I know this has been broached and discussed over the years, but last weekend I bought the new XBox 360 Elite.....the 120GB HDMI connected machine! Games are incredible, but I would like to know if Microsoft might ever do a general Flight Sim for this hardware. I will never give up FS on my computer, but I have to admit the graphics on the XBox are awesome. I bought Blazing Angels (WW2 flight sim) as a little sim relief, but car games and racing seem to be the forte for this box. Don't you think it would be good to have FSX in both formats? Interested in your opinion.

Won't happen. The market for in depth simulations is rather small compared to other games. Console people want to pick up and play, and don't want to mess with a million keys and commands. You need a whole keyboard worth of buttons to play FSX. So in depth sims will not be moving to consoles, which are entirely greared toward botton line profit. You don't even get in depth racing sims on consoles. The more arcade like games such as blazing angels are what you will see on consoles.

It might happen. FS must be a pretty good seller because every time a new version is released, the game stores where I live always put them up in a visible place together with a poster, placard or similar. THey'd have to iron out a lot of bugs and make sure it doesn't stutter, though...

It must seem pretty attractive to Aces right about now -- putting together a sim for one set of hardware, rather than trying to make it work well for a million different combinations.It may be unlikely for the present Xbox, unless there is a huge uptake of the bigger drives. I'd expect to see it on the next Xbox, though. Those who think these are 'just a console' need to have a proper look at what they can do. The idea that consoles are for casual gamers is getting a bit dated.I would love to distribute my scenery via Xbox Live -- this is a lovely online delivery system, provided you have the storage, not to mention the online play. Imagine automatically starting your flight in a world already populated with Xbox Live users worldwide.People always bring up the control aspect, but I have never really understood what makes a keyboard (originally designed for a typewriter) the ideal solution for a simulator. A cheap USB controller with custom buttons would sway a lot of users to a console sim. There's already a controller available with a built-in keyboard. Some folk spend a fortune on controllers for the sim, there's no reason why they wouldn't continue to do so for a console version.- Robin (desperately missing his Xbox which is in for repairs:)Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

Solar, I have to disagree with you about racing sims on consoles. Forza Motorsport was good, and the sequel for 360 promises to be excellent, with tons of mod/customization options and better physics. Plus the graphics will exceed anything currently on pc. This is coming from a fan of race and gtr2. I don't think the controller is as much of an issue as it may seem at first; add a couple buttons for panel toggles and you're almost golden. Consoles now support usb so they could be configured to work with CH/Saitek, or even regular keyboards. More compellingly, a 360 controller keyboard attachment is already coming. http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/09/im-comin...ry-this-summer/ I think the move to consoles is a good idea, for the following reasons:1) It's easier to program for one set of hardware rather than various pcs, and more efficiently. 2) Because of this, rendering language is not as much of a problem. For example, directx 10 equivalents for Crysis are planned for the 360.3) It's cheaper and you get what you pay for. How much did my 8800 cost? Yep, as much as my 360, which includes expandable storage and a fast processor as well as a killer graphics card. Also, you'd never see anything like the nvidia driver debacle on a console, again namely because only one driver has to be made because you're dealing with one set of hardware.4) Last for now, and certainly not least, the ability to use a TV, and HD (which will soon but not soon enough become standard). Think how nice it would be to sim in front of a big screen, or home entertainment system. Also, a large hd tv is much cheaper than a computer cinema display. Not to be corny, but Microsoft and Apple are both pushing for electronics unification, and that's the way of the future.

I agree with most of your points. However, it really depends on what MS's think the number of console owners in the FS community. In other words, are the FS customers going to buy a console just to run FS? If the answer is yes, MS is not going to make FS for the console. This is because these people are not console gamers to begin with and the chances of them buy more games are low. As we all know, every console sold is a money losing business (except the wii).

I see one major problem with this. Addons, they'd be pretty much non-existant, unless you could get them off of xbox live or something. I to this day do not like the idea of flying with a controller though. I guess the xbox has usb ports now, so I could use a joystick. Hmm... I guess it's possible, I guess time will tell.

Oh ok, I didn't know there was anything like GTR2 on Xbox. I do seriously doubt MS Flight Sim will be seen on a console though, but you never know. The USB options are certainly a step in the right direction.

Solar, It's totally understandable that you wouldn't know about forza, since the overwhelming majority of console racers are indeed pretty shallow, but can be fun.I would like to add to the list above - regarding the cause of developers - that it's much harder to pirate console programs since the drives use proprietary firmware, and I don't even know if it is possible to pirate downloadable content. As far as that goes, anything can be downloaded when you have game demos over a gigabyte already, or the Shivering Isles expansion for Oblivion. But I actually play that on pc because of the shorter load times and mods. Which brings me to my next point; the one downside to consoles currently is that even if you have an expansion hard drive, you cannot copy entire programs onto it, everything (except downloaded content) has to be read from the dvd. Also, no editing of cfg files. Obviously the former will absolutely have to change before we could consider flightsimming. I'd be surprised if it didn't by the next generation of consoles, though, as games are getting friggin huge.

Consoles (and i talk about consoles in general) are ment to play games, + watch some video's or play some music on them but the main use is gaming (and flightsims are to be cataloged under games).On a PC you can play games too, but beside that, you can do a lot more like office work, surfin', drawing, make video's etc....But if one would attach a keyboard to a console (here the 360), would it not become a PC again? Would people not be willing to desing on it one a keybaord/mouse is attached? Would people not be willing to surf on the internet with it? Would people then not be willing to work on office documents etc...?If yes, the console becomes a PC again and then there is no reason why there are consoles in the first place... or PC's, for that matter.

Lange 666, you bring up a very interesting point. Either our PC's become more like console games, or else the consoles become more like PC's. Right now, there exists a kind of consumer deadlock where people are either buying PC's or buying consoles, with a significant population that just goes out and buys both (or everything). What Microsoft & Co. want is to come up with something that will take the public by storm, something that will make us want to junk both our PC's and our consoles in favour of the New Big Item. You are starting to see these "Entertainment Centers" which merge PC's with HDTV-compliant PVR's, as well as consoles that play HD DVD's. I think that that's the kind of thing Mr. Gates wants us to eventually buy, but right now, many consumers find that sort of Entertainment Center to be unappealing. Something has yet to come up that will spark the public's appetite the way that the VCR, the DVD, the PC, the laptop, surround sound, the Internet, and so forth has in the past. Then, when we all buy the New Big Item, we can be sure the technical wizards are already working on ways to make it obsolete in a year or two. I guess the new product will have to be something that is percieved to have true lasting power, yet it also provides sensory goodies we don't yet enjoy. This, naturally, is just my own opinion, and may not be the same as the official opinion(s), if any, of AVSIM on this topic.Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

What chance a TrackIR device for a Console? :-(

>What chance a TrackIR device for a Console? :-(From the NaturalPoint website:"...and exploring the possibilities of using TrackIR's with the next generation of console gaming platforms (xbox 360, playstation 3, Nintendo Revolution)."Godzone Virtual Flight, for 'Real New Zealand' sceneryhttp://www.windowlight.co.nz

TrackIR currently requires a USB connection, so as long as the console supports that and has NaturalPoint's magical drivers, then there could be 6DOF goodness. I couldn't imagine flying an XBOX game without it.The folks at NaturalPoint are working on some big new projects, the nature of which I can only guess. Jeff ShylukAvsim Product Reviewer

Again, how would TrackIR software be updated on consoles to be "compatible and working" with new games like it does now?Consoles have one major issue and that is that games, or whatever runs on it, is hard to update/patch. If one needs to update/patch stuff like we do now on the PC, does the console not becomes sort of a PC again?The major advantage for a PC over a console is that you always have the latest hardware and updates available. Console owners have to wait until there is a new console out.Consoles have one major advantage and that is that there is ony one hardware setup to deal with (which is not entirely true since games released for the XBox are also released for the PS2 and Wii systems and vice versa). With this in mind, i always wondered why games are so cheap on PC compared to console versions, especialy regarding the fact that the developers even develop patches for free for PC users.