1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

It's a 4% reduction. A necessary trimming of the tree.

(And yeah, I've been RIF'd before, so...)

~50%, microsoft gaming had 20,100 employees in 2024. 9,000/20,100 is 48% of that, but they already cut a lot back in January.

Edited July 3, 2025Jul 3 by mSparks

18 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

We've never had an abundance of high quality, high fidelity, high realism and high immersion a like we do today.

The sims are ever more accurate in all regards, etc.

The vast amount of new users have / are dumping vast amounts of cash into the market. And it's clear that many of them are moving up into becoming "serious simmers" rather than "just gamers", too.

And by that, I welcome the gamers because they bring the numbers to make devs willing to make ever more and ever better add-ons.

Mark my words: Markets with lots of growth and growth potential will inevitably attract financial idiocy that will ultimately ruin it. What's your blessing now will be your flood of shoddy cash grab products, your in-sim microtransactions and your millions of utterly clueless, yet very self-entitled and all the more vocal users tomorrow.

AI driving this. They think it can do a better job. Like Intel few years ago with there CPUs what a flop that was.

2 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Mark my words: Markets with lots of growth and growth potential will inevitably attract financial idiocy that will ultimately ruin it. What's your blessing now will be your flood of shoddy cash grab products, your in-sim microtransactions and your millions of utterly clueless, yet very self-entitled and all the more vocal users tomorrow.

Oh, you mean just like happened with Prepar3D, X-Plane, and MSFS...?

 

3 hours ago, mSparks said:

~50%, microsoft gaming had 20,100 employees in 2024. 9,000/20,100 is 48% of that, but they already cut a lot back in January.

You don't honestly believe they cut half of the gaming workforce, do you??? 😂

The news sources have all said the cuts are coming across the board, and hitting Sales, Management, as well as Gaming.

10 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

AI driving this. They think it can do a better job. Like Intel few years ago with there CPUs what a flop that was.

There are a ton of infrastructure costs driving this as well.

All those smart AI's require lots of data center resources.

45 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

AI driving this. They think it can do a better job. Like Intel few years ago with there CPUs what a flop that was.

I found this video pretty funny perspective on the current situation, have to laugh or you would cry

But "AI" is just an excuse for the general idiocy and failures of the last few years, it's really just the normal business cycle doing its thing.

35 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

You don't honestly believe they cut half of the gaming workforce, do you???

The current business of "MS gaming" is in the process of getting closed down, so yes. -> hitting Sales, Management,and development studios.

Phil Spencer is CEO of MS gaming not all Microsoft (CEO of microsoft is Satya Nedella)

Because

So

https://www.gamespot.com/gallery/all-the-xbox-games-cancelled-and-studios-closed-in-microsofts-latest-mass-layoffs/2900-6726/

Asobo has far more independence than most, but lets not forget the recent navigraph survey:

"This year we separated Windows Computer and Mac Computer from each other. The result shows
that most of the respondents are on a Windows Computer (91.9), 2.4% on a Mac Computer, and 1.7%
on a Gaming Console (Xbox), which is a decrease from last year’s 2.6%."

Let that sink in if you doubt it, Xplane on Mac has nearly double the number of (3rd party store addon buying) users than MSFS on Xbox.

So hardly surprising MS wasn't investing in a big fancy booth at this years FSEXPO. I was actually surprised they showed up last year.

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by mSparks

51 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

s require lots of data center resources.

And a lot of power. So much for climate change.

3 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

And a lot of power. So much for climate change.

The big players are going for nuclear power, which is sensible.

Way, way, off-topic again.

6 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

Nope.

Time will tell, they've had 75 exhibits in 2023, 68 exhibits in 2024 and 83 exhibits in 2025. The base platform market place for both platforms should be well online by next expo, we'll see if this is good, bad or makes no difference in regards to the expo turnout.

4 hours ago, Brian Mackie said:

Way, way, off-topic again.

Its all flightsim related and it woll affect us all.

12.2.1 beta1 is out
 

Release Notes

Airports
New custom build airport called Zermatt Helipad (LSEZ)
Updated version of our Gateway Airports.
Many additional library objects for airport designers
Fire Trucks
Cherry Pickers
Construction Vehicles
Police SUV Cars
Grass Runway Markings
Compass Roses
Colored Polygons
Hangars & Utility Sheds
Class F Jetways
New Apron Lights
Mobile Helipads
Angled Roofs
Added weather effects to all flat roofs

General
New setting to disable mouse wheel zoom separately for external and internal views (Settings -> Accessibility). Additionally, you can now assign a modifier key: this means zooming will only work while holding that key, helping to prevent accidental zooming during regular mouse use.
Birds will no longer cause damage unless “birdstrike” is set on the failures screen

Hardware Support
Thrustmaster : Full support for the new SOL-R 1, Thrustmaster’s next-gen Flightstick, designed specifically for flight simulations.
MOZA : Full support for MOZA’s impressive new line of flight simulator hardware. This release supports the AB9 FFB Base with the MH16 Flightstick, the MTP Throttle, and the MTLP Panel.
SimFlight Services : Support for the rotAIR modules from SimFlight Services, enhancing your sim experience with high-fidelity input.

ATC
Added support for continual circuits (touch & go)

General
Save the last airport the user was on ground at instead of the last airport overflown for “Resume Flight”
Fixed various translation issues

Technical Notes for Linux : Fixed an issue when using the Steam installation of X-Plane on Linux, when Steam was installed using a snap package. Please note, that snap installations are not supported by Valve (XPD-16840)

Edited July 4, 2025Jul 4 by peroni

I cannot believe they finally added the ability to turn off the friggin mouse zooming after so many years asking for it.

47 minutes ago, peroni said:

I cannot believe they finally added the ability to turn off the friggin mouse zooming after so many years asking for it.

I remember many years ago Ben was against implementing double mousewheel function (zoom + rotary action) because users would complain of accidental misuse between the two. Then he gave in by popular request, but maybe he was right after all.

At least the new option should make everybody happy! 🙂