Working Title is joining the MSFS 2020 Team

[Bobsk8 12,846]

1 hour ago, LanceW said:

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Now he will be bogged down and any updates/improvements will move at ASOBO pace, which we all know is slower than a sloth.

Nothing like being positive. 

 

[LouP 116]

Good news for all.  Smart move on Asobo's part, too.  I just hope hands don't get tied.  If you can't beat them, hire them lol

LouP

[bendead 1,089]

It's really good for the WT team, congrats guys, and also Asobo.

But what about us, on the FAQ, you will stop adding major features on github, will we have to wait until june to see something new?

Edited March 10, 2021 by bendead

[Will Fly For Cheese 1,710]

33 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

If you'll forgive me a copy/paste from another thread:

Thanks for the excitement, y'all.   We are positively thrilled to be able to finally announce this news.   There are some areas we just can't talk about right now when it comes to future plans, but since we knew there would be a lot of questions we put together a FAQ we thought would probably cover the big ones:    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OF_32UslZ57IXqgzC_uVt3t2_rAeKegi/

Long story short, Working Title is becoming Working Title Simulations LLC.   The core founders are all leaving our jobs to work full time on the sim.  Questions about the future of the mods, what this means for contributors, and such are addressed to the best of our ability in that FAQ.

There's a bit more detail there in our announcement document:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z6mPvucvYgVrEKpzrnJiNb-we7vO1DOb/

And I'm happy to answer anything not addressed in those docs that I'm allowed to talk about. 🙂

Only one question; what will happen to Mr Barnard of room 12?

[LouP 116]

6 minutes ago, bendead said:

It's really good for the WT team, congrats guys, and also Asobo.

But what about us, on the FAQ, you will stop adding major features on github, will we have to wait until june to see something new?

I was thinking the same thing.

[kaosfere 3,115]

3 minutes ago, bendead said:

But what about us, on the FAQ, you will stop adding major features on github, will we have to wait until june to see something new?

It's uncertain at this point when the first of our changes will be "visible", it's something what we need to work out as part of our roadmapping.   But yes -- while I can't speak with absolute certainty, it is unlikely you'll see any major new additions to things on github unless they are driven by others in the community.   We will be able to maintain code and, for example, fix anything that breaks as part of future sim updates, during the transitional period.  We don't want to abandon folks.

If anyone is interested in making contributions to the mods, or even forking them and making them a community project while we focus elsewhere, we are very open to discussing something like that.   The code is MIT licensed, it's not going away, and while we can't spend large amounts of time working on it any more we're happy to do what we can to facilitate others who want to take up the reins.

[bendead 1,089]

3 minutes ago, kaosfere said:

It's uncertain at this point when the first of our changes will be "visible", it's something what we need to work out as part of our roadmapping.   But yes -- while I can't speak with absolute certainty, it is unlikely you'll see any major new additions to things on github unless they are driven by others in the community.   We will be able to maintain code and, for example, fix anything that breaks as part of future sim updates, during the transitional period.  We don't want to abandon folks.

If anyone is interested in making contributions to the mods, or even forking them and making them a community project while we focus elsewhere, we are very open to discussing something like that.   The code is MIT licensed, it's not going away, and while we can't spend large amounts of time working on it any more we're happy to do what we can to facilitate others who want to take up the reins.

So I am happy and also feeling sorry that FBW might not follow this road.

Getting home after a stressful day at work and see new update/feature on mods, was enough to put a smile on my face.

[cwburnett 1,809]

1 hour ago, Ricardo41 said:

Glass half empty: Development on the CJ4 mod will discontinue. All development work will be folded into Asobo's general development road map. 

We (Working Title) are currently building our own roadmap; of course from a product perspective they will be merged, but nothing is planned to be discontinued - quite the contrary actually.

 

14 minutes ago, marsman2020 said:

Totally understand that WT folks likely can't respond to this beyond the pre-approved FAQ at this point...best of luck with the new arrangement to all involved.

We wrote the FAQ. Part of what Microsoft and Jorg were so excited about was our openness with the community and our focus on deep(er) sim capabilities. This is what we'll be working on and will be reflected in our development roadmap. There's no expectation to remove, hinder or deprecate the work that we've been doing to this end. The reason we are being cautious is that, as you might imagine, there are a LOT of areas of the sim that we want to bring our capabilities to - and I'd rather under-promise and over-deliver than the other way around. We are part of this community and will remain part of this community.

 

6 minutes ago, bendead said:

It's really good for the WT team, congrats guys, and also Asobo.

But what about us, on the FAQ, you will stop adding major features on github, will we have to wait until june to see something new?

We will be focusing on the bigger picture - how can we bring the capabilities we've worked hard to build into the CJ4 and other mods to the entire sim, so while I guess it is possible to put a negative spin on it, we see it as the opposite - instead of our innovations being limited to a small subset of users on a single aircraft, these enhancements like flight plan management, VNAV and more will be able to be deployed across the entire library of aircraft and also made available to 3PDs for their products.

[snglecoil 1,828]

@kaosfere, @cwburnett, @MattNischan congrats to you and anyone else going along. Since day 1, you seemed to carry an attitude of “don’t tell me that the SDK can’t do this or that, let’s see what it CAN do.” MS and Asobo have chosen wisely 👍

[sanh 823]

I think its great. Their knowledge and expertise will show right across the sim rather than on just one plane.

[bendead 1,089]

13 minutes ago, cwburnett said:

We will be focusing on the bigger picture - how can we bring the capabilities we've worked hard to build into the CJ4 and other mods to the entire sim, so while I guess it is possible to put a negative spin on it, we see it as the opposite - instead of our innovations being limited to a small subset of users on a single aircraft, these enhancements like flight plan management, VNAV and more will be able to be deployed across the entire library of aircraft and also made available to 3PDs for their products.

I am quite sure you will make the sim update as cool as Asobo world update.

[Bushido5 60]

Congrats guys and well deserved. Thanks again for all your mods, the CJ4 is absolutly brilliant.

[omarsmak30 4,068]

Awesome guys! My guess at some point you guys will take over the flight development in the sim and Asobo will just focus on the core. Honestly, this makes sense, Asobo apparently couldn't know how to build a proper autopilot but you guys made it, good job!

My question for Matt and others, are you guys going to continue to work with the FBW team for example in some features to be in the sim?

Also a second question, I would assume you guys will also influence the SDK but would you also communicate with other third party developers on the SDK matters, let's say PMDG? 

 

Again congrats guys! You guys must be proud, the whole thing started in github and now you guys paid partners with Microsoft 😃.

 

Can we now stop the nonsense is a game not a sim? 😄

[LouP 116]

It's going to be tough to go back to those former navigation units but I guess it will be worth it in the long run once the team's work starts to be reflected in the sim updates. 🙂

LouP

[IcemanFBW 721]

@kaosfere Out of curiosity - has MS/Asobo discussed the possibility of getting the Working Title flight plan manager in other default planes (in addition to G1000-based aircraft and the CJ4)? Would be a huge improvement to the sim as well.