I think some people are doing Microsoft a huge disservice with some of the negative and semi-negative comments. MS brought us the flight sim franchise in the first place. They have invested huge amounts over the years and they are a business. Clearly, at some point, the franchise wasn't making them the money required, or was diverting resources away from core focus tech and they moved on.
Welcome back I say, with big open arms. I've bought every version of FS since at least 1998 (that is the first one I remember actually buying rather than just using). I've spent far, far more on hardware and add-ons with other vendors over the years than I ever paid to MS and my passion for aviation has continued to grow because of their original vision.
Since Prepar3D was released 8 years or so ago I've given Lockheed Martin more of my money than I ever gave directly to MS, due to the subscription based nature of LM's licensing model. Remember that LM's one off price for P3D was originally $499. Not to mention the $5000+ of hardware and software MS donated to a certain auction in Denver 2006 whereby I ended up with almost 50% of the tickets because people didn't want to spend money (I think it cost me about $150 and I won.... lots). Anyone remember the Lynyrd Skynyrd themed talk there... bare feet and all?
I hope that MS pushes the boundaries and continues to up the hardware requirements (while still supporting lower spec systems, albeit at lower quality). This is what drives innovation and brings us better products.
Sure, LM gave me the ability to park a submarine on the apron at EGHH, but I'm looking for more. I want to need to spend $$$ on a new system so that I can experience the latest and greatest. I don't want vendors to have to focus on tech that is 5+ years old to appease those that spend thousands of hours playing a simulator and spend many hundreds of $$$ on add-ons while only thinking the core product (MSFS) is worth $69.99 or so of their hard earned cash and that it needs to run near it's best quality on dated hardware.
Push the boundaries. If you only do what you did, you'll only get what you got.
Interview With Microsoft Flight Simulator Team
in AVSIM News
Posted
I think some people are doing Microsoft a huge disservice with some of the negative and semi-negative comments. MS brought us the flight sim franchise in the first place. They have invested huge amounts over the years and they are a business. Clearly, at some point, the franchise wasn't making them the money required, or was diverting resources away from core focus tech and they moved on.
Welcome back I say, with big open arms. I've bought every version of FS since at least 1998 (that is the first one I remember actually buying rather than just using). I've spent far, far more on hardware and add-ons with other vendors over the years than I ever paid to MS and my passion for aviation has continued to grow because of their original vision.
Since Prepar3D was released 8 years or so ago I've given Lockheed Martin more of my money than I ever gave directly to MS, due to the subscription based nature of LM's licensing model. Remember that LM's one off price for P3D was originally $499. Not to mention the $5000+ of hardware and software MS donated to a certain auction in Denver 2006 whereby I ended up with almost 50% of the tickets because people didn't want to spend money (I think it cost me about $150 and I won.... lots). Anyone remember the Lynyrd Skynyrd themed talk there... bare feet and all?
I hope that MS pushes the boundaries and continues to up the hardware requirements (while still supporting lower spec systems, albeit at lower quality). This is what drives innovation and brings us better products.
Sure, LM gave me the ability to park a submarine on the apron at EGHH, but I'm looking for more. I want to need to spend $$$ on a new system so that I can experience the latest and greatest. I don't want vendors to have to focus on tech that is 5+ years old to appease those that spend thousands of hours playing a simulator and spend many hundreds of $$$ on add-ons while only thinking the core product (MSFS) is worth $69.99 or so of their hard earned cash and that it needs to run near it's best quality on dated hardware.
Push the boundaries. If you only do what you did, you'll only get what you got.