Microsoft Retakes Control of FSX

[txnetcop]

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?19626-Microsoft-Retakes-Control-Of-FSX&platform=hootsuite&utm_campaign=HSCampaign&fbclid=IwAR0F8EUuMnc-1UTRWOWhWQ755Ys4sSpUwz-sk0oLLYBK-ULVVfJWkpT-tBI

In 2014 Microsoft entered into an agreement allowing Dovetail Games to bring Flight Simulator X to Steam. Today, we are announcing that we've reached the end of our partnership agreement.
We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Dovetail Games for the partnership they've provided over the past 5 years. Going forward, Microsoft will take over support of Flight Simulator X and we look forward to sharing our next steps with the community in the very near future.
Paul Jackson CEO Dovetail adds a€_We are incredibly proud to have looked after this fantastic flight sim during the last 5 years and we will continue publishing existing and new add-ons for FSX: Steam Edition on Steam.
This change will not impact your game experience or impact existing or future add-ons purchased from Steam.
Microsoft
The return of Microsoft Flight Simulator X is an important step in embracing our accountability and responsibility to those that have come before us. And to those that continue to value and invest in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X experience.
That passion, investment, and appreciation must be recognized and reflected in our commitment to carry the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise into the next generation. We are not building on, but building from, the product and history that is Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
Today, with a bit of bittersweet sentiment, we say a€_Welcome Homea€_ to an old friend.
More on our FSX plans coming soon.
Sincerely,
The Microsoft Flight Simulator Team
www.flightsimulator.com (https://www.flightsimulator.com/)



Categories:
FSX (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/list.php?category/20-FSX&),
HN (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/list.php?category/39-HN&),
2019 (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/list.php?category/50-2019&)


Tags: microsoft (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/tags.php?tag=microsoft), msfs (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/tags.php?tag=msfs)


This could be good news...
Ted

[ejoiner]

"This could be good news..."

emphasis on "could be"...

Honestly, Im pretty happy with P3D at the moment.

[Sundog]

"This could be good news..."

emphasis on "could be"...

Honestly, Im pretty happy with P3D at the moment.

They could also bring P3D back into the MS fold as well. I don't know what the duration of their licensing agreement with LM is, or if it is something that had to be renewed annually. I'm sure we'll find out eventually.

[Jafo]

"This could be good news..."

emphasis on "could be"...

Honestly, Im pretty happy with P3D at the moment.
I think more like 'will be'.

All MS has to do is drag the old dog screaming into the 20th Century [sic] ....;)
Preferably have it handle computer specs beyond a 486....
That'd be nice....;)

[BendyFlyer]

Now expect MS to put the screws on LM re educational or commercial users only, after all that is the contract and one thing MS is good at is enforcing their rights! Bad thing or good thing who knows?

[wombat666]

And I believe in the Tooth Fairy, Father Christmas and the whole nine yards.
Microsoft are not a benevolent organisation...................................... .................:redfire:

[hairyspin]

Honestly, the corporate-speak is like the Chief Warder at San Quentin “welcoming” the latest batch of inmates. “Bittersweet sentiment” indeed!

[dhasdell]

How about MS take FSX back from Steam to prevent any further development, then kill it off to remove a rival and pave the way for their new sim?

My "could be" in this is that it could be good news for X-Plane.

[greenie]

Why am I worried ?......is because I'm completely P3D . Whats going to happen there? Could be a flight to Xplane

[Mach3DS]

"The return of Microsoft Flight Simulator X is an important step in embracing our accountability and responsibility to those that have come before us. And to those that continue to value and invest in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X experience.
That passion, investment, and appreciation must be recognized and reflected in our commitment to carry the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise into the next generation."

Translation: We need to take.back our product in order to put and end to it prior to the release of our Flight simulator reboot. We've learned our lessons from FLIGHT and from DTG. When there is still a viable competitor which offers more for less, we lose. We won't.be making that mistake again. This is an official heads up to those of you in denial. Sincerely your friendly neighborhood M$ team.

[greenie]

FSElite.... Back in 2014, Microsoft entered an agreement with Dovetail Games to bring Flight Simulator X to Steam, but as of today, it was confirmed that the partnership is now coming to an end. The news was shared on the FlightSimulator.com website (formally fsi.microsoftstudios.com) by Microsoft. As part of that statement, Microsoft said “We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Dovetail Games for the partnership they’ve provided over the past 5 years. Going forward, Microsoft will take over support of Flight Simulator X and we look forward to sharing our next steps with the community in the very near future.” Dovetail Games also gave a statement. Paul Jackson, CEO of Dovetail Games, added: “We are incredibly proud to have looked after this fantastic flight sim during the last 5 years and we will continue publishing existing and new add-ons for FSX: Steam Edition on Steam”. It should be noted that this end of the partnership will not change how users will engage with their simulators or impact existing or future add-ons purchased from Steam. Microsoft went onto say that returning Microsoft Flight Simulator X back to them is a step in “accountability and responsibility to those that have come before us”. They continued by saying “that passion, investment, and appreciation must be recognized and reflected in our commitment to carry the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise into the next generation. We are not building on, but building from, the product and history that is Microsoft Flight Simulator X.” Microsoft closed off their statement by concluding “today, with a bit of bittersweet sentiment, we say “Welcome Home” to an old friend. More on our FSX plans coming soon…” Earlier last month, Microsoft said that they would deliver an update on August 8th (which is today), but it wasn’t clear whether this was the aforementioned update or whether there’s more to come. In any case, we’ll be sure to update you with the latest. Back in 2014, Microsoft entered an agreement with Dovetail Games to bring Flight Simulator X to Steam, but as of today, it was confirmed that the partnership is now coming to an end. The news was shared on the FlightSimulator.com website (formally fsi.microsoftstudios.com) by Microsoft. As part of that statement, Microsoft said “We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincere appreciation to Dovetail Games for the partnership they’ve provided over the past 5 years. Going forward, Microsoft will take over support of Flight Simulator X and we look forward to sharing our next steps with the community in the very near future.” Dovetail Games also gave a statement. Paul Jackson, CEO of Dovetail Games, added: “We are incredibly proud to have looked after this fantastic flight sim during the last 5 years and we will continue publishing existing and new add-ons for FSX: Steam Edition on Steam”. It should be noted that this end of the partnership will not change how users will engage with their simulators or impact existing or future add-ons purchased from Steam. Microsoft went onto say that returning Microsoft Flight Simulator X back to them is a step in “accountability and responsibility to those that have come before us”. They continued by saying “that passion, investment, and appreciation must be recognized and reflected in our commitment to carry the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise into the next generation. We are not building on, but building from, the product and history that is Microsoft Flight Simulator X.” Microsoft closed off their statement by concluding “today, with a bit of bittersweet sentiment, we say “Welcome Home” to an old friend. More on our FSX plans coming soon…” Earlier last month, Microsoft said that they would deliver an update on August 8th (which is today), but it wasn’t clear whether this was the aforementioned update or whether there’s more to come. In any case, we’ll be sure to update you with the latest. https://fselite.net/news/microsoft-reaches-end-of-partnership-with-dovetail-games-over-flight-simulator-x/

[Mach3DS]

I'm fairly certain that P3D will be ironclad. You're talking about one of the largest defense contractors on the planet; not some 'other' game dev startup. If they have a roadmap for usage you can bet LM didn't enter their sim development with some flimsy walkback option that would cause.the house of cards to fall at an inopportune time. In fact I believe that LM already answered that question a while back. IIRC what they purchased was the full rights to develop their own sim with ESP as the foundation freely, without any MS involvement and they LM own the rights to whatever they came up with. I think Adam Breed answered that question at one point. But I don't recall where I read it.

[greenie]

Thanks Rick . I think you might be right . Anyway , either way - onwards and upwards for the sim by whomever

[stansdds]

MicroSoft has never been known as a benevolent company, so I do have to question their motives in taking back the license for such old software. Might they do the same to LM? I'm sure the license was not in perpetuity and MS is expected to release their own 64-bit flight sim next year. Is X-Plane suddenly looking like the better alternative to a 64-bit version of FSX? Things that make me go hmmmmm.

[Naruto-kun]

Speaking as a dev, P3D is quite safe. Beats me what the scare mongers have to gain from pushing their claims of LM locking up P3D to us mortals.

The reason LM opened P3D up to us mortals in the first place is because they recognise that the flight sim community is a very valuable untapped resource of research and development.
Adam Breed still shared in an interview at last years FSExpo how amazed he is at what the 3rd party developers have achieved in their attempts to satisfy the end users and how valuable these achievements are in the world of training pilots.
They have gone to great lengths to open up the simulator to the developers and as a result, everyone is winning. Developers sell their products, users buy P3D, research and innovation thrive, training improves. Shutting it down would be foolish.

In fact, if LM wants to stay competitive on the real world training market, closing it off to our input is literally the worst thing they can do and they know it.

[Willy]

Could be good, could be bad, most likely a mixed bag.

As a FSX SE user, I'm curious how it's going to work out. I'd like to see continued support for SE and the default real wx fixed since it quit talking to Jeppersen a while back.

[stansdds]

Speaking as a dev, P3D is quite safe. Beats me what the scare mongers have to gain from pushing their claims of LM locking up P3D to us mortals.

The reason LM opened P3D up to us mortals in the first place is because they recognise that the flight sim community is a very valuable untapped resource of research and development.
Adam Breed still shared in an interview at last years FSExpo how amazed he is at what the 3rd party developers have achieved in their attempts to satisfy the end users and how valuable these achievements are in the world of training pilots.
They have gone to great lengths to open up the simulator to the developers and as a result, everyone is winning. Developers sell their products, users buy P3D, research and innovation thrive, training improves. Shutting it down would be foolish.

In fact, if LM wants to stay competitive on the real world training market, closing it off to our input is literally the worst thing they can do and they know it.

That makes me feel better.

[jymp]

Lockheed has smarter people than Microsoft, your right, shutting it down not gonna happen, they have a version for the classified stuff.

[Naismith]

Now if there only a way of divorcing FSXSE from the necessity to have Steam running at all. I run it in offline mode but Steam still requires to be fired up anyway. There must be someone clever out there. :wavey:

[dvj]

This is most likely a move on Microsoft's part to control the digital rights to FSX with their new version in the works. I would expect P3D to continue under Lockheed's ownership but who really knows what Lockheed's commitment is to it long term? All of these MS based, cross-platform versions seem messy to me. FSX, Steam, P3D must drive developers' crazy.

[edakridge]

Lockheed has smarter people than Microsoft, your right, shutting it down not gonna happen, they have a version for the classified stuff. LM just has more and better lawyers than Micro$haft. LOL

[txnetcop]

And I believe in the Tooth Fairy, Father Christmas and the whole nine yards.
Microsoft are not a benevolent organisation...................................... .................:redfire:
Hey Wombat! I'm trying to be postive here...behave yourself! LOL

[Browncoat]

I look at it this way. The Flight Simulator that Microsoft will be introducing will be for entertainment purposes, while Lockheed will still be free to develop P3D to suit their education, and professional training aims. Currently Lockheed's agreement of use doesn't approve of entertainment. (...not like that stipulation has really stopped anyone from using P3D. But I digress.)

It will be interesting to see what comes.

[Stefano Zibell]

This is most likely a move on Microsoft's part to control the digital rights to FSX with their new version in the works. I would expect P3D to continue under Lockheed's ownership but who really knows what Lockheed's commitment is to it long term? All of these MS based, cross-platform versions seem messy to me. FSX, Steam, P3D must drive developers' crazy.

This. I don't expect anything to change or come out of this, they're probably just protecting the IP.

[dhazelgrove]

I must confess to being a tad more cynical about this.
It's money. Of course M$ are interested.

Dave

[Priller]

This. I don't expect anything to change or come out of this, they're probably just protecting the IP.

Whatever the strategy behind this move (knowing M$ it's just money), we have two new sims to look forward to: the new MSFS and P3Dv5.

I don't use FSX anymore, but I look forward to the new stuff coming up. FSX is a dated 32 bit piece of software.

Just my two € cents worth.

Priller

[LouP]

"M$" hits the nail on the head and we'll be lucky if we have two sims in the future.

LouP

[downwind]

FSX and SE are dated, to be sure, but they represent good quality simming that is much more afforable than the L-M products and can run well on much less expensive systems. More choices in powerful simulator platforms means making serious financial decisions by the consumers. Can all be winners in the long run?

[Priller]

FSX and SE are dated, to be sure, but they represent good quality simming that is much more afforable than the L-M products and can run well on much less expensive systems. More choices in powerful simulator platforms means making serious financial decisions by the consumers. Can all be winners in the long run?

I don't have a top of the bill rig, but I still get to run P3D v4.5 better than FSX ever will.

Oh, and the first FSX I bought was more expensive than the first P3D.

Don't think that a 64 bit flightsim needs more power than a 32 bit one. The contrary is true.

Priller

[gastonj]

[QUOTE=Priller;1193528

Don't think that a 64 bit flightsim needs more power than a 32 bit one. The contrary is true.

Priller[/QUOTE]

Oops! I think the best coded program is the most efficient and requires the least resources.
We can not compare different generation programs, techniques evolve for more efficiency but we can be satisfied with FSX.

JMC

[jeansy]

I don't have a top of the bill rig, but I still get to run P3D v4.5 better than FSX ever will.

Oh, and the first FSX I bought was more expensive than the first P3D.

Priller

Yep when i bought the boxed version of fsx gold back in 2006 it was $99 local dollars compared to the $75 local dollar version of P3D

Historically when microsoft think it normally costs the end user in someway

[Priller]

but we can be satisfied with FSX.

Of course you can, it's a matter of taste really. But for me, FSX was a constant source of frustration. The minimum system requirements were a joke.

When I tried out P3Dv2, I was amazed at how much better it ran, and that was 32 bit! The last versions of P3D are just brilliant. No more OOM's and decent, stable FPS.

Priller

[Naismith]

Yep when i bought the boxed version of fsx gold back in 2006 it was $99 local dollars compared to the $75 local dollar version of P3D

Historically when microsoft think it normally costs the end user in someway

My 2006 FSX was $75 CDN from Best Buy on the day it came out. Then when Gold came out I bought that too from BB for the princely sum of $45 CDN. Then Steam I got that in a sale for $7. Fantastic value for money when you think of it. 13 years of entertainment for less than the price of one night on the town.
I figure nay more releases of it and they will be paying me! :jump:

[downwind]

My FSX experience is a ditto of Naismith's: two day-of-release purchases and then Steam for a bargain price. Never has a computer that was on top of FSX's capabilities until my current one. Certainly won't be making any new platform choices until the choices become much clearer.

[p14u2nv]

Within the last year I built the PC as listed below and thought that finally I had put together a setup that would be more or less bulletproof and extend my simming well into the future. Whether FSX or P3D I was good to go. Now after just a few months I'm not so sure. Will M$ do as they have before and build well beyond present day mid to higher end PC capabilities so as to last a few more years into the future? Someone had recently mentioned in a post about nitrogen cooled CPU's as a requirement. That may be not so far off the mark. Again thoughts about simply wicked overclocked speeds, overclocked dual video cards, thousands of GB's worth of SSD drives and overclocked memory speeds well in excess of any present day obtainable equipment enters my thoughts. I know time will tell...but I am starting to think that once again it may very well be years that I can get back up to speed so to speak.

History may indeed seem to be repeating itself for me and many others...just like the numerous builds for the gradual FS9 to FSX move was. Advancements in technology is a good thing for sure. I just hope I am wrong in my thinking on my more personal level.

Perhaps a small automotive radiator for future extreme budget cooling needs is workable after all. Lol...

[tiger1962]

Will M$ do as they have before and build well beyond present day mid to higher end PC capabilities so as to last a few more years into the future?

I'd say that's a certainty - except that "last a few more years into the future" part. M$ have resurrected Flight Simulator to show off their new XBox, which will be four times more powerful than the current version - FOUR TIMES more powerful - my current rig, and probably yours too, can't hold a candle to that. And M$ want to persuade - or coerce - as many people to buy their new XBox as they possibly can. Therefore we'll have the "choice" of spending thousands on upgrading our current PC's components, or mere hundreds on the all-new XBox, in order to run the new Flight Simulator.

[glh]

Or you could just stay with the old FSX Gold/Acceleration software if you are satified with the products that will run on them. I used an old Dell Dimension 620 with Windows XP Pro and a 512 MB Nvidia card and FSX Accel/CFS2 ran fine on two separate PC's. All of Mr. Shupe's creations ran great. I guess it just depends if you want to spend the time and money for the creme de la creme of flight sim. Just my $.02.

[gray eagle]

Or you could just stay with the old FSX Gold/Acceleration software if you are satified with the products that will run on them. I used an old Dell Dimension 620 with Windows XP Pro and a 512 MB Nvidia card and FSX Accel/CFS2 ran fine on two separate PC's. All of Mr. Shupe's creations ran great. I guess it just depends if you want to spend the time and money for the creme de la creme of flight sim. Just my $.02.

I agree, It's all about what you are satisfied with, my 2¢ worth as well. :untroubled:

[gastonj]

FSX was a constant source of frustration.

Priller

I would say "someone can be satisfied with FSX". With Windows 64 and Steve Parson patch(the payware one) for DX10, FSX is acceptable and give less frustration. Sure I prefer Xplane11 and P3DV4 but as an amateur modeler, FSX give me some pleasure and less trouble then P3DV4 (shadows, PBR, effects...etc).
JMC
.

[Mach3DS]

It's being made specifically for PC. The Xbox version will be an adaptation from the PC version. Not the other way around. And for most people the only "upgrade" would likely need to be a video card, depending on how old your rig is. Keep in mind a single RTX 2080 is capable of real-time Ray tracing and rendering of an entire photo realistic cinema quality scene. With new technology the old way of doing things, becomes hard for us to wrap our minds around but it can look better, run faster and need less hardware than we actually imagined from previous experience. Relative to how things have been done in the past...