4 hours ago, vonmar said:

I mentioned what I searched for in my post.
Then I quoted the result of that search.

The result of the search was as I expected.
Same as my understanding from when MSFS2020 was first release.

What did you find on your internet search?

You never mentioned your source of information on MSFS’s initial offering.

I’m quoting Jorg himself, from an in-person interview. 

i.e., from the proverbial horses mouth. 

The internet “searches” you’re doing usually pull up articles written by authors who are NOT quoting MS/Asobo. 

and many of them get it wrong. 

So, again: since YOU’RE making these accusations that MS isn’t living up to their commitment, it’s incumbent on YOU to show where MS ever made the commitment. 

I’ll give you a hint: they didn’t. 

but, as always, I do stand to be corrected, so please do let the rest of us know what you find. 

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by UrgentSiesta

9 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

As far as I am aware, the name of the product was Microsoft Flight Simulator when it was released. The "2020" suffix has only been added because there is now a version with a different year number. That being the case, I would expect the "initial commitment" to have been for "Microsoft Flight Simulator", not "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020".

Bing! Bing! Bing! We have a winner!

exactly right, sir. 😎👍

42 minutes ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I’m quoting Jorg himself, from an in-person interview.

Link to the interview, please.

I said :
This was my understanding : Initially msfs2020 was supposed to have a ten year run.

The internet result of my search was:
Microsoft initially indicated a 10-year support commitment for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020).

So, is it true that MSFS will support MSFS2020 for ten years from release or not?

 

 

Edited December 10, 2025Dec 10 by vonmar

Oh, dear Lord.... 

14 minutes ago, vonmar said:

Link to the interview, please.

I said :
This was my understanding : Initially msfs2020 was supposed to have a ten year run.

The internet result of my search was:
Microsoft initially indicated a 10-year support commitment for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020).

So, is it true that MSFS will support MSFS2020 for ten years from release or not?

 

 

🤣

oh, my dude, how stubborn you are in your misguided misunderstandings!! 😂

i e already shared with you that the source of your misunderstanding is believing the first search result you see that aligns with your desired viewpoint. 

you’ve also had several other responses in this very thread contradicting your assertion, but yeah - keep on telling me what your “initial search” and your “understanding” are, as though repeating an incorrect statement makes it more valid  

You’re not even willing to admit that you can’t find a First Party attribution for YOUR own assertion, so you attempt to throw the burden of proof back on me…? Hilarious deflection 😂

you keep using circular arguments, but you can’t see that you’re chasing your own tail. 

You’re last question was:

”is it true that MSFS will support MSFS2020 for ten years from release or not?”

And the answer from SEVERAL people here has been, and remains, “No.”

to clarify a bit further, though MS are indeed keeping the lights on, and doing a good bit of work to make v2020 run in the same infrastructure as v2024, it remains an ongoing MONTHLY cost to run v2020 against a decreasing amount of monthly revenue.

YOU need to understand that every single time you launch MSFS, you cost MS a significant amount of money. 
this is the ONLY time this has EVER happened in flight sim. 
for eg, if you launch X-Plane 11 today, the cost to the publisher is $0. If you launch Prepar3D, the cost to the publisher is $0. 

MS is in business to make a profit, not to lose money. 

there will come a time (soon-ish, as these things go), where the costs to keep running v2020 exceed the revenue it’s pulling in. 

and when that happens, if it’s next quarter or whenever, they will shut it down.

1 hour ago, UrgentSiesta said:

I’m quoting Jorg himself, from an in-person interview. 

Where is the link to your interview with Jorg?

What was the date?

Was it during MSFS2020 initial launch?

11 minutes ago, vonmar said:

Where is the link to your interview with Jorg?

What was the date?

Was it during MSFS2020 initial launch?

If only there was a quick and easy way for you to learn something instead of demanding that it be spoon fed to you…

if you properly prompt one of the AI’s, they’ll help you out in far less time than it’ll take me to do your research for you. 

have fun learning! 🤙

When I compare to how Flight Simming was back in the late 90's and early 2000's -- It blows my mind we have it so good. Developing a platform that not only has to nail down complex avionics, entire planes and their flight models, living and breathing airports and on top of ALL OF THAT, have a realistic weather model. It's just so, so much work and Im honestly shocked we have it this good. It's an ambitious project but at least we have developers that listen now, we never had that. Sure, it takes a while for stuff to happen, but since you brought up the old days, I had to bring them up also and remind everyone how far we've come. 

18 hours ago, vonmar said:

This was my understanding:

Initially msfs2020 was supposed to have a ten year run:

They surely didn't say MSFS 2020, as the year 2020 was never part of the name until MSFS 2024 was announced, and still hasn't officially been adopted as its title. 

They said "Microsoft Flight Simulator" was supposed to have a ten year run. Which may have been a bit ambiguous but is still true to the letter even now, with MSFS 2024 being sold as a new installment.

18 hours ago, vonmar said:

Internet search result:

"Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Support Timeline
Initial Commitment

    Microsoft initially indicated a 10-year support commitment for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020).
    This was meant to assure users of ongoing development and updates."

It's not clear what exactly you searched for and which search engine you used. I tend to think that it's part of an AI generated text, as is now common as the first search result shown by Google. That's why you should at least include a link, otherwise it's worthless.

3 hours ago, vonmar said:

So, is it true that MSFS will support MSFS2020 for ten years from release or not?

When the "10 years" comments were made, there was no such thing as "MSFS 2020".  The release was "MSFS". And as such, the 10 year comments relate to that.    It's an assumption to think that the comment meant "just the one iteration within the franchise".

I have no doubt that "MSFS" will be supported for (at least) 10 years.  That could be across 3 or 4 iterations of "MSFS" though.

I should have better recognized what the reponses would morph to.  I took no digs at he product itself.  All I said what that at time of release it was not a complete product. At the time of release.  At the time of release. At the time of release. At the time of release.  Period.

Never did I state that it was not a good product.  Never did I say I do not like it.  I fly it 80% of my hours.  But some of my favorite addons are still not compliant for SDK reasons, and the list of fixes in SU4 is very long, and defining.  And there were the previous SUs.  All I said was that based on the collective lists of SU fixes, it was not a prime time prouduct a year ago when first released.  Yes, it showed vast improvements then and leading on until now.  However the list of fixes in SU4 speaks for itself vs its state upon initial release.

Nothing more said, so please refrain for spinning that into somethings else to suit other arguments.  I am not on those tracks.

Guess the population of users here at Avsim is still the population of users......

Edited December 11, 2025Dec 11 by fppilot

2 hours ago, fppilot said:

All I said what that at time of release it was not a complete product.

What was the alternative though? Not releasing the sim and denying thousands of folks (myself included) the thousands of hours they put into 2024 since release? MS could have released 2024 as "early access" for a discounted price, but would that have changed anything? People still would have bought it and still would have complained. Just like they complain when they join the beta and something breaks.

A popular shooter game recently released after a ten-year alpha/beta period. During that time, the devs milked customers out of their money multiple times with "exclusive" upgrades just so they could continue to fund development. And now that the game released, it's still a buggy mess.

A popular space game is still in development after an eight-year (and counting) early access period. The devs continue to milk customers out of their money with exclusive spaceships that can cost tens of thousands of real-life dollars. The last I saw, the game is still a buggy mess and nowhere near final release.

As someone else mentioned, this is the current state of software development. With AI and "vibe coding", it's only going to get worse as long as people keep throwing their money out there, and if they don't throw their money out there, the projects will get abandoned. At least MS didn't try to milk more money out of us over the past year by releasing paid DLC for a sim that still needed a lot of work.

2 hours ago, fppilot said:

But some of my favorite addons are still not compliant for SDK reasons

I'm no developer, but plenty of very advanced addons get by with the current SDK with no issue, and new addons are doing things that have never been done before. Is there actually an issue with a lack of SDK features, or is there an issue with the dev not adapting to new ways of doing things? Some more competition would give us a better idea, but until then we can either trust the finger pointing at Asobo or question why the issue isn't affecting more aircraft.

On 12/9/2025 at 7:24 PM, vonmar said:

This was my understanding:

Initially msfs2020 was supposed to have a ten year run:

Internet search result:

"Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Support Timeline
Initial Commitment

    Microsoft initially indicated a 10-year support commitment for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (MSFS 2020).
    This was meant to assure users of ongoing development and updates."

 

Oh not this again lol...  are people still mad cause 2020 wasn't lasting until 2030? 

There's NO way they'd release a product and continue to provide massive FREE content for a decade (at the rate they did prior to MSFS 2024's arrival).  From what 2020 was at Release To Manufacturing on day 1 to where it is now....  it's literally a different sim.  I remember I was mostly flying XP11 up until 2020 arrived.  Even after using the Tech Alpha I wasn't that excited.  Sure the scenery was pretty cool but the avionics were an absolute disaster, and so were many other aeronautical variables.  Then came WorkingTitle, and many SU's and World Updates with incredible free content (payware-like airports, new TIN, many custom buildings/POIs)  

Actually 2020 is STILL receiving major updates so clearly they are still supporting it, and we're nearly in 2026.  Who knows, maybe they are crazy enough to release a product while still adding major updates for a decade??

3 hours ago, fppilot said:

I should have better recognized what the reponses would morph to.  I took no digs at he product itself.  All I said what that at time of release it was not a complete product. At the time of release.  At the time of release. At the time of release. At the time of release.  Period.

Never did I state that it was not a good product.  Never did I say I do not like it.  I fly it 80% of my hours.  But some of my favorite addons are still not compliant for SDK reasons, and the list of fixes in SU4 is very long, and defining.  And there were the previous SUs.  All I said was that based on the collective lists of SU fixes, it was not a prime time prouduct a year ago when first released.  Yes, it showed vast improvements then and leading on until now.  However the list of fixes in SU4 speaks for itself vs its state upon initial release.

Nothing more said, so please refrain for spinning that into somethings else to suit other arguments.  I am not on those tracks.

Guess the population of users here at Avsim is still the population of users......

Half of your sentences make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Who cares about the "state upon initial release"?

What we should care about is where the sim stands NOW - and the very long list of improvements speaks for itself and the dedication of Asobo and Microsoft. 

And nobody claimed that the sim is now perfect. 

Edited December 11, 2025Dec 11 by Ricardo41

MSFS 2020 is still a current product - it’s still sold worldwide. Many countries in the world (including mine) have laws which demand a minimum support period. So 2020 is certainly going to be available (ie photography and scenery streamed) for a long time. In the case of my country I think it is for 7 years after it becomes unavailable to purchase so the timer to non-support hasn’t even started yet. 
 

Jorg explained the usage of 2020 and 2024 in his interview with FSElete a few days ago. Microsoft analytics show that the users of 2020 and 2024 are different.
 

Watch or listen to the interview. 

Edited December 11, 2025Dec 11 by mfahey
Typo Fix