I wonder where combat flight sims figure into this. Are they grouped with "flight" games, or is there overlap into other genres? Either way, it looks like a really minuscule share of the video/pc game market.

As far as the ESRB is concerned I'm sure that they consider BoS in the same market as FSX and DCS. I don't believe they count a game twice for the purposes of this study. If it's an action-strategy game they'll classify it as one or the other and that's it.



The Jedi Master

Very true J9...

Before Jurassic Park came out there weren't many people watching Dinosaur Movies.

Huh?

My point is that, if someone made a truly brilliant CFS today and marketed it well I have no doubt that the number of people playing games in the Flight category would be significantly higher.

I bet three years ago there were very few people playing Space Simulators either.
Now with Elite, Star Citizen and No Man's Sky that has all changed.

With the state of the CFS genre it's no wonder people are playing other games.

I think there's something into this.
Still lots of players flying Falcon4 and il2-46 shows that the current producers totally missed the mark.

But regarding to some people posting here it's the fault of the users, which cannot appreciate a wonderful CFS.

The tail wagging with the dog, imo.

Also...those breakdowns list role playing...and this game just did a terrible job with that area..in the SP/Career design. This really hurt the game from it's initial release. I'm convinced that with a strong SP foundation this game would have had a very strong following....

Online...well these days you need a design with flexibility....to jump in and out quickly..like a Hyperlobby approach. This would have been a boost as well.

Great point. I noticed this with the gap between iso rpgs. Bauldera Gate was a smash. Others tried with the iso 2d rpg, but it was dead for long time. Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland, and to some extent Divinity all good in their own right has made them viable again.

Basically if you make something subpar you can't claim the market is at fault. Make it brilliant and you will make your market.

The point about Jurassic Park supports the notion that if someone made a brilliant WWII air combat movie...you'd see more CFS enthusiast. To my knowledge...this has not been done. When I played WWI...my mind always drifted back to The Blue Max......and Battle of Britain...well that was a classic backdrop for WWII air combat...Das Boot....for Silent Hunter series....Band of Brothers..Brothers in Arms....but that was how many years ago? People need a foundation.....something to transport them to the actual historical events....and visual movies..with plots...real people(actors), with dramatic conflict, does just that..

Most casual players do not have the knowledge base with books, documentaries, etc that some of us have..which gives us the foundation...without the impetus a popular movie could provide.

I have to agree with this point. Getting people interested in the subject matter is a good way to move product, obviously. When a theme enters popularity, inevitably people will want to consumer similar or related media.

I was hoping that Red Tails might do it, but I seriously just dry-heaved over mentioning that film.

A Steam only game, numbers are here:

http://steamspy.com/app/63950

For what its worth

Steam charts comparison between CLOD/BOS

People will say that is not fair: STEAM numbers don't include BoS Early Access buyers, like don't include CLoD players that start the game direct be Launcher.

But as I say above give us a clear idea that this "combat flight sim/game" community actually is minimalist.

BTW - Why these comparisons - and the "my game is better than yours" - should be avoided, don't help anyone.

I don't think anyone said my game is better than your game.
One can compare the two or look at what a sad state of affairs the Combat Flight Sim has become.

If the current producers or we haters are to blame is yet to be decided.

Or - perhaps there's no blame at all - and games that have 150+ possible keyboard assignments plus the time and practice it takes to become proficient are and remain the domain of a pretty specific audience.

That formula certainly seems to be working well for ED. While progress is slow, they are forging ahead nicely.
Edge is looking really good with great performance.
DX11.
64 bit
OR support

And ED planes have more than 150 possible keyboard assignments, for our fun.

I know - I've got DCS - and BOS/BOM, and CloD, ROF, 4 installs of IL2 '46 - that's what flight sims are about. I'm ok with it being a niche market - they can be successful, just wish there were more commercial players on the field

About the numbers in the 2014 study; was there any mention of how the numbers were obtained? Quite often the problem with this kind of studies is that they only contact retailers who ship physical copies of the games. I'm not saying the numbers would be very high anyway, but in that case games like DCS World and BoSBoM (Prepar3d, X-Plane?) wouldn't be factored in at all.

See, which is it? Is it that they're making an arcade game or a sim? Because they claim both, and that's their problem. 1CGS is running around RIGHT NOW working on physics of how the landing gear interacts with the snow and pavement. Yet, they tell me they can't be bothered to make a decent campaign or remove the asinine level campaign system which makes the enemy shooting golden BBss at you forever once you get to a certain point.

Oh, and trim isn't mapable to an axis. We are not talking about a button to open the canopy here (which they have) or a button to adjust the atmospheric pressure on the altimeter, or a button to, oh, I don't know, think of something stupid they did include...they're a lot of them.... We are talking about trim. You know, which directly acts upon and impacts the forces understood by my 2nd grader that permit the flight of an object.....