Petition

[albix]

Hi all. Someone started a petition to resume Flight Simulator 11.
Up today 2.680 signed already and target is 22.320.
http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/microsoft-rehire-aces-studios-and-resume-work-on-flight-simulator-11
We should give a try.
Cheers.

[Naismith]

Well I signed it, though fat lot of influence I have with MS :sleep:

[swimeye]

Great initiative, I have signed.

[CG_1976]

No sign from me. I want MS to sell all rights to Lockheed.

[stansdds]

No worries, MS is not going to hire a development team to make another flight sim for such a relatively small market. Lockheed Martin and their P3D might be a better hope for a newish and possibly 64 bit flight sim. Just my two cents.

[kilo delta]

Considering the development costs of a new sim, I don't think a petition signed by 22.320 people is going to sway the MS bigwigs. I too am waiting for P3D V2.0 with 64bit architecture before I give up my FSX. Best of luck with your endeavours,however. :)

[roger-wilco-66]

No sign from me. I want MS to sell all rights to Lockheed.

Ditto!

Cheers,
Mark

[beana51]

Too little ,too Late,At MS ? its over,Gone FINI!...."Flight Burned" them, We hardcore Simmers have gotten fewer and harder,often Snootty!.We get no respect no mo!..Every time they over the years come out with a new sim. Controversy!...who can forget the battle FS9 and FSX...Like the Children we are,we got punished...PlusThere is no more money in us..most additions now cost four times what FSX cost us.FSX a big bargain!... More Money in the Game world The good news is ,others will fill the vacuum,Others will take a shot, I for one fly any and all Sims offered,Gratefully,and with appreciation...Be it FS9,FSX ,or "FLIGHT" and others! I'am all for them. This Miracle of Desk Top Flying ,hopefully it will live on to an other group of kids of any age....Answer is Support all desk top Flying ...Participate more,encourage more....I know I'am guilty to now sound off on forums with every subject Not Sim related...we are a big Hanger ,filled with hot air. Less Talk More Flying!Thanx to those who love Simming...as The recent gift of A great DC-3.showed!...and others......Thanx..Vin

[MudMarine]

Sorry I don't want to be mean but they can keep fsx11! I'll stick with P3D!!

[stovall]

Too hard for MS to resurrect what they think is a dead horse. They would have to hire back all or most of the personnel that created FSX. Those folks are long gone and have moved on. My hopes lie with P3D and version 2.0 and up.

[falcon409]

I signed it some time back, but like most, I would be floored if MS was swayed by a few thousand signatures. That won't happen. I am sticking with FSX and if P3D does release a 64bit version with it's next update, I may very well move over and drop FSX as well. My only concern now with P3D is it's legal standing. Can we, in the future, become the subject of a lawsuit by Microsoft for use of the software outside of it's intended market. . . . .and please, let's not start that whole debate over again here. It's been covered in another post and that should suffice. It's just a thought I have questions about.:salute:

[Bjoern]

No sign from me. I want MS to sell all rights to Lockheed.

This.

[Dumonceau]

Ditto!

Cheers,
Mark

+1!!

[huub vink]

Can I vote for Combat Flight Simulator 4 ?

Cheers,
Huub

[kilo delta]

Can I vote for Combat Flight Simulator 4 ?

Cheers,
Huub


aka FSX-A with TacPac :icon_lol:

[Skyhawk_310R]

No sign from me. I want MS to sell all rights to Lockheed.

Noble idea. But, are you sure that Lockheed Martin would desire to build such a thing for the entertainment market? I wish that would be the case, but I'm just not sure LM would desire to do such a thing.

That said, while I think the petition is another noble idea, I must confess I think it's waste of time, but I think less wonderful desires have drawn attention in the past, so I wish this one all the best.

Ken

[fxsttcb]

Noble idea. But, are you sure that Lockheed Martin would desire to build such a thing for the entertainment market? I wish that would be the case, but I'm just not sure LM would desire to do such a thing.

That said, while I think the petition is another noble idea, I must confess I think it's waste of time, but I think less wonderful desires have drawn attention in the past, so I wish this one all the best.

KenFrom LM's FAQ:

Can Prepar3D be used for entertainment?

No, Lockheed Martin does not offer Prepar3D for entertainment, and we have no plans to enter the entertainment space.My emphasis.
Beyond that simple answer. I seriously doubt that LM is going to change corporate direction and enter the Consumer/Entertainment industry.
All previous info from them points to keeping all of their Simulation efforts in their Mission Systems and Training Division.

IIRC, their ESP/P3D code is not owned outright, but, licensed from Microsoft. LM and MS would have to write a new contract allowing Consumer/Entertainment distribution.

Here's some fodder for the manure spreaders:
Flight Simulator 2002 was released in October 2001.
For me, FS2K2 marked a new Generation of the Flight Simulator series, with much better modeling(the compiler improved dramatically), and, the introduction of xml text based gauges and major improvements in "C" language instrumentation/control.
Flight Simulator 2004 a Century of Flight Retail Release was late July, 2003 after roughly 21 months of further development.
Flight Simulator X release occured in October 2006. Some 40 months later.

On January 23rd, 2009, IGN confirmed that the Microsoft ACES studio was being closed.
Microsoft publicly announced the closure on their FS site a few days later:

By now, many of you have heard that Microsoft has closed Aces Studio, the publisher of Microsoft Flight Simulator. This was not a reflection of the quality of the products Aces has developed, the sales performance of the games, or the quality of the team at Aces. This difficult decision was made to align Microsoft's resources with our strategic priorities. Microsoft Flight Simulator X will remain available at retail stores and web retailers, the Flight Sim community will continue to learn from and encourage one another, and we remain committed to the Flight Simulator franchise for the long term.
Continuing work on FSNext obviously occured over the 27 months between FSX's release, and the ACES demise.
If FSNext's development was on track, with MS previous releases time frame, it should have been more than halfway there. Full Multicore? 64Bit? Who knows?

Everyone says MS is about the almighty dollar, so, it is hard for me to fathom them throwing away that much costly development work.
Zero, None, Nada, Zilch, No ROI.

IMO, right now, Flight's core code, and, FS11 code, is money in the MS Bank, so: C'mon Microsoft. Sell it, Auction it, or Finish it. Pick one...Please...Don

[Bjoern]

Don:
You can still buy and use P3D, you just won't see ads on TV or find it in the shelves at BestMart.
LM certainly won't refuse to take your $500, $50 or $10/month for a P3D license.

[Paul Domingue]

Ok let's see,

22,320 @ $79.99 a pop. Deduct production and advertising cost and we get a net profit of ..... wait crunching the numbers ..... $6.80! Nope it wont fly Orville!

[Dumonceau]

Can I vote for Combat Flight Simulator 4 ?

Cheers,
Huub

+ 1000 :jump:

[fxsttcb]

Don:
You can still buy and use P3D, you just won't see ads on TV or find it in the shelves at BestMart.
LM certainly won't refuse to take your $500, $50 or $10/month for a P3D license.Ha-Ha! I've had the P3D developer's ticket for quite some time now! Yeah, $10 a month is expensive, but, I need it.

Though, in some situations, P3D does look better than FSX, performance on my rig is identical. FSX is my primary sim at this point, because, IMO, P3D's minuses outweigh the plusses...Don

[stansdds]

Ok let's see,

22,320 @ $79.99 a pop. Deduct production and advertising cost and we get a net profit of ..... wait crunching the numbers ..... $6.80! Nope it wont fly Orville!

Bingo!

[Bjoern]

P3D's minuses outweigh the plusses...

What's the minuses?

[fxsttcb]

What's the minuses?
Lack of a Free Flight Aircraft/Airport/Weather/Time selection page, No RW Weather, Giant Economy Size menus(navigating them is meh, at best), and consistently Glitchy ATC, are what I consider the major minuses with P3D...Don

[SkippyBing]

consistently Glitchy ATC

To be fair FSX ATC is pretty meh at the best of times anyway.
I'm also guessing in the market P3D is aimed at the instructor is typically going to be doing ATC and any other radio calls, hence the lack of real development.

[mmann]

I think the best bet for an FSNext would be for a consortium of FSX payware developers to buy the license for FSX code from Microsoft. Realistically, the chances of that occurring are probably minuscule.

[TeaSea]

What beane51 said.....

Reality is that Flight Simulator (FSX, FS9, CFS3 and 2) are games. For the MS business model to be viable those games must appeal to 13 - 18 year old boys. That's their target audience. It's roughly analogous to selling plastic model kits. You can make a really fantastic plastic model kit that will retail for 100's of dollars, but you will never sell it to enough 13 - 18 year old boys to make a profit.

Currently that audience is playing flight sim games on game consoles, not on PC's.

For the community here, we'd do better with a basic flight sim that could be tweaked into something more to our liking....which is where we are now. For many of us, the tweaking become more enjoyable than the actual flight sim.

Sure, I'd like to see MS bring on another platform, and perhaps they will in time, but I think you'd have to see some major changes in hardware or software capabilities to make PC base systems appeal to the demographic I mention above.

I'll sign the petition though...who knows?:cool:

[Bjoern]

Lack of a Free Flight Aircraft/Airport/Weather/Time selection page

Isn't there an external launcher to alleviate that?


No RW Weather

I take that ActiveOpusEXWeather works regardlessly.


and consistently Glitchy ATC, are what I consider the major minuses with P3D...Don

If you've got VoxATC or Radar Contact, not even that would be a game breaker.



Doesn't sound too bad.