Well the studio has now been closed and MS won't comment on the future of the FS series other than to say they are committed to flight sims which means they will probably just outsource it and sell it under their own brand..

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/a144435/microsoft-confirms-studio-closure.html

I disagree that MSFS is/was moribund or stagnating. This is almost all because of the add-on industry, both payware and freeware.

The bane of each version of FS has been backward compatibility, and the need to drag its own legacy along with it. However, add-on developers have been marvels at finding work-arounds, and creative solutions to the "challenges" that FS seems to pose. Active Sky is a work of art, as are the guages (reality XP) and sceneries you can buy (a recent one models every structure in central London bigger than 20-odd metres).

What FS has done is added with each version just enough hooks or ways for add-on developers to add funcitonality to the code. Great things can now be done, and it's a shame that development will stop now, now that we're finally getting down to ground textures being a pixel for every 60 cms, or something, and some aircraft genuinely looking photo-real.

It is, or was, a great product, central to my computing experience from 386s up. After all, what are computers for if not for simulating things? Surely not spreadsheets?!!

For the guy who just decided to axe MSFS computers are only about spreadsheets, that's obvious!

Fire Steve Ballmer and bring back Bill Gates and the Aces team.
No more flight simulator series no need to upgrade and get more versions of Windows.
Microsoft you have made a huge blunder.

Well i don't see a problem here.

FSX is so full of bugs that someone should be shot for it.

1. Not one single FSX original craft shipped with release of product. Every single default plane that shipped has problems with them. Thanks for porting over FS9 planes guys. Time well spent.

2. real life weather system is just plain porked. If on the rare occasions it does get it somewhat close, you will be bounced around with instantaneous whether changes as you cross data regions. Simply not realistic. They should have blended it in and have weather parameters adjust over time to co-incide with new data region.

3. ATC is simply attrocious. If you choose hybrid area like UK you are stuck with US functionality. There is no AFIS, only full ATC or nothing. There is also no defulat ATC with Multiplayer.... WTF were they thinking.

4. Minimum specs of FSX even after SP2 is a load of crap.

5. DX10 saga. Well what do we say here. Still not fully implemented and no real benefits. Fake pictures published (ok they were artist interpretations) but had no real semblance on reality and totally misled the public. When is DX10 going to be fully supported anyway???? FS12 most likely.

6. Glass cockpits, most notably the G1000 which in game does bugger all. Approx 5% of its real functions in life. You have to programme it in the mission flight editor and even then its still has very reduced capabilities. Not to mention its one hell of an FPS killer.

7. Connection issues in multiplayer. (who in their right mind went for gamespy anyway? - they should be the first booted out the door)

Yadda Yadda Yadda, etc, etc etc.

Quite frankly, I don't care who gets sacked. As long as someone up high in the chain of cammand realised FSX was far from advertised and fell very short in so many areas when it had the spotlight to really stake a claim in the industry at a time when competition is growing.

Someone's arse needed to be kicked for this crap and i am glad it happened. Maybe next time, people may care about the product they make (no matter whose fault it was).

I have to agree about the FSX performance issues and it was clear that MS were designing it on their 'no expense spared' development computers.

It seems odd to me that I can play FarCry2 and Crysis at maximum settings on a 32" LCD TV but I can't play FSX at even moderate settings.

It stays in its box whilst I continue with FS2004 which is great.

Ever since they used the FS 2000 3D engine, performance has been terrible, even with machines much higher spec'ed than what was availalbe at release time.

Who remember's Bill Gate on stage hooting about Vista and saying FSX was going to be Microsoft's falgship for DX10 (his words)? Yep, it was a joke and pretty much a joke in DX9 as well.

I posted about the FSInsider notice of ACES end ...

page link

[/quote]

Yep, totally. Absolutely crazy - I hear a LOT of reports about how bad the artwork coming back etc is, but there we are - not a lot you can do when studios have their sights set on out-sourcing/off-shoring.

If you're looking for something now, feel free to drop me a PM - I have a couple of animation roles going (though, to be hoenst, WAY less than say coding roles, because they haven't got as far as outsourcing coding... yet).

Fran