Microsoft Flight Simulator Announced 2019

There are indeed a couple of HOTAS combos for the Xbox One: Amazon's listing

Be fun to fly this on both my PC sim setup and on my 65' TV on the Xbox! (I wouldn't buy any joysticks until more details are available, of course, but good to know they exist.)
 
:) :) :) At last!

For myself, while enhanced aircraft graphics are great, I'd like to see really good weather, aerodynamics, on board systems and engine performance, up-to-date navaids and real geography - the stuff related to flight. And from the preview it seems as if the geography and graphics are taken care of. Can't wait to see what it's like.
 
Its hard for me to imagine M$ would create this new platform without having some sort of online 'store', steam and the iPhones app store are quite successful, and can be valuable if done right. As long as they have a way for freeware without too many hurdles it could be useful. In our current environment, either you get a zip file with all the files you have to install manually, which is off putting if your not experienced at it, or you get an exe installer from someone you don't know well which if you know what your doing, should make you very nervous.
 
000rick000 said:
The "Prophets of Doom" didn't take down FSW, their own ignorance did. They ignored the entire community and pressed ahead with an agenda that was exclusive and decisive and then they wanted us to pay for "content" that would have been freeware elseware. Unfortunate as it was, their own lack of market research did them in. They pretended to understand the audience and went ahead saying one thing and pushing another. People voted with their wallets. The "Prophets of Doom" we're just level headed individuals who pointed out a cause and effect relationship with what might happen given certain decisions.
Click to expand...

Going off-topic for a short rant! Did you actually try FSW? I did and it was surprisingly good for the early stage of development it had reached. However, it was doomed even before it was released by well-known YouTubers and posts in forums saying how it was bound to be rubbish and then much later grudgingly admitting that it was actually quite good (by those who actually bothered to try it). By then the damage was done. Every good sim is fundamentally just a base to add content to and FSW was no different in that respect. No one will ever know if the promised public release of the SDK would have generated freeware because it wasn't allowed to get that far. None of the add-on aircraft that were available for it were produced by DTG, they were from other developers who saw potential in the sim, so people were hardly being held to ransom by the developers. DTG interacted much more with their customer base than any of the other sim manufacturers and they were starting to introduce some real innovations before it was cancelled (trueSKY, for example).

Unlike DTG, Microsoft are big enough to ride out any speculative bad press but it's already interesting to see how many rumours (based on zero facts) are already flying around the forums: it will be cloud-based, just eye candy with no study sim aircraft, a subscription-only service, good scenery only in very small areas, no 3rd party add-ons, it's going to eventually be for XBox as well so can't possibly be a "real" sim... I could go on but I won't. Some of them may actually prove to be true but nobody outside of Microsoft actually knows for sure. I just don't understand why people can't see it as potentially what we've all been waiting for since FSX was released. Are we really all that jaded?
 
mike_cyul said:
:) :) :) At last!

For myself, while enhanced aircraft graphics are great, I'd like to see really good weather, aerodynamics, on board systems and engine performance, up-to-date navaids and real geography - the stuff related to flight. And from the preview it seems as if the geography and graphics are taken care of. Can't wait to see what it's like.
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So we can expect a ported Halifax/Halton package ? ;)
 
A bit more info from the Microsoft E3 press release:


  • "MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR" (XBOX ONE AND WINDOWS 10 PC). The next generation of our longest-running franchise, "Microsoft Flight Simulator," is coming to Windows 10 with Xbox Game Pass in 2020, and coming to Xbox One at a later date. "Microsoft Flight Simulator" is specifically designed to celebrate flight simulation fans through a focus on the authenticity of flying and visually stunning environments. By revamping our tech, working in close collaboration with the community and pursuing the best partnerships across the industry, we intend to deliver the best-in-class flight simulation experience.
 
Ferry_vO said:
Don't count on backwards compatibility with add-ons, as they have most likely moved to a brand new engine to run the sim on.
And they sold the FsX rights to Dovetail games.
Click to expand...

Firstly, yes, they will be using a new engine, and, as far as backward compatibility goes, keep your old addons for the sims that they were designed for... Can you imagine the future questions asking if updates of your addons are going to be free, statements like.. 'I'm not getting the new sim because my older addons won't work' and so forth..

Obviously, as DTG has the rights to FSX, and Lockheed Martin has ESP, the pro commercial version of FSX, it seem obvious that the sim will not be compatible to the current offerings of addons.

So, the search for the Holy Grail continues, and we have a year, or so, of comments and speculation, we will, as usual at times like this, read comments like.. I won't get it if it does not run on my Windows XP, if there's no FSUIPC for it, if I cannot use my addons that I've spent so much money on, the list will go on..

So, with a minute or two of a video, the 'experts' are out in full force..
 
Hope they don't make a hash of it this time if it is to be for Xbox as well as the one true faith.
'Great Graphics' will be welcome provided they run on a reasonable spec PC and not just on a Cray, but I wouldn't bet the Farm on it.

:devilish:
 
tommieboy said:
Exciting news indeed!

Monthly or Yearly subscription rates? :playful:
Click to expand...

Monthly: [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/xbox-game-pass-pc-games/cfq7ttc0kgq8

$4.99 or €4, with an offer for $1 now, and 20% off if you buy a game, and 10% off DLC.

Not sure if FSXI will be available to purchase right away, it could be an 'exclusive' title for the Xbox pass for some time. [/FONT]
 
Well I am a hard bitten cynic when it comes to Microsoft and had a good think about this one. I agree with Bazaar on the technical issues and presentation vids.

Given Microsoft's past form my conclusion is that this is a X-Box sales gimmick in the same way that Flight Simulator originally was for PC's, helped sell a lot of PC's, but developed a life of its own. MS really need something to shift the market for games in their direction thats all, they figure this will help.

The trouble is the early Flight Sim developers were actually interested in creating a flight simulator (and solved a whole bunch of other computing problems on the way which MS wanted not the sim) so I am convinced this is for the gamers and will be a license buy to add into X-Box. IF your using X-Box then you have a whole bunch of computer coding issues not to mention the blue-ray portal as well to even get there and MS is not going to drop this into any collaborative specialised community (also known as the flight simulator community) no matter what, they will control this from go to whoa. The lesson they (MS) learnt from the earlier attempt, Flight, was a stand alone will not fly sales ( in large corp speak - insufficient volume) wise due to lack of take up and overhead and quite simply they needed the huge amount of work done by the sim community to make it palatable and in the end wanted to give nothing back for getting it. You might get it with Windows 10 but you won't be able to do much but play with it, a fancy version of solitaire in my opinion. I am may be wrong but nothing I have learned about MS over the years has changed that view, they always go to market early, rely on the corporate license base to make money and then spend the next 5 years fixing the crap and then start all over again when the next generation of processor hits the market. Why because sitting in the wings is the big Alphabet and they already have a sim that uses Google Earth so how you going to compete against that if they get serious. Nah just Corporate fairy floss!!
 
Ok, so, after a bit of sleuthing, & registering on Xbox insider, the new sim will be available from Xbox Games Pass!


(https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/06/09/xbox-e3-2019-briefing-recap/)
Microsoft Flight Simulator (Xbox One And Windows 10 PC)
The next generation of our longest-running franchise, Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to Windows 10 with Xbox Game Pass in 2020, and coming to Xbox One at a later date. Microsoft Flight Simulator is specifically designed to celebrate flight simulation fans through a focus on the authenticity of flying and visually stunning environments. By revamping our tech, working in close collaboration with the community and pursuing the best partnerships across the industry, we intend to deliver the best-in-class flight simulation experience.

https://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-game-pass/pc-games

with a monthly fee, apart from any cost of game.
 
It's so easy to get into the speculation game when we see something as exciting as this suddenly drop out of nowhere. Despite what I think is a world-wide mistrust of the motivations of companies like Microsoft, I'd like to think that if they didn't think there was a worldwide demand for a modern flight simulator that could generate revenue for them, they wouldn't bother building one. How they choose to generate that revenue is, of course, what worries us all. Still, for the time being we can only hope that they have learned from previous fiascos like Flight and the more recent collapse of FSW and will produce a title that meets the demands and desires of all users. My personal wish-list would be as follows;1) Allowance for third-party development, both freeware and payware, with an SDK. Without that, no matter how pretty the sim looks, the community simply won't be there to back the sim and MS can't build everything itself. Freeware leads to payware, and the enthusiasm of developers, and consumers for their products as they're released, is what kept the whole community alive in those years when there looked to be no new sims on the horizon.2) The ability to use the sim when the Internet throws a wobbly. If the terrain is streamed, this won't be possible, obviously, but I remain hopeful. There's nothing worse than not being able to play something you've paid for just because some server half-way round the world has gone kaput.3) The ability to buy the sim outright, and not be tied into a subscription service that contains small print also tying your family into Microsoft for the next billionty years.4) SDK routines to convert existing models and scenery into whatever wondrous new format the new sim uses. Outright compatibility won't work out of the box, doubtless, and if the coding is different then of course gauges and other devices will also be broken. But these things can be fixed, provided there is at least a will and a workflow available to try to do so.Beyond that, I'm just glad that there's another sim on the way. P3D is fabulous, but it was high time a next-generation sim entered the field. Let's hope that MS can provide something that, as much as possible, keeps PC sim enthusiasts and console gamers happy.
 
vortex said:
Going off-topic for a short rant! Did you actually try FSW? I did and it was surprisingly good for the early stage of development it had reached. However, it was doomed even before it was released by well-known YouTubers and posts in forums saying how it was bound to be rubbish and then much later grudgingly admitting that it was actually quite good (by those who actually bothered to try it). By then the damage was done. Every good sim is fundamentally just a base to add content to and FSW was no different in that respect. No one will ever know if the promised public release of the SDK would have generated freeware because it wasn't allowed to get that far. None of the add-on aircraft that were available for it were produced by DTG, they were from other developers who saw potential in the sim, so people were hardly being held to ransom by the developers. DTG interacted much more with their customer base than any of the other sim manufacturers and they were starting to introduce some real innovations before it was cancelled (trueSKY, for example).

Unlike DTG, Microsoft are big enough to ride out any speculative bad press but it's already interesting to see how many rumours (based on zero facts) are already flying around the forums: it will be cloud-based, just eye candy with no study sim aircraft, a subscription-only service, good scenery only in very small areas, no 3rd party add-ons, it's going to eventually be for XBox as well so can't possibly be a "real" sim... I could go on but I won't. Some of them may actually prove to be true but nobody outside of Microsoft actually knows for sure. I just don't understand why people can't see it as potentially what we've all been waiting for since FSX was released. Are we really all that jaded?
Click to expand...

Nope I never did do the FSW thing. Fully invested in P3D. I had no desire to support DTG which was IMO a leech on the community brain trust.
 
Do we really know what killed DTG FSW? People keep talking about their "mistakes" in how they were going to charge for it and getting vilified in the community.... Despite what many people think, if they were going to make money, their market better have been much larger than the forum based flightsim community. Perhaps they got word that MS was developing this new version and decided their piece of the pie would end up too small with the release of the new version, not to mention their likely underestimating how much it would cost to develop the product. Also, I do believe that the P3D EULA is structured so it wouldn't compete with any future offerings from MS. My bet is that flight simmers are just a small bit of P3D's market. Of course, I could be wrong on all points.
 
VR Support Hopefully?

Well, I am thrilled by the video!

While I agree with much of what is being expressed here, I am also seriously hoping that this platform will fully support Oculus/VIVE technology.

I for one am an avid VR enthusiast who has been waiting for a dedicated VR-supported sim -- supported from the ground up.

So, here's hoping..

KB
 
Little more info...

The result is something that, judging by the trailer, looks impossibly vast and real. Spencer says that 2 petabytes of geographical data is used to seamlessly stitch together Earth.
The trailer rushes past cities, swoops down so we can see elephants and giraffes hanging around and then soars the mountains for some truly incredible views.

Spencer warned the team: "You're going to have to put at the bottom that it's in-game, because nobody is going to believe that's in the game."

Microsoft apparently has some pilots on its teams—big surprise—who are fans of the series, and they've been passionate about bringing it back.


https://www.pcgamer.com/microsoft-wants-to-bring-back-flight-simulator-to-show-it-supports-pc/
 
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