PC Pilot Q&A with MS Flight Spokesperson

[Daube]

There's one point that nobody is considering here: the ever-increasing size of the addons.

That "central marketplace" would imply that all Flight addons will be ONLY downloadable. This is not possible. Some addons, like OrbX scenery or photoreal sceneries, are made of several Gbs of data. I know a lot of people have very nice and fast internet connexions, but that's not the case of a lot of OTHER people, including myself, stuck with a poor 170 kbyte/sec maximum speed... I am SO NOT downloading a xx Gb product. Product sold on DVDs with direct installers have to continue to exist.

[JBaymore]

If a civil discussion about an upcoming software release goes downhill it wouldn't be because everyone has different thoughts. If we all agreed, there would be no reason to have these discussions.

Exactly. If there were no sceptical questions and cynicism we'd be looking at a bunch of M$ brainwashed zombies!!

[BrandonF]

[quote][quote][quote]Good grief! What a bunch of sourpusses and glass-half-empty curmudgeons...

[New Light]

New Light wrote on Yesterday at 12:52:32:

   If MS can deliver 80% of what they are saying now, I'd be grateful.

   As far as the marketplace comment is concerned, haven't we spent at least some money on FS9? I know I did. And I've dumped at least a grand on add-ons for FSX. After purchasing FSX ($80), Accelerate ($60), then UTX USA, Canada & Europe, GEX North America & Europe, FEX, REX, AFX, IS2, Carenado aircraft are running an average of $30, Real Air and A2A aircraft even more expensive, UT2, Ultime Sound, Heli 2009, MTX, Traffic X - it adds up kinda quick doesn't it? Then there are all the cool Saitek and Go Flight products also - that's nice chunk of change in itself.

   The point being is, that we ARE going to spend a boatload of money on the sim. MS knows this, and the aftermarket companies know this also. All hobbies are expensive, this one is no different unfortunately... 

Semper Fi,

Dave


OMG! Me $0

I actually have free access to 100's of payware that gets uploaded to our site every week but obviously don't get posted (they are all in the backups - 100's of them - probably most of existing payware). I tried a couple but I didn't see a huge improvement over the best freeware so they don't get used by me.

Some spend. Most, including me, don't

   Wow! lemme get this straight. You can download Flight 1, Carenado, Aerosoft, A2A, etc. , fully registered products, for free ?!?!

Uhh... sh1t! Is it really legal and sanctioned by the companies? Where can I get to these?

Thanks,

Dave

[pete]

[quote]

[New Light]

[pete]

I probably approve only 60% of what gets uploaded here. As a former aircraft designer I knwo what I am looking at so I check anything out if it comes from an unknown uploader. A lot of stuff just won't work - I either fix it or it is not posted on the site. Part of all this is that payware products get uploaded several times per week. Once I made the mistake of going on vacation and getting someone else to approve uploads - we had about 6 payware products in the weekly uploads and more than just a few complaints from Dave Brice (Iris), Phil Perrot (Virtuavia) .. etc

[Fr. Bill]

What part of "...we're building from the ground up focusing on the "purist" simmer..." was unclear?

Seems to me to be pretty unambiguous... 

[pete]

[quote]What part of "...we're building from the ground up focusing on the "purist" simmer..." was unclear?

Seems to me to be pretty unambiguous...

[JBaymore]

[quote]What part of "...we're building from the ground up focusing on the "purist" simmer..." was unclear?

Seems to me to be pretty unambiguous...

[New Light]

[quote]All gets down to what THEY are defining as the "purist".

[Fr. Bill]

"...and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

While it might be entertaining, endless speculation on and parsing of what is officially mentioned is just that... entertainment.

It most certainly isn't something for which one's blood-pressure should rise out of control! 

For many reasons I've found myself wishing MS Game Studios would have just kept their virtual mouths shut and simply surprised everyone in 2012...

[Strategic Retreat]

For many reasons I've found myself wishing MS Game Studios would have just kept their virtual mouths shut and simply surprised everyone in 2012...

Ah, but it's only natural for a human to wonder what kind death shall s/he have to die.

Or, in this case, wonder if the surprise will be of the nice kind or the mournful one.

I rest my already all too much explained opinion, bolstered by the marketplace thinghy, but can't help strongly hope my fears will be blown away and a great thing will come out instead...

...no matter how a long shot it is... hope, spring eternal. :-/

[JBaymore]

For many reasons I've found myself wishing MS Game Studios would have just kept their virtual mouths shut and simply surprised everyone in 2012...

Yeah... but they didn't.  And they have clearly chosen to talk in generalities and with "polititian speak"........  vague crap that could mean most anything.  They bring this speculation on themselves. 

It would be VERY easy to articulate exactly that approch that they are taking with this.  They aren't.  By now there HAS to be a clear vision qwith a set of goals and objectives in place.  They know exactly what "Flight" will be.  But they want to "work the system" to create interest and curiosity.  It will drive sales.

It is deliberate marketing.  A lot of marketing types believe that there is no such thing as "bad press".  All press is useful.

No "knickers in a knot" here for me......... I am still running fs2004 because of the investment in the simpit and the nature of FSX.  The likelyhood of me switching over to "Flight" is slim.... unless thay somehow make a lot of the interfacing into the sim's internal variables VERY simple and rearward compatible.

There is still enough freeware and payware available for fs2004, and enough simpit stuff to do, to keep me happy (and broke  ) for years.

best,

...................john

[dapeeper]

Q4: Will there be an opportunity for third-parties to produce products for Microsoft Flight?

A4: Microsoft...we are creating the tools and facilities to enable external content to all users.....we recognize we can't do it all!!! At the heart of the new approach is a new integrated marketplace....and we are not ready to reveal the full details on this new concept yet. The basic idea is to make the entire user base more aware of all the third party applications as only a small percentage of the total user base are currently aware of all these add-ons. The goal is to empower the entire user base to pick and choose from this vast number of products available to them.[/color]

That one is a little "concerning".