2 hours ago, LHookins said:

Holy CATS that's incredible!  It makes the Hangar in MSFS look a bit primitive, but you can see where they got the technology.  Makes me wonder what MSFS might look like in 5 years.

Thanks for posting that.

Hook

In 5 years we will be in a helicopter looking down at a race at Watkins Glen played in Forza 🙂

 

ASOBO doesn't support Microsoft !  It's the other way around...

21 minutes ago, Eclex said:

ASOBO doesn't support Microsoft !  It's the other way around...

MSFS

 

Nothing like the horse’s mouth, isn’t it ? I can’t link to the article but here are some quotes of the answers. Translation is made with Google corrected by me. The choice of quotes are obviously mine. SW is Wloch Asobo CEO, MB is Bossard the executive producer. Article from La Tribune dated September 18th, 2020.

                                     *    *    *
SW Nous travaillons sur le jeu depuis plus de trois ans et demi maintenant ! Le développement et le suivi du jeu occupent aujourd'hui 120 salariés à plein temps au sein d'Asobo Studio qui compte 210 collaborateurs au total. 

SW We've been working on the game for over three and a half years now! The development and followup of the game now employ 120 full-time employees within Asobo Studio which has 210 employees in total.

SW On en a déjà vendu plus d'un million d'exemplaires et cela devrait durer encore quelques temps vu les très bons retours que l'on a eus

SW We have already sold over a million copies and it should last for some time given the very good feedback we have had.

SW Aujourd'hui, au sein de l'équipe on compte une vingtaine de pilotes dont une moitié qui l'étaient déjà avant leur recrutement chez Asobo et une moitié qui s'y sont mis, comme nous, avec le projet. Donc, concrètement, on a pris beaucoup de soin à calquer les premières de jeu et de tutorial sur nos propres expériences d'apprentissage dans la vraie vie. C'est très progressif, on est accompagné par l'instructeur et les paramètres viennent s'ajouter les uns après les autres. Et les tutoriaux se font sur de vrais avions écoles faciles à piloter, avec une météo favorable et un instructeur qui vous prend largement en charge. En revanche, le pilote expérimenté peut débrancher ces aides s'il le souhaite mais comme aucun pilote ne connaît 30 avions différents, il aura probablement besoin des assistances et des check-lists sur les nouveaux appareils. Donc chacun s'y retrouvera et aura sa propre émotion de vol ! 
 

SW Today, within the team there are about twenty pilots, half of whom were already there before their recruitment at Asobo and half who have started, like us (note : Wloch and Bossard) , with the project. So, in concrete terms, we took great care to model the game and tutorial premieres on our own real-life learning experiences. It's very progressive, we are accompanied by the instructor and the parameters are added one after the other. And the tutorials are done on real school planes that are easy to fly, with favorable weather and an instructor who will take care of you. On the other hand, the experienced pilot can disconnect these aids if he wishes, but since no pilot knows 30 different planes, he will probably need assistance and checklists on the new planes. So everyone will find their way there and have their own flying emotion

MB - Les précédents simulateurs de vols étaient fondés sur une approche d'ingénieur avec un souci d'avoir tous les paramètres et instruments corrects mais trop décorrélée d'une expérience physique. Désormais, avec les technologies à notre disposition, nous pouvons reproduire la Terre entière et donc privilégier un autre type de vol : le vol visuel. C'est d'ailleurs le premier type de vol que l'on apprend dans les formations de pilote : se repérer par rapport à la ligne de côte, au fleuve, etc. On a vraiment mis l'accent sur la sensation de vol, sur le fun, sur le plaisir de sentir les masses d'air, sur la caméra dynamique. Pour moi la principale difficulté technique de ce projet c'était précisément d'approcher cette sensation globale de vol pour qu'elle ne soit pas seulement mécanique. Et pour y arriver, il a fallu lier tous les paramètres de la simulation pour avoir une précision d'expérience à tous les niveaux.

Bossard  : The previous flight simulators were based on an engineer approach with a concern to have all the correct parameters and instruments but too disconnected from a physical experience. Now, with the technologies at our disposal, we can reproduce the entire Earth and therefore favor another type of flight: visual flight. It is also the first type of flight that we learn in pilot training: finding one's way in relation to the coast line, the river, etc. We really put the emphasis on the feeling of flight, on the fun, on the pleasure of feeling the masses of air, on the dynamic camera. For me, the main technical difficulty of this project was precisely to approach this overall sensation of flight so that it was not only mechanical. And to get there, we had to link all the simulation parameters to have experience precision at all levels.

Des mises à jours gratuites et payantes sont prévues pendant plusieurs années 

Free and paid updates are planned for several years 

SW - On a fixé un programme assez rythmé avec, d'une part, des mises à jour techniques régulières pour fixer tel ou tel bug et améliorer les performances et, d'autre part, des livraisons de nouveaux contenus a priori une fois par mois. Ces grosses mises à jour seront localisées sur un continent ou un grand territoire particulier pour donner envie aux joueurs de repartir explorer cette région avec une meilleure définition. Tout cela sera gratuit. Il y aura ensuite du contenu trimestriel payant proposant une mise à jour plus grande et accompagnée de nouveaux avions par exemple.

SW - We have set a fairly paced program with, on the one hand, regular technical updates to fix a particular bug and improve performance and, on the other hand, deliveries of new content a priori once a month . These big updates will be localized on a particular continent or large territory to make players want to go back and explore this region with a better definition. All of this will be free. There will then be paid quarterly content offering a larger update and accompanied by new planes for example.

MB - D'un point de vue économique, Flight Simulator n'est pas seulement un logiciel, c'est aussi une plateforme économique, une plateforme de développement qui intègre une marketplace. Il y a déjà plus de 700 entreprises inscrites sur cette place de marché pour créer et vendre des contenus supplémentaires dans le jeu : des bâtiments, monuments ou aéroports modélisés, des nouveaux avions, des améliorations du terrain, etc.

Finalement, notre rôle c'est donc aussi d'être garants du bon fonctionnement du jeu pour qu'il puisse accueillir cette diversité de contenus. L'idée n'est donc pas forcément de donner plus de profondeur au jeu mais plus de largeur pour que les entreprises et joueurs puissent apporter de nouvelles choses. Par exemple, le vol en hélicoptère n'est pas encore disponible mais ça viendra, tout comme le vol en planeur, ce qui ouvrira à cet écosystème économique de nouveaux outils.

SW - En parallèle, on a fourni aux joueurs un kit complet de développement et il y a une communauté de développeurs qui se crée et qui propose déjà beaucoup de contenus gratuits. Ce sont souvent des gens qui modélisent ce qui se trouve autour de chez eux. Je suis très agréablement surpris par le dynamisme de cette communauté de moddeurs et on travaille dur pour améliorer l'accessibilité de nos outils de développement.

MB - On voit aussi des créations incroyables de clips musicaux, de montages vidéos, de réunions de joueurs autour de créations artistiques inattendues ! C'est fantastique et on va tout faire pour renforcer ce côté bac-à-sable de Flight Simulator.

MB - From an economic point of view, Flight Simulator is not only a software, it is also an economic platform, a development platform that integrates a marketplace. There are already over 700 companies registered on this marketplace to create and sell additional in-game content: model buildings, monuments or airports, new airplanes, terrain improvements, etc. Finally, our role is therefore also to be responsible for the proper functioning of the game so that it can accommodate this diversity of content. The idea is not necessarily to give more depth to the game but more breadth so that companies and players can contribute new things. (bold emphasis by me.dk) For example, helicopter flight is not yet available but it will come, just like glider flight, which will open up new tools to this economic ecosystem.

SW - At the same time, we provided the players with a complete development kit and there is a community of developers that is being created and which already offers a lot of free content. These are often people who model what is around them. I am very pleasantly surprised by the dynamism of this community of modders and we are working hard to improve the accessibility of our development tools.

MB - We also see incredible creations of music videos, video montages, player meetings around unexpected artistic creations! It's fantastic and we are going to do everything to strengthen this sandbox side of Flight Simulator.

SW - Ce qui est certain c'est que Flight Simulator va nous occuper pendant encore longtemps ! C'est une histoire qui nous engage sur dix ans, certainement plus. On va garder l'équipe actuelle de 120 salariés sur le projet et on devrait même la renforcer !

SW - What is certain is that Flight Simulator will keep us busy for a long time! It is a story that engages us over ten years, certainly more. We will keep the current team of 120 employees on the project and we should even strengthen it!

 

Edited October 4, 20205 yr by Dominique_K

My comment on supporting the sim for 10 years. The sentence with the verb « engager » is ambiguous in French.  Engager could mean to commit or to start. I would favor the second meaning.

Forgive me if I'm not seeing something obvious in that article, but where are some of you getting the idea that there is a contract to support MSFS for 10 years?  I see nothing about a support contract, only an intent to support it for 10 years.

I think that the core platform, i.e. using satellite maps and an AI engine to render the terrain and objects in the sim, is the future.  However, if Asobo can't maintain good sales numbers and make a good profit from MSFS over the next 10 years, then I don't believe that they will continue to put a lot of time and resources into it.

Remember what happened with MS Aces Studio, MS Flight, and Dovetail Games FSW.

Dave

1 hour ago, dave2013 said:

I see nothing about a support contract, only an intent to support it for 10 years.

So what are you a lawyer?

Cheers

bs

On 10/3/2020 at 9:03 PM, espent said:

In 5 years we will be in a helicopter looking down at a race at Watkins Glen played in Forza 🙂

 

Great go fly/drive in Forza and leave MSFS alone.

Edited October 5, 20205 yr by jbdbow1970

On 10/3/2020 at 8:03 PM, espent said:

In 5 years we will be in a helicopter looking down at a race at Watkins Glen played in Forza 🙂

 

That's a heck of a use for multiplayer!  😄 Right now all we can do in multiplayer is watch each other fly around.  I can't imagine what technology will be like in another 10 or 20 years.

Hook

As much as I hope they continue to develop MSFS over the next decade, and as a foundation it certainly has the potential to keep pace as tech advances, you'd be naive to take their statements as being anything more than a conditional intention. Publishers and studios make these promises of commitment all the time, only to pull the plug when the sales don't meet expectations. This is even more prevalent now, in the era of "live services".

But, with MSFS, I don't think it's as simple as whether it generates a profit from the player base alone. I get the feeling that there are other factors driving the development and considerable investment in the platform. Maybe as a showpiece for Bing, Azure, XBOX etc. but likely the scope is even grander; I could be wrong.

Whatever the reasoning behind it, and whether it will continue to be supported for the next ten years, I'm just glad that we are able to experience such an incredible piece of software at all.

In the article it says that there will be free and payware updates. 
The last seems logical as they need to work on improvements and extra work means spending extra money on it.

Doing it all for free for 10 years after a one time purchase and gaining some profits from addon developers won’t pay future bills....

 

3 hours ago, bean_sprout said:

So what are you a lawyer?

Cheers

bs

I'm not a lawyer... But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express....

Very interesting that MFS is using the Forza engine. Especially now that it will have VR support soon. I wonder if we dare hope for VR in Forza and Forza Horizon... If it happens, I'll probably go and live in Forza Horizon permanently.

That ASOBO will support it 10 years .... good.

But what when Microsoft may pull the plug on the AZURE stream in 5 years?

9 hours ago, dave2013 said:

Forgive me if I'm not seeing something obvious in that article, but where are some of you getting the idea that there is a contract to support MSFS for 10 years?  I see nothing about a support contract, only an intent to support it for 10 years.

I think that the core platform, i.e. using satellite maps and an AI engine to render the terrain and objects in the sim, is the future.  However, if Asobo can't maintain good sales numbers and make a good profit from MSFS over the next 10 years, then I don't believe that they will continue to put a lot of time and resources into it.

Remember what happened with MS Aces Studio, MS Flight, and Dovetail Games FSW.

Dave

Dave, Asobo is a developer, contracted by Microsoft to develop the game, not to sell it. They do no selling of the game whatsoever, with no sales or marketing platform.

Your argument that Asobo must maintain good sales numbers and to make a profit from Microsofts is invalid.