17 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

I'm confused: are you guys employees of Asobo, or are you an LLC under contract with Microsoft- this thread started out with someone claiming that "Matt Nischan is joining the Asobo team".

They have formed a company that has a contract with Microsoft, not Asobo. 

With the SDK is there any hope you can work to help bring it to something that can be used to support plug-in instrumentation along the lines the RXP/Flight one GTN devices ?

I'm really thankful for all the interest and excitement about this announcement - we are incredibly excited to be working with Microsoft and all the partners contributing to MSFS, including the awesome team at Asobo. That said, we've already said as much as we're going to say about our business relationships with Microsoft and the MSFS team.

I will say for clarification purposes that the first post in the thread is inaccurate - Matt is one of the founders of Working Title and is not joining the Asobo team.

I can say that there is a Partnership Video being released today that might answer some of your questions 😉 

Thanks again for all the positive vibes, we are insanely excited.

Pardon my skepticism, but to me it sounds like Microsoft and Asobo may be attempting to silence the WT project by hiring their principals. I'm sure they will be signing a NDA as a condition to their partnership. History says corporate titans have always squashed the competition that leaves customers with fewer options (no more mods).

12 minutes ago, Scrappy said:

Pardon my skepticism, but to me it sounds like Microsoft and Asobo may be attempting to silence the WT project by hiring their principals

And why, exactly ?

WT was already adding value to the sim, which is the only thing that really matters to Microsoft, the only difference is that, under the Microsoft umbrella A LOT more people will get to experience a much better default airplane, without having to search for it, risk having it broken by updates.

You might have a point if WT was made also for another sim, but that's not the case.

If Microsoft really wanted to do an Adobe/Autodesk move ( which several times bought whole companies just to shut down their products, like Macromedia or Softimage), they would have hired Zibo...

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by virtuali

14 hours ago, virtuali said:

And why, exactly ?

WT was already adding value to the sim, which is the only thing that really matters to Microsoft, the only difference is that, under the Microsoft umbrella A LOT more people will get to experience a much better default airplane, without having to search for it, risk having it broken by updates.

You might have a point if WT was made also for another sim, but that's not the case.

If Microsoft really wanted to do an Adobe/Autodesk move ( which several times bought whole companies just to shut down their products, like Macromedia or Softimage), they would have hired Zibo...

WT were definitely showing up what Asobo had delivered especially with the Glass cockpits, but hopefully they are smart enough not to get defensive and to properly work with WT to make the necessary improvemenrs.

15 hours ago, Scrappy said:

Pardon my skepticism, but to me it sounds like Microsoft and Asobo may be attempting to silence the WT project by hiring their principals

My initial thoughts exactly! Here's some guys showing what is possible with the current state of the sim and where ASOBO has failed! Naturally, my thoughts as the responsible person would be: How on earth can I stop these guys from compromising our sim? Well- let's do what has proven a succesful strategy in the past: if you can't beat them, join 'em!

On the other hand, I came to realize that integrating these guys into the MSFS infrastructure will have benefits to many NEW third-party developers as they probably are able to show them how to exploit the possibilities of the new platform and take it further as all the saturated developers we have gotten accustomed to. I sincerely hope we will see products far beyond of what we are accustomed to by the likes of PMDG and FSLabs and ..etc (not excluding those of course, I would love to see their products in MSFS). And as much  as I am disappointed by the thought that the CJ4 mod may linger in the current state for quite some time my hopes are that these guys may keep their spirit (and that is the most difficult part in a business environment compared to a community approach I would assume) and be an inspiration for more 3rd party developers in the "complex simulation" compartement.

 

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by Tom_L
spelling

It is important to remember Working Title were doing the freeware in what spare time they could squeeze between family commitments and a day job as basically a labor of love. 

This development means these guys will be able to commit to working full time on the sim. It is fantastic news.

22 hours ago, Scrappy said:

Pardon my skepticism, but to me it sounds like Microsoft and Asobo may be attempting to silence the WT project by hiring their principals. I'm sure they will be signing a NDA as a condition to their partnership. History says corporate titans have always squashed the competition that leaves customers with fewer options (no more mods).

Why the cynicism? They literally hired them to work full time on the sim and they already said they'd be introducing their Garmin units / CJ4 into the base sim in the future in addition to making CJ4-like improvements on other aircraft and helping advance the SDK at a faster rate so companies like PMDG can complete their 737 more easily. I cannot find one downside here that outweighs any of the amazing benefits we're gaining for this. The only small thing is that the current state of the CJ4 / Garmin units might not advance for a bit, but they're currently stable and in great shape, and considering they're coming to the base sim eventually and will continue to be updated by the WT team is incredible news.

My Dad always used to say: "Friendship starts getting difficult as soon as money is involved."

Let's see then...

Edited March 12, 20215 yr by ThomseN_inc

We all have our eyes on the development of this story as it plays out   O_O   I hope for the best for all but am keeping my guard up so not to be disappointed if MS try's to throw it's muscle around.  Let's be patient, it has so much potential if it runs the right course.

LouP

12 hours ago, Tom_L said:

My initial thoughts exactly! Here's some guys showing what is possible with the current state of the sim and where ASOBO has failed! Naturally, my thoughts as the responsible person would be: How on earth can I stop these guys from compromising our sim? Well- let's do what has proven a succesful strategy in the past: if you can't beat them, join 'em!

Microsoft calls the shots and they are the ones hiring Working Title, so Asobo doesn't really have a choice. 

I highly doubt anyone involved wants anything other then to make the sim better. 

The Asobo team gets to work with subject matter experts who have led the way (along with FlyByWire) in showing the usefulness of the modernized HTML/JS development methods that Asobo implemented, even when many others (myself included) have been skeptical.  What has been accomplished with the CJ4 & Garmins is a validation of many design decisions that Asobo made. 

Traditional 3DP developers seem to have been very demanding of the old C++ way of doing things so it seems like a lot of the SDK work has been focused on making them happy, and the newer methods Asobo wanted to implement have been left undocumented.  I'm sure they will appreciate working with a team that saw the benefit in the new direction.

12 hours ago, Tom_L said:

My initial thoughts exactly! Here's some guys showing what is possible with the current state of the sim and where ASOBO has failed! Naturally, my thoughts as the responsible person would be: How on earth can I stop these guys from compromising our sim? Well- let's do what has proven a succesful strategy in the past: if you can't beat them, join 'em!

Fixing the Garmins has been the most requested item since day one. It was slated for update 3 and they barley touched it. As you say, Asobo clearly haven't delivered. It's natural that if MS see another group are succeeding were Asobo haven't they will want to hire that group. I don't see it as a case of preventing them from compromising the sim so much as just hiring people who can do the job.

How and why WT joined the MSFS development group is non of my business.

The fact that they are open on it and still reacting on forums and Discord AND that they gave a clear explanation on there actions is an extra.

There are several examples where a developer said he is going to persue other interests and abandons a project.

Not so for WT, they even fixed their mods after update 3.

A WT move to MSFS probably didnt go in 24 hours. So MS and/or  Asobo probably knew of this fix or at least didnt mind.

And now I wait with confidence and enjoy the fact that a group of people (WT) is making a career move that only few get in this way.

 

 

A little suggestion to WT

Sipmly: Please don't push the G1000 background.

More than months we don't have certain improvements on G1000. CJ4 and G3000 projects are greatly apreciated and thank you very much for that. But for sure we need to hear good news about G1000 functionality.

Kind regards.