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Parting Message On FSInsider

fsxboxes‘Someone’ wrote a last message on Micosoft’s FSInsider site, the web site dedicated to supporting FSX. The only positive thing in the message is that it states that FSX will remain on sale in the shops. It also means that if you have to re-install, you will still be able to activate it. But it also asks ‘us simmers’ for understanding of the decision and ‘our continued support’. Personally, I have no understanding at all for it, and am wondering ‘support of what exactly ????’. You can read it here…. oh and don’t forget to join our Facebook group for the REAL support. Already more than a thousand flightsim fans did !!

0 Responses

  1. `Our continued support` indeed. They foisted an incomplete bitsa on us in the form the vanilla FSX, made some necessary tweaks to actually make it usable, then abandoned all pretence at the explicitly-stated DX10 compatibility to walk away from FSX to ostensibly start work on FS XI. Now they throw the baby out with the bathwater and they want our support? Surely its WE who deserve THEIR support? Support for a product bought and paid-for on the basis of `TellFS` yet which is now abandonware? Albeit with some life left in it…

    Support implies some form of emotional attachment, and while I am fond of FSX, and its predecessors, that isn’t to the exclusion of all reasoned sentiment based on commercial expectation.

    Where’s OUR support Microsoft..?

  2. Bad news! Maybe it’s time for other sims to come up, like X-Plane. I think there’s a lot of potentential on X-plane, is a very versatile sim, but there are not very good addons developed. Maybe addons developers will migrate to this other platform.

    I think that FS was a very nice sim, up to FS9. I still do have FS9 and I think is a great sim, but FSX transformed in a sort of Arcade sim. Also closing the support and devolpment for this sim, may cause that addon developers will migrate quickly to other platforms, so I hope that ACES and MS made a good decision telling this.

  3. Don’t hold your breath Nicolas 😉

    There is years of life in both FS9 and FSX yet and the seasoned add-on developers will stick with it I reckon. The other sims are still light years behind, no matter how attractive an ‘alternative’ sounds.

    Other sims, ANY other, may be good at one thing or other, or even better than FS, but NONE of them is an ‘aviation sim’. And THAT is what made and makes FS what it is today; a total simulation of the aviation world, not just flying a particular aircraft in a particular area.

    Since FSX will still be for sale in the shops and you can re-activate your copy if needed, there is absolutely no ‘need’ to go look for another sim. That’s just a kneejerk reaction, obviously actively advertised by the ‘competition’ who smell their chance. :-))

  4. “…We will continue to produce, sell, and support the latest version of Flight Simulator as we plan for future versions of the franchise.”

    If that is true then MS is taking advantage of the economical drop in order to rethink its entertainment titles. I don<t think they killed the production of FS or other major titles but they use the present dark times to rethink the product, in a different way, based on their LIVE philosophy… That could be an escape door from all the diffuclties they face producing a heavy sim for a home PC that brings them headaches from users unsatsfied with its performance…

  5. You are right francois, but maybe it’ll be better to have more specialized things for some features MSFS does not have and for example X-plane has.

    I think addon developers will keep the development for some time, but if MSFS does not keep up the competition, there will be better sims and maybe they will catch all the features FS had by the time they closed ACES.

    Just my opinion!

    Greetings!

  6. One of the last lines gives hope.

    We will continue to produce, sell, and support the latest version of Flight Simulator AS WE PLAN FOR FUTURE VERSIONS OF THE FRANCHISE.

  7. Yes Erich, people are chocked by the closure of ACES studio and that makes them think MS will kill a 25 year legendary title just in a recession period…. But tI think t is wiser to think that they use this dark time as an oportunity to rethink the way FS or other MS major PC titles work… COuld be that they think orienting their games toward a Console like XBOX or another one… Could be that they want to flush the present FS 3D engine and rethink it espcialy in the light of DX10…. I think the MS statements are clear, they do not want to speak about future developments and strategy but they throw words here and there… My two cents is that MS uses present time to flush the old way of devloping entertainment titles and to rethink games in terms of new technologu/consoles/etc… That strategy could not have been possible if economy was good thus they could not have flushed a team and a studio in a normal economical time just to change their way of doing things…

  8. Do we really need Microsoft to support our flightsim hobby
    They can not even make a decent and stable operating system

    Here are my thoughts on this subject:
    Time to get some businessman,coding experts and financiers together and together execute a “missed approach” procedure for the current Flightsim team!

    Why do you need Microsoft anyway? Remember – a long time ago – Flightsim was from a free, standalone company (Bruce Artwick) and was then swallowed, eaten by Micro$oft.

    Be glad that the MS-interference is gone now, and
    – go ahead and plot a new [heading]
    – take of to an new [altitude]
    – switch [off] the MS autopilot in your minds
    – let your [creativity] flower, bloom, explode into a new version of our beloved flightsim

    Or – (advocate of the devil thoughts)
    Turn the msfs sourcecode to the community, public domain and let them help, assist the current team to develop the next generation “Flightsim XI – The community version”. It works very well for FlightGear, Linux, Open Office, Blender, The Gimp, so why should it not work for (MS) FS-XI???

    Every end has a new beginning in it!
    And you fly better when the wind underneath your wings is your own and laminair and not someone elses turbulence 😉

    I think there is enough enthousiasm, skills, fun and guts in the flightsim industry to let MSFS crash and burn like this. After all it is also big business, and a good investment. Flightsim enthousiasm is credit crisis proof, so why wait?

    So…Who is following up on this idea..? and steps into Microsofts place, and proceed with this flightsim as filed?

  9. I think they should at least release a tool to remove the requirement for activation!!!!!

    This way people would not be linked to MS everytime they need to reinstall…. and it’ll allow users to reinstall it as many time as they want …for HOW LONG they want to…..

    FSX will be a great sims even 5 years from now… idon’t want MS to be able to …not reactivate my FSX only cause the started a new Flight Simulator and they want EVERYONE to adopt it…………(XP to Vista comes to mind..)

    Just my 2 cents

  10. Not ALL the news is bad.
    In my talks with developers concerning the decision from MS, I’m picking up a fairly positive feeling directed toward the future.
    As far as I can ascertain, many devs have been in limbo with research and resource allocation due to the late coming stabilization of FSX and the unknowns involved concerning expected basic engine changes in the next version of the franchise. These expected changes in the next release could have resulted in complete re-working of existing products had these changes become reality.
    Many developers I have talked to are actually breathing a sigh of relief at this latest development from MS. It insures basic stabilization for the FSX engine at least for the time being, and as such, allows developers freedom to concentrate on FSX products without fear of having to rework these products for the next version.
    My personal feeling is that all things considered, once things settle down and the private sector begins to take hold of FS, the program will not only continue onward, but will eventually be better than it is now.
    Dudley Henriques
    International Fighter Pilots Fellowship

  11. I think Michel K. hit it on the nose here. If you have a group of people that were performing badly and fired them, under normal circumstances they are required to give the parting party a substantial package. If there are laws in the USA like Canada, then when you lay-off a large group due to depressed sales, a year of losses, or the closing of a division, then you can get away without having to pay out packages in full, thus saving money. I think MS is just cleaning shop in the most cost efficient way they can and will come back with a fresh team in a year or so. I’m not just talking about the Aces division here, I’m also talking about the inclusion of other divisions that were thrown into the lump. Perhaps including the DX10 team. Let’s face it, FSX, although being a graphically nice sim, was probably MS’s worst sim ever when it came to performance. That’s why so many of us (around 60% according to a recent poll at Simflight) still use FS9 2 years after the introduction of FSX.

  12. I take it you weren’t around for FS2000, Andrew? 😉

    FSX and FS2000 actually have a lot in common. They were both the results of misjudgement about what would happen with hardware and they were both significant platform changes away from previous versions. Neither sold well, yet when people actually used both, they realised that actually, they were better than their predecessor. Yet many refused to use them and stuck with the previous version – FS98 for FS2000 and FS9 for FSX.

    I can see why, although I strongly disagree with it, MS would want to move FS onto an online secured and fixed hardware environment. Their accountancy department very much would.

    FS right now is far from dead, though. Both FS9 and FSX have got plenty of life left in them yet, so talking about the series being “dead” and threatening to switch over to one or another even less well supported platform is a bit premature, don’t you think?

  13. Ian P… I stand corrected. I forgot about FS2000, maybe that’s how bad it was. 🙂

    I don’t think they will switch to a different platform. Just hire a new team to develop for the PC. Don’t get me wrong, the wonderful Aces team brought us FS2004, which is my personal favourite. Something happened to FSX though, that made it so close to being a monumental sim, but fell just short. Maybe it was DX10 that fell short and not FSX itself. I’ll use FSX more as my hardware, which is already top notch, is upgraded.

    I’ll second Ian P’s (and others) and agree that FS is from over, despite Austin Meyer’s dream. There’s just too many people in the MSFS community to let it drop in a year. I think that two years from now we will all be drooling over screenshots of a new version of FS from a new team at MS… for the PC. It won’t look much different than FSX, but the performance will be amazing.

  14. By most accounts that I’ve heard and read, Windows7 and FSX are already showing major improvements (not that it’s hard!) over Vista and FSX.

    I haven’t tried it yet to know, personally, but it sounds like someone has a lot of work to do before the next OS becomes the disaster that new MS OS releases normally are. 😉

  16. What surprises me is the complete myopia of the MS FS community. 10 years from now we’ll still be happily running FS9 or FSX. Yeah, right! As if technology will come to a complete standstill. FSX was written for yesterday’s technology. ACES were hard at work (or should have been) to develop a new platform for tomorrow’s hardware and OS’s. Both FS9 en FSX have merely scratched the surface of what will be possible in simulation (flight or other) 10 years from now. One thing is certain: 10 years from now the FS9/X afficionados will still be drooling over … better cartoons.

  17. None so blind as MS bashers, eh ? 😉

    10 years, sure…. the next 3-4 years? Total BS…. FS9 and FSX will be here for many to use, and it will be better than today 🙂

    But you mentioned the operative word: ‘community’. A large part of this hobby is about just that, and NOT about the latest and greatest graphics card or 16-core processor tweaking out another 3 fps….

    And if we want cartoons, we’ll take any of the ‘competing’ civil flight sims that exist today *grin*.

  18. Yes francois, 2 to 3 years at the very least, I grant you that.
    And yes, as far as eye-candy is concerned, the competition at present is … well, pathetic. I grant you that too.
    And yes, the community is a very important aspect of our hobby too. Our agreement is becoming embarassing 😉

    But I really wasn’t talking about 2 or 3 frames more (heck, who cares about that). My point is: someday in the not so very far future we’ll have possibilities we can’t even dream of today; and the way things are now, it won’t be MS FS realizing their dreams. And that makes me very sad, because I really am a FS fan from the dark beginnings (subLogic days even).

    But OK, maybe you’re right. Let’s be content what we have today, and see what happens next.

  19. 🙂

    I am pretty sure that developments will not stop here and something new will evolve ultimately. But it is up to us, the communities together, to keep the torch burning and maintain enough interest in general for civil aviation sims. Without that, and without the MS advertising all over the world, that could be the main danger of limping behind in future.

  20. There’s always the possibility that one of the existing competitors or a new sim will have left FSX absolutely standing in 5 years time, but let’s not forget that FS9 was released in 2003 and is a tad over five years old already, but many people are still perfectly happy with it.

    A number of people have recently revisited X-Plane for a variety of reasons and have compared the overall ground textures and detail to being equivalent to FS8 or 9, so that still has a long way to go as well.

    I’m not a fan of X-Plane for personal reasons, but I do hope that as a part of what’s happened, third party developers will pay more attention to the platform and help/force the developer to catch up and directly compete against the MSFS series. That’s one good thing that can come out of this.

  21. Well then, I guess it comes down to whether the glass is half-empty or half full.
    But I do doubt the MS sincerity to plan for anything when they’ve got nobody to do the `planning`. Wasn’t that what ACES were doing with `FS Next` when it was suddenly seen as no longer necessary and a burden on the bean counters bonusses? I can’t quite get my head around how firing the entire team prepares the way for the future of the franchise…

    On the other hand, I can see how, in filling the void, a potential may have been created. MS ACES stifled alternative flight simulation product by their mere existence, if not through thought, word or deed.

    And it would be `ironic` if, with ACES departure, ESP falls by the wayside and in so doing creates the gap for a whole new engine to be developed for the genre.

  22. Well lets see how far we have come, time for me to get out my old Sublogic posters, software and take another look. Yeah we’ve come a long way. Opps forgot my old MAXX yoke with the gameport connection, and the serial Force Feedback stick. Lets take a breather and wait and see what comes down the pipeline. All I can say it was a blast in Seattle last year, the only regret I had is not going on that seaplane ride with Bill, Arno, Holgar, and the rest. But some of us still went to Boeing. A good time was had by all with ACES.

  23. Opps I have some old Mallard posters too! Yeah the days of FS Pilot Shop and the rest of the paychecks going towards addons.

  24. I don’t quite hit Sublogic days – my entry into the MSFS world was FS4 and, shortly after, Compuserve’s FSForum and FS5, then 5.1CD when it was released. Gemini UK scenery on FS4 with its totally skewed co-ordinates system and my amazement that Halfpenny Green was in it, with a C152 parked outside BATS and the logo on the building… which was white, rather than a wireframe. It was a lot different to the flight sims I’d flown prior to that.

    You compare FS4 to FSX now and look how far we’ve come. FSFS brought about the biggest change – all of a sudden you could relatively easily build add-ons and put them into the sim. Then we had replacement panels and more scenery. FS2000 brought us terrain mesh, rather than triangular mountains, and boy did people complain about it (although to be fair, the mesh was pretty poor resolution).

    Microprose have been and gone, Fly! is in the history books (although Fly!II is still sitting on my shelf, bugs and all), so is Flight Unlimited (FU2 is in the FU3 box on my shelf again…)

    How many here remember Sierra Pro Pilot?

  25. “How many here remember Sierra Pro Pilot?”

    Hey, I do 🙂 If my memory serves me right, Pro Pilot 2000 was axed by the beancounters days before its release. I vaguely recall the original version had some serious issues. I still have a copy around here somewhere, but I never used it much. The manuals were great though.

  26. Yep have it here too, yeah JC I believe you are correct on the axing, and we also had Fly, and Fly II. Yeah day after I got Sierra Pro Pilot 2000, I got wiped out by Hurricane Dennis, remember it well. Yeah the old days of downloading from CompuServe with discounted rates for massive phone bills. True sim dedication.

  27. Since you’re talking ‘history’ – which is what a lot of this is all about really – how’s about reminding you of the FS History site of my friend Jos Grupping: http://fshistory.simflight.com/

    I think ‘Solo Flight’ was my first ‘graphical’ sim, apart from the Artwick series.

  28. Francois I think I still have Solo Flight too, was it Micropose?
    There goes some more brain cells of mine.

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