13 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

They promote their partners when release things on the marketplace. They also promoted the ini A340 and the FlightFX Citation X released on the marketplace for example.

But they have no hand in developing those things, it's just advertisement for a partner's marketplace addon. 

The ORBX Jurassic Park addon is not at the same thing as the Halo, Top Gun, Dune and now Stranger Things promotions Microsoft have done for the sim.

In fact the JP addon was an ORBX store exclusive for several months before it was released on the Marketplace.

Fully understand that and fully agree. Promotion, marketing, advertisements of dinosaurs and monsters is a negative thing for MSFS. 

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by STK

3 minutes ago, STK said:

Promotion, marketing, advertisements of dinosaurs and monsters is a negative thing for MSFS. 

No it isn't.

It brings more people to the sim, gets those people excited for aviation, they buy the sim, they buy stuff on the marketplace and that money goes towards working on the core systems of the flight sim.

They may end up buying products from third party devs you like, giving them more funding to make more products you want from them.

The money that the companies pay Microsoft to do these crossovers probably also goes partly towards funding the sim.

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by Tuskin38

27 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

No it isn't.

It brings more people to the sim, gets those people excited for aviation, they buy the sim, they buy stuff on the marketplace and that money goes towards working on the core systems of the flight sim.

They may end up buying products from third party devs you like, giving them more funding to make more products you want from them.

The money that the companies pay Microsoft to do these crossovers probably also goes partly towards funding the sim.

• MS product analysts note a bunch of new customers or an uptick in existing customer engagement following Stranger Things DLC (or pick anything pop-culture in the future) or the promotion of fantastical third party products. 
• MS product analysts and bean counters (pick your accurate job title) say, hey more media attention, customers, and money compared to just regular airplane and landmark DLC announcements and releases. Pop-culture DLC releases make the big news and entertainment websites.
• MS/Asobo MSFS told to make more Pop-Culture. More press and fans. 
• MS/Asobo MSFS team say, hey we want/need to develop the next realistic plane and landmark pack highlighting country X and airplane Y. MS bean counters say no, the money is in the hollywood and fantasy DLC, focus on that as there is a better return on investment for our shareholders.
• Next iteration of MSFS due. Bean counters say sales won't be good enough unless you focus more on fantasy and hollywood stuff from the get go. Don't just release a boring airplane game. Regular planes won't be dropped completely, but it won't be a priority. Development is prioritized based on estimated return on investment. 

I've worked with MS (not for, with) and similar companies. This is how they operate. It may even be against the wishes of Jorg and the actual team, but while he has influence, he doesn't get the final say in strategic direction. 

We'll see what happens in the coming years. Not saying 2024 will totally shift, it's too late for that, I'm talking about the next full program. 

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by STK

17 minutes ago, STK said:

• MS product analysts note a bunch of new customers or an uptick in existing customer engagement following Stranger Things DLC (or pick anything pop-culture in the future) or the promotion of fantastical third party products. 
• MS product analysts and bean counters (pick your accurate job title) say, hey more media attention, customers, and money compared to just regular airplane and landmark DLC announcements and releases. Pop-culture DLC releases make the big news and entertainment websites.
• MS/Asobo MSFS told to make more Pop-Culture. More press and fans. 
• MS/Asobo MSFS team say, hey we want/need to develop the next realistic plane and landmark pack highlighting country X and airplane Y. MS bean counters say no, the money is in the hollywood and fantasy DLC, focus on that as there is a better return on investment for our shareholders.
• Next iteration of MSFS due. Bean counters say sales won't be good enough unless you focus more on fantasy and hollywood stuff from the get go. Don't just release a boring airplane game. Regular planes won't be dropped completely, but it won't be a priority. Development is prioritized based on estimated return on investment. 

I've worked with MS (not for, with) and similar companies. This is how they operate. It may even be against the wishes of Jorg and the actual team, but while he has influence, he doesn't get the final say in strategic direction. 

We'll see what happens in the coming years. Not saying 2024 will totally shift, it's too late for that, I'm talking about the next full program. 

So what is the point?

dd

 

9 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

So what is the point?

It's obvious: the sky is going to fall on all of our heads.

Unless Getafix – also known as Georgius Vir Novus Magnus Miracolix – brews the right magic potion. 😁

Edited December 6, 2025Dec 6 by MaGer1965

The world sure does look like a frustrating place if you cherry pick what to be frustrated about and never listen to any reason.

It’s okay to have fun with flight sims. There are airline pilots that boot up MSFS and try and land a 747 on a carrier. Or fly a chopper around a dinosaur island. 
 

Personally I’d love a stunt add on. My ideal one is a recreation of famous stunts in history - from barnstorming to filming for shows like the A-Team and the likes of Bond movies.

34 minutes ago, Sky_Pilot071 said:

So what is the point?

"Kids" with their "short attention spans" these days shouldn't be allowed to have fun with flight simulators. None of them will ever be inspired to go further with the hobby or possibly further with real life aviation. They shouldn't even be allowed to buy the sim, Fortnite has planes after all. MS/Asobo should not do anything that can make more money to sustain the sim. They should go back to the FSX business model.

(I think you found one of the old dudes you mentioned earlier in the thread btw!)

I predict the add on (Stranger Things) will bomb.

I hope those here don’t lament the loss of a realistic high fidelity aviation simulation option in the coming years in favor of flying fictional planes around fictional planets/scenery in the name of “fun”. 

Barnstorming adventures from the 1920s and 30s are historically realistic and fun, landing challenges are maybe slightly less realistic but can have a basis in reality, use realistic assets, and are fun. Stunt flying is fun, movie filming using helos is fun. These things are what 2024 initially aimed for and advertised when it came out! More varied scenarios grounded mostly in reality that demonstrate the breadth of what is seen around the world in the aviation sector.

Now we’re onto monsters, planets, aliens, dinosaurs, and who knows what else.

If you can’t see the negatives to that scope creep then I’m sorry for you (and I hope you are far far away from a project management career). 

22 minutes ago, Funky D said:

"Kids" with their "short attention spans" these days shouldn't be allowed to have fun with flight simulators. 

I know you are being facetious but you reminded me of something. My nephew got MSFS for his Xbox back when he was 14 and got absolutely obsessed with aviation through it. Never touched any other sims, doesn’t own a PC or even ever tried the sim on PC at all. Used to fly with the Xbox controller for the longest time until he got one of those combined hotas things that works with the console. He’s 18 now and starting his PPL lessons, absolutely dead-set on a career in aviation.

My point is it’s silly to pretend that there’s an exact way of flight simming or that the “silly” stuff is somehow detrimental to the experience. People used to think the Xbox was “silly” but I reckon there’s going to be a whole generation of aviators who grew up only knowing it. And the dino island.

2 minutes ago, STK said:

I hope those here don’t lament the loss of a realistic high fidelity aviation simulation option in the coming years in favor of flying fictional planes around fictional planets/scenery in the name of “fun”. 

Barnstorming adventures from the 1920s and 30s are historically realistic and fun, landing challenges are maybe slightly less realistic but can have a basis in reality, use realistic assets, and are fun. Stunt flying is fun, movie filming using helos is fun. These things are what 2024 initially aimed for and advertised when it came out! More varied scenarios grounded mostly in reality that demonstrate the breadth of what is seen around the world in the aviation sector.

Now we’re onto monsters, planets, aliens, dinosaurs, and who knows what else.

If you can’t see the negatives to that scope creep then I’m sorry for you (and I hope you are far far away from a project management career). 

There are other hobbies like bowling you know.

dd

26 minutes ago, Funky D said:

"Kids" with their "short attention spans" these days shouldn't be allowed to have fun with flight simulators. None of them will ever be inspired to go further with the hobby or possibly further with real life aviation.

I was that kid though, back in 1985.

I don't understand why parents are sending their kids to expensive business schools. 

Instead, they should send their kids to the Avsim School of Business there are more business experts here than in an average Boston Consulting field office. 

1 hour ago, STK said:

I've worked with MS (not for, with) and similar companies. This is how they operate. It may even be against the wishes of Jorg and the actual team, but while he has influence, he doesn't get the final say in strategic direction. 

In your experience with Microsoft have you noticed them pursuing a strategy of releasing temporary freebies every two years and taking the feedback as a sign that that’s where the real money is? I’d love to hear any examples you have of that, coz I’m pretty sure the people at MS are smart enough not to believe the current customer base spending millions on complex addons in their platform should be dropped in favour of the people who curiously downloaded some free stuff.

 

31 minutes ago, Georgleboui said:

My nephew got MSFS for his Xbox back when he was 14 and got absolutely obsessed with aviation through it.

30 minutes ago, Mace said:

I was that kid though, back in 1985.

I was also that kid... I remember sitting on my father's lap as he flew in MSFS 2.0. I was completely awestruck by the few stick figure skyscrapers of Chicago. Oh, that version of MSFS also had a WW2 "game" mode, but I'm sure people found it innovative back then instead of some kind of detriment to the hobby!

My first flight game was probably PilotWings for the SNES. I got into MSFS 4.0 a few years later when I got a hand-me-down 286 computer (it also had an aircraft designer addon where you could attempt to build real or, more likely, factitious aircraft). I saved my allowance to buy MSFS 5.0 only to get a reality check of these things called "system requirements". By the time I got my first new computer to play it, MSFS 5.1 was already out. Fast forward to 2002/2004, which were a huge help in getting my PPL.

But yeah, there is a reason a take a bit of offense to threads that would prefer to gatekeep MSFS and lock out entire generations from the hobby: I never would have gotten my PPL if it weren't for MSFS. Although my license is no longer current, I'm sure MSFS will take hours off any future flight training if I ever decide to fly again.