This opens up the sim market to an entirely new group of people. This is not just great for sims but also for the next generation of kids who will be inspired to go into aviation as a career.

This is revolutionary in terms of potential impact. 

1 minute ago, Slides said:

This opens up the sim market to an entirely new group of people. This is not just great for sims but also for the next generation of kids who will be inspired to go into aviation as a career.

This is revolutionary in terms of potential impact. 

For me, I suspect we would likely never have seen this level of optimization from a pc-only title. I just tend to doubt our smallish niche would be worth the effort financially.

My working theory is that its the excitement and expected recognition and revenue from the Xbox, and shoehorning MSFS into same, that made the effort worthwhile.....

6 minutes ago, HiFlyer said:

For me, I suspect we would likely never have seen this level of optimization from a pc-only title. I just tend to doubt our smallish niche would be worth the effort financially.

My working theory is that its the excitement and expected recognition and revenue from the Xbox, and shoehorning MSFS into same, that made the effort worthwhile.....

Absolutely. I'm seeing a good amount of buzz among console players who don't seem to be simmers for this launch. This looks to be a good thing for everyone.

This is also a showcase product for MS for a lot of their tech stack and gaming business. The "digital twin" of the Earth is not going to get old for MS marketing anytime soon. It's here to stay.

This update is just Amazing. Let all the future graphics upgrades roll in: dx12, ray tracing, resizable bar, additional multi-threading plus resolution upscaling (dlss) for better FPS / VR.

Greazer.

Just now, Greazer said:

resolution upscaling (dlss) for better FPS / VR.

This is one that they have already said they won't implement because they believe their existing TSAA scaling is really good.

I'm very impressed of the XBox performance, it seems it is on par with my PC to a fraction of it's cost.

Not wasting any time!

 

You know, in the last couple of days since seeing these Xbox videos, I'm actually coming to the conclusion that a lot of our preconceptions about the people who will be using an Xbox for Microsoft flight simulator are likely going to turn out to be wrong.

A lot of serious simmers on a budget are probably going to find this a very tempting deal. When the choice is between a $1,500 graphics card and possibly a new computer, or a couple of hundred dollars for a console, I can see people becoming pretty torn.

 

9 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

You know, in the last couple of days since seeing these Xbox videos, I'm actually coming to the conclusion that a lot of our preconceptions about the people who will be using an Xbox for Microsoft flight simulator are likely going to turn out to be wrong.

A lot of serious simmers on a budget are probably going to find this a very tempting deal. When the choice is between a $1,500 graphics card and possibly a new computer, or a couple of hundred dollars for a console, I can see people becoming pretty torn.

 

Woah, look at the mountain, Bora Bora has new custom Terrain, that is not in the live build right now I'm pretty sure.

 

Here's a 6.5 hour stream, there's time stamps in the comments for different things

 

Edited July 25, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

10 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

You know, in the last couple of days since seeing these Xbox videos, I'm actually coming to the conclusion that a lot of our preconceptions about the people who will be using an Xbox for Microsoft flight simulator are likely going to turn out to be wrong.

You may well be right. I am also wondering just what this will bring and where MS is going with this? Do MS think this will expand the market for the product?

Anecdotally, my son who lives overseas was extremely enthused about MSFS when it first came out. But he is a PC gamer, not a flight simmer. He purchased a copy on Steam and was blown away by the detail of the worldwide scenery which in many of his games are highly detailed but only for  relatively small fictional areas. (Think GTA as a an example). So, for him, MSFS was another level in terms of degrees of freedom. I was surprised by his delight since he only rarely flew my simulator when he used to live at home. So, I thought, perhaps this has finally captured his imagination? However, despite the multiplayer capabilities, his immediate flush for MSFS has gone and he is back to his other PC gamer titles.     

It's as if the marketing captured him, not the franchise. It didn't suddenly make him want to 'experience flight'.  So, I have a sense that MSFS on Xbox may do a similar thing to many XBox gamers. They will want to see what the hype is about. There may well be some "conversions to type", but even if they all go back to what they were doing before, the sales to MS will probably make this a marketing success. 

But will it actually materially increase the number of converts to MSFS, beyond those that were always going to have a passion for flight and were always looking to simulate that experience? Maybe not?  It certainly didn't with MS Flight.  But I do think Xbox will split the group we have already ie  those for whom the whole thing is to jump in a default trainer and fly around low level doing the VFR thing. It's quick, it's dirty and its a helluva lot of fun. They are never going to fly the airline stuff which these users find boring and technically taxing simply to program and get airborne. They just want a fun filled hour with lots of challenges to hone their hands on flying skills with.  Price and non technical requirements will mean the X-box is going suit this cadre' of our followers very well. But for those that want to simulate the airline operations and simulate the hardware and flight deck set up and need a more third party study level type of aircraft, then I think the PC will reign supreme in this area. it's great that our current offering caters so well for both types of users.  

So yes, the numbers using MSFS on Xbox will certainly increase but I think rather than this being a whole lot of new gamers that would never have previously thought about flight simming, I suspect it will at the expense of a reduced number of MSFS on PC users.

And what argument do you think MS might eventually use in regard to supporting those reducing PC users?  Once they have ported over many of us MSFS enthusiasts to X-box, what them happens to the PC version? How viable is it to retain in the long run?  How do third parties continue? 

Why is AI not a high priority? (under investigation with AIG I understand). Why is weather not being released to third party (as far as I understand)?.I have no idea of the answers and I'm certainly not trying to raise a conspiracy theory here!!  I'm just trying to look at what clues there may be on the ground now, and wonder what a rational MS will do in the future.We can look to the past and see their first attempt at moving the franchise to X-Box  with 'Flight' in 2012, failed. I think it failed primarily because it didn't attract support from the FS community VFR and IFR alike who didn't want the sim turned into a bunch of game 'levels' and who saw X-Plane as a viable alternative. And, I dont think they captured those gamers for whom experiencing flight was never really the magnet that MS hoped it would be. Am I wrong or was the Icon A5 a core default aircraft in Flight? Not too surprised it has resurfaced in MSFS. 

So in summary, yes I think MSFS on Xbox  will do well.  I just hope it that in the longer term it doesn't affect support for the PC version since the freedom to configure the software and effectively build a full blown 6 DOF simulator is what keeps some of us going, even if many of us will never get beyond a hotas throttle and stick, with no pedals!! 

 

Be interested in others thoughts on this. 

 

Terry   

    

 

 

 

    

               

 

 

3 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

I just hope it that in the longer term it doesn't affect support for the PC version

The X-Box and PC versions will be on the same code branch come Tuesday. Any work done on the X-Box effects the PC version and the reverse.

PC version support isn't going anywhere.

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

47 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

So in summary, yes I think MSFS on Xbox  will do well.  I just hope it that in the longer term it doesn't affect support for the PC version

I’m sure of the few million who try it on Xbox, the majority will not stick with it for long. Sheer numbers would suggest that probably a few 100,000 will, and that alone will be a big net plus. Not to mention perhaps a few 10,000 will move to deeper PC pits.

48 minutes ago, Lord Farringdon said:

And what argument do you think MS might eventually use in regard to supporting those reducing PC users?  Once they have ported over many of us MSFS enthusiasts to X-box, what them happens to the PC version? How viable is it to retain in the long run?  How do third parties continue? 

The Xbox is really just a specialized PC, and as mentioned above, will be running the same code. There will be some tweaks and optimizations when running on the Xbox, but for the most part, there won't be much more effort required to support both.

I think one thing people in the flight sim community have missed is that the average console player isn't a teenager anymore, with the average player being in their 30s now. The sim isn't going to convert gamers any better on the Xbox than it does on the PC, but it will give people interested in simming a far lower bar of entry to get into it. It is also the perfect place to be to catch the attention of younger players that may not even have a gaming PC in the house these days, but may well be interested in flying. Add in the Xbox Game Pass, and you have a perfect combination to tempt someone to give it a try.

1 hour ago, scotchegg said:

I’m sure of the few million who try it on Xbox, the majority will not stick with it for long. Sheer numbers would suggest that probably a few 100,000 will, and that alone will be a big net plus. Not to mention perhaps a few 10,000 will move to deeper PC pits.

Why would anyone playing this on their XBOX bother to upgrade to PC???

PC is a nightmare of constant performance tweaks, high end graphics cards buying and nothing but potential issues and hardware conflicts when this game runs beautifully on the XBOX!

3 hours ago, Kilo60 said:

Why would anyone playing this on their XBOX bother to upgrade to PC???

PC is a nightmare of constant performance tweaks, high end graphics cards buying and nothing but potential issues and hardware conflicts when this game runs beautifully on the XBOX!

More scalability / peripherals / addons / freeware.

edit: and VR

Edited July 26, 20214 yr by scotchegg