1 minute ago, abrams_tank said:

Perhaps Jorg meant the current version of MSFS as it is.  Nothing will stop Microsoft from taking the current MSFS, and branching out and making a commercial version of it.  Hence, there could eventually be two versions of MSFS, one for the consumer home market, and a different version for the commercial market.

It's about $$$ at the end of the day.  Jorg would be quickly sidelined by Microsoft execs if he stopped a commercial version of MSFS, if the Microsoft execs determined that MSFS actually has a good chance of making decent money in the commercial market.  

I doubt, they have problem to make just one product stable. it is not to make 2 versions. They don't have enough ressources for this (to make and to support after), Pro customers will not be happy with update like we have, it would be too dangerous for the brand image of the product.
The only thing i can imagine in the future if money don't bring as much as actually is a migration to a "MSFS 365", with a annual subscription.

2 minutes ago, nirgal76 said:

I doubt, they have problem to make just one product stable. it is not to make 2 versions. They don't have enough ressources for this (to make and to support after), Pro customers will not be happy with update like we have, it would be too dangerous for the brand image of the product.
The only thing i can imagine in the future if money don't bring as much as actually is a migration to a "MSFS 365", with a annual subscription.

Obviously, they aren't going to make a commercial version of MSFS while they are so many changes going on in MSFS.  I have said already that they probably won't target the commercial market for the next 2 or 3 years because MSFS is going under so many changes.

After 2 or 3 years, when MSFS starts to stabilize and the number of updates starts to decrease (I doubt we will get 6 updates a year, after 3 years of MSFS), perhaps MSFS will start to consider the commercial market then.

But I absolutely disagree with you.  I think there is a very good chance Microsoft targets the commercial market, if they feel they stand to make a good profit from it.  Like I said, no reasonable company would deny a chance to make a good profit, especially given that they spent all that money developing MSFS in the first place.

The future will tell...😉

8 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Obviously, they aren't going to make a commercial version of MSFS while they are so many changes going on in MSFS.  I have said already that they probably won't target the commercial market for the next 2 or 3 years because MSFS is going under so many changes.

After 2 or 3 years, when MSFS starts to stabilize and the number of updates starts to decrease (I doubt we will get 6 updates a year, after 3 years of MSFS), perhaps MSFS will start to consider the commercial market then.

But I absolutely disagree with you.  I think there is a very good chance Microsoft targets the commercial market, if they feel they stand to make a good profit from it.  Like I said, no reasonable company would deny a chance to make a good profit, especially given that they spent all that money developing MSFS in the first place.

 One thing I could see preventing MS targeting the commercial market would be if their licensing agreement with LM prevents MS from releasing a competitor commercial product.
Highly unlikely for that to ever become public information though.

23 minutes ago, Matchstick said:

 One thing I could see preventing MS targeting the commercial market would be if their licensing agreement with LM prevents MS from releasing a competitor commercial product.
Highly unlikely for that to ever become public information though.

Yeah, I thought about the licensing with LM too.  But I think for most business agreements, something like locking Microsoft out of the commercial market for 10 years would be reasonable, when LM agreed with Microsoft.  I can't see Microsoft agreeing to being locked out of the commercial market for over 10 years, because that would have been a really bad agreement that Microsoft made with LM.  The only way Microsoft would agree to be locked out of the commercial market for over 10 years is if LM and Microsoft agreed that Microsoft gets a cut or % of P3D revenue.

So it's been over 10 years since Microsoft and LM signed the contract.  If it were 10 years that Microsoft agreed to be locked out of the commercial market, this would be interesting because it coincides roughly with the MSFS release in 2020.  

Edited August 13, 20214 yr by abrams_tank

On 8/12/2021 at 12:58 PM, abrams_tank said:

Yeah, but the question is, if there will be enough people like you as the years pass by for X-Plane.  Like right now, there are still people that purchase P3D add-ons.  But the number of people purchasing P3D add-ons are so far and few, most 3rd party devs can't make any money off of it.  Hence, Aerosoft, JustFlight, FS2Crew, Milviz, and others have stopped new products for P3D because they can't make a profit off their new products for P3D (but they may still support existing P3D products).  I'm sure there are even still people purchasing add-ons for FSX but they are also very few.

I will say, Austin has finally figured out his priorities for X-Plane.  He neglected the graphics for so long, it allowed a nice big opening for MSFS to walk in and become the de facto #1 home market flight simulator.  But Austin realized his mistake (better late than never), so you can see in all the X-Plane previews lately, it's all about improving the graphics for X-Plane.  

In my opinion, it's unknown if there will be enough space for two home market flight simulators, if the technology gap is very big between the two, as it is now, assuming the price is comparable, because I think the home market flight simulators share many characteristics of a homogenous product.  If X-Plane 12 can close that technology gap, then maybe it will survive.  Even if X-Plane can close some of the technology gap, there is another issue with pricing, in that you have to spend a lot of money on add-ons in X-Plane and purchase an extra hard drive to store your ortho in X-Plane.  For new customers to MSFS and X-Plane at least, they will dislike having to purchase extra add-ons in X-Plane just to match MSFS, and then have to purchase an extra hard drive to store the ortho for X-Plane.  And I believe Austin doesn't want to stream satellite/photogrammetry data (which MSFS doesn't charge for either) so there will always be this particular technology gap between X-Plane and MSFS.

 

Personally I wouldn't need X Plane to look like MSFS - it will never have the worldwide satellite imagery of MSFS.  Apart from the buggy recent updates, MSFS is superb.

However, a good landlass put everything in the right place and is pleasing enough.

21 hours ago, Matchstick said:

 One thing I could see preventing MS targeting the commercial market would be if their licensing agreement with LM prevents MS from releasing a competitor commercial product.
Highly unlikely for that to ever become public information though.

By the same token, LM signed an agreement that they would not sell P3D for entertainment purposes, and we know that isn't enforced. 

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

By the same token, LM signed an agreement that they would not sell P3D for entertainment purposes, and we know that isn't enforced. 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if any licensing or later agreement cover what steps LM had to do to discourage those kind of sales. If that was the case presumably LM have abided by those rules and aren't held responsible for individual users who breach the licensing conditions under which they "purchased" the software

Edited August 14, 20214 yr by Matchstick

On 8/12/2021 at 1:12 PM, Dominique_K said:

X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane X-Plane 

Did you see X-Plane in the topic tite or content ? It is about QualityWings and A2A, none of both having ever worked for X-plane. 

You X-planers are leeches, everything thing is good to suck a good thread in the MFS forum 🤣.

I am a flight simmer, simples.