first movie must be. If the movie then fails to live up to expectations, guess what happens.

This 10 year support that's doing the rounds.. Is that from when Asobo first started to develop the sim? that was about 4 years ago..

They, as we know, are contracted to Microsoft to develop MSFS.. Anything can happen to a 3rd party game studio, they seem to have a good development record, so far..

1 hour ago, Scottoest said:

Seb Wloch also confirms that the sim has SOLD over a million copies (not just played via Game Pass).

That is an incredible milestone for a flight simulator in such short period of time.

10 minutes ago, Wobbie said:

This 10 year support that's doing the rounds.. Is that from when Asobo first started to develop the sim? that was about 4 years ago..

They, as we know, are contracted to Microsoft to develop MSFS.. Anything can happen to a 3rd party game studio, they seem to have a good development record, so far..

You're not "supporting" a game when you're developing it, and it would be a wildly obtuse way of ACTUALLY saying you're supporting it for approximately 6 years.

"Anything can happen" is why you sign a contract with the studio for 10 years, which I suspect is why Sebastian says they are supporting it for AT LEAST 10 years - because that's what their current contract is for.

33 minutes ago, flycln said:

Promises like this mean nothing if the financial side doesn't work out.

You see that when movies are released and the studio is so confident that it claims the sequel is already greenlit to show how amazing the first movie must be. If the movie then fails to live up to expectations, guess what happens.

Did you actually read the OP or the article? Asobo are essentially confirming they are contracted to work on the sim post-release for at least 10 years, which means the entire point is it's not just a "promise".

Your movie analogy makes no sense, because they also mention that it has already sold over a million copies - which I suspect is more than living up to expectations.

I hope that's the case, but there is no way they can guarantee that.  A lot can change over 10 years.

Dave

Isn’t a contract a legal guarantee? I mean yeah, Microsoft *could* break it but there would be some sort of payout to Asobo if so. And vice versa. 

I actually wonder as to the actual sales figures... i million.. Mmmmm Neither Microsoft nor Steam has given actual audited figures. 61,829 was the all time high number on Steam Players so far..Microsoft does not release numbers of sales. So, over a million sales of the game, in less than 2 months is, in all probability, creative journalistic marketing.

So, Scottoest, as Asobo are still patching the game, they are thus still developing it, then, according to your logic, once all the patches are out, development has ceased, only then does the 10 year support kick in? I think not. Methinks a 10 year contract is exactly that, from initial signing date. But, who knows & it's really not that important at all.

I'd rather get actual figures from the marketplace than from a developer.. I wonder how many have asked for refunds?

 

4 minutes ago, pvupilot said:

Isn’t a contract a legal guarantee? I mean yeah, Microsoft *could* break it but there would be some sort of payout to Asobo if so. And vice versa. 

It is, but anything can happen. Look what happened to ACES Studio, those guys were contracted as well.

5 minutes ago, pvupilot said:

Isn’t a contract a legal guarantee? I mean yeah, Microsoft *could* break it but there would be some sort of payout to Asobo if so. And vice versa. 

And, if they "break it".. where does that leave you?

Just now, Bert Pieke said:

And, if they "break it".. where does that leave you?

 

Microsoft & Steam will still be selling it. It leaves us with the developers that provide add-ins, just like all the other sims.

26 minutes ago, Scottoest said:

You're not "supporting" a game when you're developing it, and it would be a wildly obtuse way of ACTUALLY saying you're supporting it for approximately 6 years.

"Anything can happen" is why you sign a contract with the studio for 10 years, which I suspect is why Sebastian says they are supporting it for AT LEAST 10 years - because that's what their current contract is for.

Did you actually read the OP or the article? Asobo are essentially confirming they are contracted to work on the sim post-release for at least 10 years, which means the entire point is it's not just a "promise".

You could equally say that 'supporting and providing updates' is not the same as 'developing'. As we don't get to see the contracts, we cannot know exactly what has been agreed, but the one certain thing about contracts is the devil is in the detail.