How Many Flight-Simmers World Wide?

fxsttcb said:
O

FlightSim.Com Statistics...Members; 520,706...Active Members; 117,642
Currently 1986 users online, 711 members and 1275 guests
Click to expand...

That is a lot! I didn't know flightsim was so much bigger than avsim. I am registered with both but mainly use avsim as I find it is more comfortable for forums and files.

Of course I hang out here most of the time anyway:jump:
Sascha
 
Unfortunately from experience I know that all these web statistics are terribly skewed..... I know we did a 'cleaning' once at one of these web forums mentioned above and we had some 6000 real active members left..... from the 114.000 odd listed. You would be surprised how much dead wood is in all these stats... not to mention the fact that most don't even count correctly. DAMHIK. :isadizzy:
 
The better question may be is What Is The Average Age Of a Flight Simmer?...Is there any indication the young are getting into Simming? ..Flight Simming that is...most of us have been around from the beginning...That makes most Old Geezeers...Those who gave us Flight Simming have now abandoned us. After the Golden Age of FS9, and Attempt at FSX, then nothing more is or has happened....While SOH seems to be the place to be,other sites are not fairing well. Hard core Simmers will be around .However ,its the young people that it needs to continue..That Catatalyst is always New Products,New Sims,More Creativity. Microsoft today does not promise anything.NVIDA? totally dedicated to the "GAME world. I always have my kids,grand kids,and Yea Great grand kids "PLAY" with my sim...They look it,but their attention factor is fleeting..To new Popular Games ...Always New popular Games.
My generation dreamed of Flying..There was not a Kid who did not Get his Moms Broom handle,an uncles old flying helmet and goggles,on his dads swiviel chair, and FLY,in the magic of a Kids Brain..Making God Awful Sounds trying to imitate a Radiel Engine....Then A Miracle Happened..desk Top Flight..For many? It was the Greatest Thing Ever...To more many?..A I Seen that, been There, Show me more.And that Market is growing.......Simming will always be appealing,However it needs Greater interest,more inovative technolgy, that will bring the other generation into its folds.
 
fxsttcb said:
Too bad we don't know what the actual production numbers were...Don
Click to expand...
Maximum value can be estimated, though. If FSX confirmed sales for 2007, first full year, were 280000 copies. Add those copies sold in 2006, most likely 100k or little more, and if we assume that FSX would somehow keep 2007 sales figures throughout the following years, we would arrive to the total around 2,1 million. It is quite unlikely that FSX would sell with 2007 figures during all the time, so total is most likely significantly less than two million and thus 1 million copies sounds quite reasonable.

And taking second print doesn't tell anything else about the sales figures than that MS took cautiously how many copies they were going to sell. Also remember, at the time of the release of the FSX, they were most likely still planning FS11 some years later and first print was most likely planned according to that. In 2010 when second print came out Aces was closed, the future of FS franchise was clear and Flight would take still some time arrive. All this continued the shelf life of FSX considerably from the planned and as print out is quite small investment compared to dev costs and there was still demand, so why not? Second print is not a guarantee of impressive sales figures, only that MS didn't have any alternatives or FSX successor to offer.

To me shutting down Aces and whole MS FS franchise can't be related to anything else than money, although someone at MS claims otherwise. MS is a corporation which main purpose is to be profitable and make owners more wealthier. If FSX or future versions of the series would be a goose laying golden eggs for MS, why on earth would they kill it? Answer is really simple if you just look at the Halo sales figures I posted: 8.5 million copies in 10 months vs 1-2 million copies in 7 years and latter option most likely more expensive to develop. As a simmer I'd like to say otherwise, but from purely business stand point of view, in a large corporation whose business relies on volumes, it would be quite foolish to put resources in the latter option. Smaller dedicated dev teams, which can make enough money for themselves from the niche market, are better suited for that. In that sense, there really is not enough demand for MS to stay in this business. There is still enough for small studios like 777, Laminar and Eagle Dynamics to make a living. If there would ne big demand, we would have sims popping out like FPS games and topping the charts. Nothing prohibits game studios from developing sims, but the truth is that it is all about rules of free market: demand and supply, and other game type alternatives have far better chances to be more profitable that is, there is better demand.
 
Ain't gonna happen. Simming will die with our generations....... the new generations have other things that interest them... and a total different culture. No patience, no time, no scarcity (that may change), no fantasy, no attractions to 'things-out of-reach' ..... there aren't many. Hopefully they'll shift their focus and talents towards 'saving the world'.... or moving into the universe... and stop 'just consuming'. :icon29:
 
Over at A2A, The still un-released C-172 is getting the backing from corporate sponsors.
Looks like the A2A C-172 is going to be an actual training aid in flight schools.
This may be a way of keeping flight-simming going. It may change some people's idea that it is only a video game.
 
Francois said:
Ain't gonna happen. Simming will die with our generations....... the new generations have other things that interest them... and a total different culture. No patience, no time, no scarcity (that may change), no fantasy, no attractions to 'things-out of-reach' ..... there aren't many. Hopefully they'll shift their focus and talents towards 'saving the world'.... or moving into the universe... and stop 'just consuming'. :icon29:
Click to expand...

Something like this has been probably said by older generations throughout the history:mixedsmi:. There is no denying, hardcore sim doesn't seem to interest young people perhaps the way it was 10 or 20 years ago. This has nothing to with "is it good or bad thing" question, as it really isn't about that, just that things and people's interests have changed throughout the history and they will do so in the future.

I still believe this world produces enough people that have interest in flight, that we will have few studios working on the sims, like it is now. That is why I tend to buy sims when they come out in many cases just to show support. I hardly ever launch XP10, but I have no regrets buying it.
 
Most Sadly Francois I agree.. The new Simming is the life of voyeurism...What with Facebook,Texting,and all the other means..Its for many far more entertaining,and less expensive Quick,Fleeting,..These people simulate a life they will never pursue. At Local Airports The FBOs do not have the young wanting to fly,or more importantly who can afford it...Often its Old Rich guys with their new toys...Like sharing My Sim with kids,I always would offer a Kid who hanging on The Airport fence a ride..No such Programs Exist with Microsoft now. One was tried in all fairness,"FLIGHT" Free Flight Simming..A Great Sim..However that was effectively SHOT DOWN.By Simmers themselves!..A great Loss I felt to the kid who may have,could have , been drawn into our world...Too Bad!..
 
TheGrunt said:
Something like this has been probably said by older generations throughout the history:mixedsmi:. There is no denying, hardcore sim doesn't seem to interest young people perhaps the way it was 10 or 20 years ago. This has nothing to with "is it good or bad thing" question, as it really isn't about that, just that things and people's interests have changed throughout the history and they will do so in the future.

I still believe this world produces enough people that have interest in flight, that we will have few studios working on the sims, like it is now. That is why I tend to buy sims when they come out in many cases just to show support. I hardly ever launch XP10, but I have no regrets buying it.
Click to expand...

"bored with flight" is what I see...I remember the push to land a man on the moon...and how excited everyone in the world was to witness that...and after 8 or 9 missions thereafter, interest went away - people were bored already..
same with the STS missions, people got bored with it all

We - I assume most of us, (not all of us but generally) grew up in the early years of general aviation, My first few cross country flights were on propeller driven airliners..DC4's - I was very young, but the hum of those props and the sunlight glinting off those wings above the clouds...knowing how cold it was out there, just on the other side of the window - left a long lasting impression on me.

but we have had powered flight and general as well as commercial aviation for a long time now, with very little change...most of the people under 30 now have seen almost zero difference in the way people move about for their entire lives...boring.
they did not grow up admiring the exploits of the AVG, or the RAF, or the Luftwaffe, or the pilots of the Great Patriotic War...they watched the Gulf Wars with indifference mostly...compared to what those of us a generation or two older than they are, felt.

Aviation, as a career, seems to have lost its appeal. Imagine that - a whole generation of people who think of aviation as "no big deal" - a tribute to the pioneers who desperately wanted this day to come, who fought to make commercial flying a part of everyone's life...

the last airshow I went to I spent a couple of days there and took many photos...I was struck by all the white haired fellers in all the crowd shots, a few kids, mostly grand kids unless the average parenting age has crept above the social security line...and a very few 20-30yo's.

We're like the old warbirds...I wonder which will be gone first...the last flyable war bird? or the last real enthusiast....something tells me we will go out together
Why take the pains and expense to restore them to flight worthiness if no one cares to see them fly?

same with flight simulators - why take the time and expense to develop them for future generations?
I support them in the hope that interest will cycle back around to flying...but why would it?
and how much longer will PC's be in development for consumers when the consumer push is toward tablets and consoles ?

lets face it - it would be a monumental shock to all of us to see a generation come along that shares our enthusiasm for the exploits of the great flyers and flying machines from the first century of flight.
seriously - reality check
the most you can hope for is what we already see happening...War Thunder and the like....video games with the likenesses of some familiar planes - those historically significant machines, people and conflicts serving as caricatures, a backdrop for online, pay to play mindlessness on your smartphone or tablet.
 
TheGrunt said:
Something like this has been probably said by older generations throughout the history:mixedsmi:. .
Click to expand...

Yup, and -look at the left - I am one of those 'older generations'. I also have over 35+ years of experience and presence in this flightsimming hobby and its communities. I programmed one of the very first attempts at a sim on a mainframe when I was, oh, 24 or so... bitten by the aviation bug back in 1957.

I will not deny there are still 'younger' people interested in flying, and even in flightsimming. But I have seen the change over all these years. And we're not ALONE! Look at the programs AOPA is desperately launching, trying to interest younger generations in REAL flying. Even THAT is a problem, and that in the most flying-friendly country in the world! It means that if there isn't even enough interest in real flying anymore, there certainly aren't many youngsters hanging off the fence of a local airport and turning to flightsimming as the only affordable, or allowed, alternative.

Having said that...... the FACT is that most fligtsimmers always were 'older' people already. Those that could not afford the real flying for various reasons; money, physical capability, opportunity, laws..... you name it. No, let me rephrase that; most flightsimmers used to be technically focused non-pilots with some money or resources to build their own PC's.

What has changed through these 35 or so years is that the programs got more realistic, attracting more people for OTHER reasons than just flying. Computers became mainstream providing the means to young 'technical' people to 'hack' into the development of add-ons..... in turn making the sim more attractive to 'collectors'.

And today we see that the NEW entrants to the hobby are old men (my age and beyond) who get retired and FINALLY have the TIME (and the money) to try FSX, something they always were interested in already.......

From a commercial perspective there is only ONE reason to still continue, and that is the knowledge that all those babyboomers now retiring are still of the gebneration that DID hang off an airfield fence at one time in their lives and may still be interested to try it out now...... The fact that MS is no longer with us and supporting is not a big a deal as it may have seemed a few years ago. The young generations will not be interested that much anyway, MS or not, FS11 or not.

Unless we manage to import a reality show with bad language into FSX, maybe....... :icon_lol:
 
beana51 said:
No such Programs Exist with Microsoft now. One was tried in all fairness,"FLIGHT" Free Flight Simming..A Great Sim..However that was effectively SHOT DOWN.By Simmers themselves!..A great Loss I felt to the kid who may have,could have , been drawn into our world...Too Bad!..
Click to expand...

this is the best, most accurate statement about MS Flight, and us - that I have seen.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top