If not for eastern software developers, new retail flight sims would be a thing of the past!

Report of Microsoft axing Aces Flight Sim Studio:

Gamasutra - Report: Microsoft Makes Big Cuts At Flight Sim Studio

(better get your ROF add-on proposals in line, as there's going to be a rush of available third-party talent hitting the streets soon)

Will give the team time to enter the world of shaders after so long running the Abomination (as it turned out) of texture maps (hand-painted images of stuff wrapped around objects). Abominable but inescapable, no blame attaches keywords: cut, coat, cloth

Maybe we'll get that cornfield shader next time. With poppies and all sorts. Foxholes. Go Microsoft, every confidence that you can pull it off. WW2 please, let's get it right this time

Ming

Btw, my sympathies go out to these good people losing there jobs here at MS. Many of us have been through this (repeatedly), it's how I became "Retired", but it's not easy getting that pink slip, ever.

Yes, maybe they'll be opportunities coming out of this adversity.

Maybe there an opportunaty for the laid off individuals to get together and form their own flight sim company. Unfortunately we pay far to little for flight sim software to make it worth while. Good flight sim software is worth atleast the cost of a decent video card. The hours of entertainment we receive for a measly 50 bucks is a joke. There would be alot more competition and flight sim developers if we actually paid what the software was worth.

Convincing otherwise is like pulling teeth.
(then someday we'll all be wearing dentures)

It's not like FSX is the cheapest game out there. And not everybody gets as much enjoyment out of the sim as we do. I'm sure MS spent some thought on the pricing policy!

Anyways, it's a shame and I really hope they manage to continue the MS-FS series. If not, there is still X-plane.

Yes I'm sure they spent alot of time figuring out the best price point. I just wish there was more monies to be made in our genre to facilitate more developers and healthy competition.

Agreed! You can see that many developers try to make sims more appealing to casual gamers by implementing an arcade-mode (BS, ROF, IL2) but I'm not sure if they have managed to make that pay off yet.

That's sad to see, especially if it's true about the ENTIRE team being laid off...

This is undoubtedly due to the recession, but during the recession we sort of see the strongest survive. For instance, Circuit City was somehow staying afloat all these years until last week when they closed up shop. And yet the stronger competitors like Best Buy are hanging in there.

I guess you could say that flight sims are analogous to Circuit City. They seem to hang in there, but during difficult times they're the first ones to feel the effects.

I think the problem is with demand. There simply isn't that much demand for flight sims nowadays, compared to all the other games out there. Or at least that's hardcore flight sims with engine management or such. What you see more of are more things like the Snoopy games or Crimson Skies, which are more arcade-like. Then you have less arcade-like games that are a bit more detailed like Ace Combat or the upcoming HAWX, but those games are still very different from something like Microsoft Flight Sim or how Rise of Flight will be judging from what we've seen.

I think I remember reading something within the past couple years about the death of flight sims? I'm not convinced flight sims will die off completely, but they are sort of relegated to almost-niche status when you compare them with other games in terms of numbers sold.

I don't think flight sims will die, but I do think the market needs a really awesome game to revive them. No doubt Rise of Flight will be well-polished and awesome in its own right, but I'm unsure of its appeal to non-flight-simmers (though I know they are trying to make it as accessible to everyone as possible). I do think that things like the trophy system and pay add-on aircraft is a step in the right direction, though. People like that stuff - Xbox has been built around achievement unlocks and a marketplace for add-on content, and it's been so successful that the Playstation 3 recently launched a similar "trophy" system of their own.

Anyhow, sorry to be such a downer, haha. I'm hopeful though - what has really encouraged me during this last year is the announcement of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X., which is due to be released in March. Now that's a game I definitely want to pick up and check out.

I try not to think of WW2 combat flight sims as a dying genre, but I guess most of the community is of the older variety who grew reading books on WW1 and WW2. Who knows maybe the future is lock on and shoot. Just not my cup of tea. Maybe a hologram or time machine with no fault return button to erase the effects of that 20MM cannon shell.