Looks like MSFS is truely dead as we see it...

[Chris Sykes]

Just look at Avsim's front page... :-(

[DaveB]

I don't even know what Windows 'Live' is and I don't intend finding out. If M$ expect to make a mint out of this.. I fear they may be disappointed. You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink ;-)

Great news for me anyway. I might live long enough to be able to catch up with what I want to see now

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[SkippyBing]

Tend to agree with Dave, I'm not paying to use the next FS everytime I load it up. There are other options available and I think MS are demonstrating they have no idea what the FS market is, this idea obviously has worked with various online first person shooters but I can't see it flying with a non-combat sim. Yes that pun was intentional.

[forthbridge]

Agreed. The GOOD thing is that at least the 'upgrade' urge is now gone - and there can be some stability in what we have, and maybe in about 10 years, I can run FS9 at full settings

The only thing is - will M$ do anything shady like not letting the heritage FS series run on newer versions of Windows?????

[Prop Jockey]

Well, I only have a PC at home because of FS. Perhaps I won't need a new one now - I'll get a Mac. Good effort MS :-)

Cheers

Rich

[nigelb]

Ah, "cloud" computing I guess. Microsoft can put it where the sun don't shine!

Nigel²

[Quixoticish]

Take it with a pinch of salt. I'm stick and tired of hearing how FS is dead and suchlike, until we hear something official then it's all conjecture, and conjecture from the FS community is always negative doom and gloom, often without even a modicum of common sense.

I'm also irked by the constant mentioned of "Live" as some evil demigod that has risen from the fiery depths of hell to sweep away everything we know and love about Flight Simulator. Clearly these articles are put together by someone who doesn't understand what Live is (it's a multiplayer matchmaking service, similar to the Gamespy system used in FSX at the moment).

I dislike any article that keeps telling me something is a FACT in capital letters and doesn't provide any sources or references. It's hearsay, conjecture and an unhealthy dose of negativity. The article makes pointless assumptions with no basis in reality. Someone at Avsim has either gotten up on the wrong side of the bed or they have an axe to grind. The article is exactly what Avsim say they are trying to dispel in the first sentence. "Speculation, rumor and simple guesses."

I've said it all along and I'll say it again, if anything will kill FS it will be the community. All of this ranting and raving will put off countless people from joining our hobby and will do more damage than the loss of the ACES team ever will. FS will continue for the next four or five years, and when FS starts to look a little long in the tooth Microsoft will almost certainly develop a new version, probably with different developers but to be honest that could be the shot in the arm that the franchise needs to take it to the next level.

I think it's time to pick up our toys and put them back in the pram and get back to enjoying flying in FS9 or FSX.

[DaveB]

We'll see Chris.. we'll see ;-)

Responses thus far have been made on the assumption that the report IS speculation and what would happen if it WERE to come true. On this occassion, I think the only one who's thrown any toys out of the pram is your good self ;-)

I don't honestly believe that many of us here care a hoot if this is or is not the end of Flightsim.. or more to the point, the continuation of the Flightsim family of releases as we've come to expect over the years. As has been mentioned.. as long as what we have will still perform on the latest incarnation of the base platform (better hopefully) which is of course the OS.. then why worry.

Do any of us here REALLY care if FSXI is delayed indefinately :think:

ATB

DaveB :tab:

[Quixoticish]

Sorry Dave, it's not aimed squarely at anyone here but the general feeling from the more vocal people on various forums appears to be entirely doom and gloom, with lots of misinformation, and (to be perfectly honest) a healthy amount of genuine rubbish thrown into the mix. I'm tired of seeing posts that exclaim about how it's all over for Flight Sim, how MS won't get a penny more of their money, about how switching to LIVE is an absolute travesty, and it's all starting to get on my wick to be quite frank.

No toys have been thrown out of the pram at my end of things. I'd just love to see people get back to actually enjoying Flight Sim. I'm sure everyone is aware of the old true-ism that many of us spend more time tweaking our sims than flying them, well the departure of the ACES team has sparked another little fact of life, there now exists a number of people who spend more time complaining about the death of Flight Simulator than flying them.

Regarding do any of us care if FSXI is delayed indefinitely, it may not seem so now but in three or four years people will start to wonder what's happening and if a new sim is not in the pipeline people will go looking for alternatives. I personally can't fly in FS9 anymore, it looks far too graphically dated for me to enjoy when I can do the same thing in FSX and have it look far more attractive. (No FSX/FS9 debates please). FSX might be able to give us some stunning graphics at the moment but in all too short a time it'll begin to look very dated in comparison to other games and simulators.

[DaveB]

Oh.. sure thing Chris. I have both sims installed but I choose to stay with FS9. I do venture into FSX every now and again and it's nice to have the option to be able to do so. That said.. I don't think I'd care much if there wasn't an FSX but I, like FS9 am getting long in the tooth also. We've covered this and the symptoms/reasons for such things were well explained ;-)

What has to be understood is that all of these reports are coming from folk who've just lost their jobs and whichever way they say something, it's going to come out with perhaps more than a little negativity and rightly so given their circumstances. I couldn't tell you how many reports I've read over the last few weeks but on the one side, M$ have remained silent and all the talking has been done by the aggrieved (who must remain anonymous.. just in case they want to work for M$ again in the future) It's not really that difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff ;-)

As I said.. we'll have to wait and see.. nowt else we can do. For some, this will be a good opportunity to 'catch up' (with hardware) and as long as developers continue to develop for at least one of the current versions.. there are folk out there who'll buy and/or download to enhance what they currently enjoy seeing ;-)

ATB

DaveB :tab: