abrams_tank

787 was vastly improved by Working Title last year. You should check it out.

I wonder how does the default planes in MSFS stack up to the default planes in the other sims? Anybody know? It seems like the default planes in MSFS are quite good now, especially with the iniBuilds Beluga and the iniBuilds A400M coming in MSFS 2024.

As some people have mentioned, the roadmap changed when SU 15 was delayed. If it's true that they are trying to release MSFS 2024 this fall (according to people saying Jorge "slipped up" in the Twitch Q&A a month ago and accidentally inferred the release data for MSFS 2024 was this fall), they are heading into crunch time for MSFS 2024 this summer, trying to polish it off, fix the bugs, and cram in the remaining features before it's released. They simply don't have time to do an SU 16 release in the summer, and release MSFS 2024 this fall, unless they are way ahead of schedule for what they want to do for MSFS 2024. But for a large software project involving hundreds of people, it's almost never on schedule. It's almost guaranteed that they are behind schedule, or probably barely struggling to keep to their schedule. That's the nature of software projects. Mind you, even for much smaller software projects, like all the planes that are released for MSFS, those are often delayed (ie. Randazzo thought the PMDG 737 could be released in 2020, and it was finally released in 2022). For larger software projects where hundreds of people are involved, it's almost guaranteed those projects fall behind, or the project lead and the end customer eventually decide to "cut" features so that they can stick to the schedule.

Technically, they don't need to really store data for live weather. They can just retrieve the data live from the provider. But yes, they would need to interpolate if they wanted to save storage space, to store historical weather data. And also reduce the frequency that the data is stored, such as 6 hours in your suggestion, to further reduce storage space.

Probably storage for all that data. For example, do they have to store MeteoBlue data every minute, for every location around the world? Then you add in the METAR data they have to store. Since you are storing for the entire world for 24 hours for every minute, that's a lot of data. If they decrease the frequecy of storing from 1 minute to 10 seconds, that increases the data six fold. If they store for 180 days, thst increases the data by a factor of 180. I don't know the frequency that the MeteoBlue data runs, but I can imagine if you to store that data for the most discrete location that data covers, for the entire world, that could be a lot of storage space. Then there may be restrictions from MeteoBlue on how long their data can be stored.

For sure, some of them are working part-time on MSFS. There is no way 700 people are working on MSFS full time, for the entire year. And probably when MSFS 2024 comes out, the number of people working on MSFS will be reduced drastically.

I have always said Microsoft would go after the commercial market at some point. I just posted a link to a past thread I made in 2022 where I brought this subject up, about Microsoft going after the commercial market. Avsim made my post "hidden" for whatever reason. But yeah, even back in 2022, I speculated that Microsoft will target the commercial market.

I have always said Microsoft would go after the commercial market at some point. Here is a thread I created back in 2022:

I believe iniBuilds hired more developers though. So they actually have more developer resources in total. Granted, it may take time to train developers so that they are up to speed on the API (both iniBuild's API and the MSFS API), and they are also up to speed with certain knowledge needed to develop aircraft (if they don't have that knowledge already). But assuming iniBuilds can get those developers up to speed, they can afford to spend the same number of developers per aircraft project. Then it's simply a matter if they can get the proper management in place to oversee their projects. It's the same thing with PMDG. I believe PMDG hired more developers as well, so they are now working on multiple projects at the same time - 777, 737 Max, and the secret unspecified project. For PMDG, the challenge is management, that is, can Randazzo oversee all the different project and ensure quality, and if he can't, then did Randazzo hire managers (or promote older employees to managers) to help oversee all the multiple projects.

About Gamepass though, if MSFS doesn't bring in the revenue and users to offset what they spend on developing and running MSFS, they are better spending that money elsewhere. For example, should Microsoft spend another $30 USD million on MSFS if it only gets Microsoft another $30 million in revenue, or should Microsoft spend the $30 million adding a popular game to Gamepass, that would bring in $60 million in revenue for them? All things being equal, Microsoft would choose the second scenario, where spending $30 million on a different game would bring in $60 million in revenue for them. So it's not like Microsoft has an endless budget to spend on MSFS. And to be honest, flight simulation is not all that popular among gamers. Flight simulation is still a niche in the video game industry. Fortunately for us, Microsoft is seeing the revenue from MSFS, to justify spending all the money they are spending on making MSFS 2024 (and also all the free stuff we have gotten in MSFS 2020, and the continued development of MSFS 2020). My guess is, while the number of users for MSFS is a lot fewer than other video games, the spend per user is very, very high. There are people buying hundreds of dollars worth of products from the MSFS marketplace (probably some people spending over a thousand dollars in the MSFS marketplace). To me, MSFS 2024 is a very positive development, it shows that the business model is working for Microsoft. And in return, because the business model is working for Microsoft, we are getting yet another next generation flight simulator, that is pushing the boundaries of what modern technology can do for flight simulation (prior to MSFS, the flight simulators being used in the home market were definitely not pushing the limits of what modern technology can do for flight simulation).

I highly doubt MSFS 2024 will be a "free update." We're all going to be paying if we want to use MSFS 2024. At most, I can see them giving a discount if you own the Deluxe or Premium versions of MSFS 2020, if you want to buy the corresponding Deluxe or Premium versions of MSFS 2024. I would love it if MSFS 2024 were free. But the whole point of them announcing MSFS 2024 in the first place is to get us go buy it. If MSFS 2024 were going to be free, they could have just rolled all these new changes in Sim Updates for MSFS 2020 users. To be fair, we have gotten a lot of free stuff since MSFS 2020 was released - iniBuilds A320, iniBuilds A310, and all the other free planes, and the free World Updates, and stuff like Top Gun and Dune for free. But they got to pay for a lot of this stuff, and I don't think the Marketplace can pay for everything. I am pretty certain that MSFS 2024 will not be free, as much as I would like it to be.

I read that the Headwind A330 has improved a lot? The comment I read was that if it gets proper A330 cockpit model, it would be decsnt.

Probably 2028. Looks like a 4 year thing.

Not all 700 are working for Microsoft full time. Microsoft contracts out some work and once the contract is done, most of the people at the partner companies move on to otner projects where Microsoft isn't paying them. I don't even know if all 200 people at Asobo working on MSFS 2020, are working on it full time (ie. some are obviously working on MSFS 2024, in parallel witn MSFS 2020).

Ok, I have edited the top comment and noted that according to you, it is the Beluga XL.