Job cuts ground Flight Simulator

[GerryW]

I know it should be in the FS Forum, but I think more people read here than over there.

The future of Microsoft's long running Flight Simulator series has been cast into doubt, after the software maker US laid-off the entire development team.

Microsoft says it is "committed" to the series, despite shutting the Aces studio when it cut 5000 jobs.


more here...

[ZeroAltitude]

FS will stay alive for at least six or seven more years.
Dozens of software companies live off of FS add-ons.

[GerryW]

Dozens of software companies live off of FS add-ons.

...concerns FS2004 and FSX.
And that's why these firms wouldn't feel sorry about a break in new FS releases. So they could concentrate on one (or two) releases already some time established.

[3WE]

I used to see MSFS adds in aviation magazines, and now it seems that X-plane is there.

I have yet to get FSX (computer's a bit old).

I have repeatedly read how X-plane's flight models are a two notches better, but given that neither model can send sensations to my rear end, nor inner ear, nor my CH yoke and pedals, I wonder har far X-planes flight models go on providing "realism".

And, hearing Dummy, RCL, Flyboy and ITS mention that even thier multi-million-dollar simulators have shortcomings, I've struggled to wonder how X-plane could be "remarkably less fake" than MSFS.

I used to think MSFS had the edge on having the world's airports, terrain, navaids, and numbers of aircraft, and maybe emulation of weather/visibility. Then again the 8 to 9 upgrade has a glitch where rabbit strobes bust through two miles of pea-soup fog- making the runway edge visibile well before minimums after you've painstakingly entered 200-ft and 1/2 mile into the weather box.

I am wondering if X-plane may now have the edge on cockpit renditions and the view out the windshield. (an ongoing frustration with MSFS).

I still await a simulator that might utilize genuine sattelite photos, and an extra-snazzy 3-D rendition of stuff.

All that being said- flight simulators are actually awfully boring compared to typical computer games- so I'm not surprised if demand for them and upgrades is limited.

[3WE]

Flight sims were one of the few things about Microsoft people actually liked.

Reminds me of this joke.

"Hey, Microsoft finally developed a product that doesn't suck".....[pause and scroll down for punch line]




















....about 1/2 way there, keep scrolling......



































"A vacum cleaner!"