OT: Microsoft Flight Development Stops and Project Columbia Cancelled

[Von Paulus 8]

They should have developed instead Microsoft Flight Simulator XI, and not this... free to play thing:

http://uk.ign.com/articles/2012/07/26/microsoft-flight-and-project-columbia-cancelled

[+SkateZilla 49]

Prepar3d

[Flyby PC 23]

That is stunning Skatezilla. I'm lost for words.

 

My only grumble, (which I'm fully aware isn't appropriate criticism for a thoroughly excellent development) is I'm not a real pilot, and I like my combat simulation. What I want is that level of realism and depth in a combat sim situation, ideally WW1 or WW2 with manual sights and targetting.

[markl 1]

It does not suprise me that Microsoft Flight is being cancelled, a very poor offering after Flight Simulator.

 

But I do feel for any staff being retrenched, as it very hard to keep a good job these days. I wish them all well.

 

Regards.

[RogerSmith 72]

It would have been better if they worked on a Modern Jet Combat Flight Semi-Simulator (similar to early Ace Combat titles or HAWX)

 

A Non-combat Flight Semi-simulator just sounds boring for console gamers and laughable for Sim guys

[HumanDrone 4]

If it were me, I dunno, I'd have gone for an "all in one" simulator similar yo FSX, but with possibilities for combat, etc. Maybe that's asking too much, but there have been psuedo-combat offerings for FSX. If you look at what our heroes here have done with CFS3 to make it into a WWI simulator, it seems to me that, if you developed a simulator that could "do it all", i.e. you could plug ant scenery and any aircraft into it that does anything an aircraft does, then you'd have something. Maybe not something that'd be a commercial success, but something!

 

On the other hand, it could lead to distasteful things like re-enacting the 9/11 strikes, but if you're that much of a scumbag, you'll find a way to get your sick jollies some other way.

 

It's too bad. As good as CFS3 and FSX have been made to be, I can hardly imagine what they could do with current hardware speed, tons of RAM, 64 bit code, etc... I like flying around Pittsburgh in FSX, and with the add-on terrain mesh and scenery, I can even show you where my house should be!

 

As with others, I hope the employees affected can find good work.

[+Lothar of the Hill People 6]

Sad, but inevitable. Casual gamers aren't going to pay hundreds of dollars to download additional planes and scenery like simmers who take their hobby seriously. Yet they basically told simmers to piss off, not just with the lack of realism and sim features but also with a closed ecosystem that cut out the giant commercial and freeware FSX mod community. How they ever expected to make any money on Flight with that business model confuses me.

 

Anyone try X-Plane 10? It'd be cool to try a wing-warping Eindecker with their “blade element theory” flight model.

[NS13Jarhead 6]

Can't say that I'm surprised. LIke I mentioned when this first came out: "Where are the machine guns? Why bother flying if you can't shoot someting down?"

[HumanDrone 4]

Sad, but inevitable. Casual gamers aren't going to pay hundreds of dollars to download additional planes and scenery like simmers who take their hobby seriously. Yet they basically told simmers to piss off, not just with the lack of realism and sim features but also with a closed ecosystem that cut out the giant commercial and freeware FSX mod community. How they ever expected to make any money on Flight with that business model confuses me.

 

Anyone try X-Plane 10? It'd be cool to try a wing-warping Eindecker with their “blade element theory” flight model.

 

You know, that's just it. There are somethings you do in a company knowing it will never be a big money maker, if at all, but just because you can, because it is a part of who you are as a company. And yes, everything changes, but still, in light of the long history of the franchise, in light of it being more like a research effort on 'just how real we can make this?'; how fast can we get information to from the inputs to the screen; the technologies and raw innovation involved in getting your code right out to the edge, efficiency-wise, should spread to other parts of the programming operation.

 

I think when you have an operation like this in a company, it is a good thing. It's a whole lot more fun and motivating to optimize code when you're trying to make an airplane flight look realistic than when you're trying to optimize Excel so some accountant can see his figures faster, but at the core you're doing the same thing - and it gives your company a reputation, an image. It's just sad, and firmly marginalizes Micro$oft in my mind as being just that: a utility programming company that's all about their bottom line. They had a good community, and they dumped it. So yeah, maybe eventually it's X-Plane...