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Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 6:46 am
by Cusance
MS say that they have been dissapointed by some of the negative, unconstructive reactions from the simmers.


When you run a business and drop a long-term successful product line that appealed to a specific market segment, then you should EXPECT that kind of negative reaction. .....



Ah, but thats the point. Flight Simulator WASNT succesful for MS. Thats the whole basic issue. It existed for a long time for a small segment of the market and as they have said, simply wasnt succesful for them in terms of revenue.
Or not profitable enough to commit to the cost of the development of version 11. thats also a basic rule of buisness, get out of unprofitable lines or change them to make them profitable. They went for the latter. I dont like it any more than you, but I cant deny the business logic behind it. that was my point. this gives the simmer community a new reality. It is one we dont like but now working with and trying to influenze development would seem to be the sensible way forward. Simviation has a positive role to play here. If we dont, they will ignore us.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 11:53 am
by Wing Nut
Found this on Austin's blog the other day... ;D

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is Austin Meyers, the guy who brought us X-Plane...

Image


Before you laugh too hard, the rocket is a mockup design to test the viability of a new space shuttle design and is designed to land with a kind of a primitive artificial intelligence.  The guy is a freaking genius...

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Wed Mar 21, 2012 10:09 pm
by JBaymore
[Ah, but thats the point. Flight Simulator WASNT succesful for MS. Thats the whole basic issue. It existed for a long time for a small segment of the market and as they have said, simply wasnt succesful for them in terms of revenue.


I disagree completely.  You are using the wrong yardstick.  I said it was a sucessful product for a specific market segnment.  The FS series was PASSIONATELY loved by that market segment.  Just look at the various forums.  It may have not generated MONEY for Microsoft...... that is NOT the point I was making.  It is that the highly negative and vocal REACTION out of that specific market segment could have been EASILY predicted. An idiot could have predicted that.

That Microsoft is saying thay are getting "blindsided" about this reaction is totally absurd.

best,

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

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 2:23 am
by Camel_Moe
The closest thing to pre release marketing for flight was to put out vauge, minimal information, primarily spread through FS fan sites, in a weak word of mouth campaign.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:50 am
by JBaymore
In other words they must have thought we were brainless organisms that prefer to live in the dark and are easily harvested. >:(
Or they're just really, really, reeeeeallly out of touch with reality.


Summed it all up there pretty nicely! 

best,

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

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:07 am
by alrot
In other words [glow=yellow,2,300]they must have thought we were brainless organisms that prefer to live in the dark and are easily harvested.[/glow] >:(
Or they're just really, really, reeeeeallly out of touch with reality.



I will say its this one

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:54 am
by Cusance
[Ah, but thats the point. Flight Simulator WASNT succesful for MS. Thats the whole basic issue. It existed for a long time for a small segment of the market and as they have said, simply wasnt succesful for them in terms of revenue.


I disagree completely.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:09 am
by alrot
[Ah, but thats the point. Flight Simulator WASNT succesful for MS. Thats the whole basic issue. It existed for a long time for a small segment of the market and as they have said, simply wasnt succesful for them in terms of revenue.


I disagree completely.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:47 pm
by JBaymore
[wow!! I have never met a Microsoft Executive or Personnel before !!!


EXACTLY what I was thinking Alrot.  ;)

best,

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

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:51 pm
by JBaymore
Oh for god's sake.......

"When you run a business and drop a long-term successful product line that appealed to a specific market segment,....."

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 1:30 pm
by pete
Guys it's good to have different viewpoints here ... think what it would be like if everyone had the same views ...... It would be like a big biased club ... :)

& Cusance isn't flying the flag for MS Flight ... he's merely putting across what is possibly their attitude to this whole thing ........

You're all basically saying the same thing anyway ... that MS would appear to have misjudged the reaction from the existing FS users .... BUT -- I don't think they really care too much as long as they get a big enough 'new market' to make it all worthwhile $$$$$wise.


On a side note -- my idea of a good business is not so much about exploiting a position of power, especially an effective monopoly, to make money -- but it's about satisfying customers so much that they CHOOSE you and your products over the competition.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 4:01 pm
by Boikat
Re: Austin Meyers:

Before you laugh too hard, the rocket is a mockup design to test the viability of a new space shuttle design and is designed to land with a kind of a primitive artificial intelligence.  The guy is a freaking genius...


Well, he *does* have a cat....   ;)

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:16 pm
by Cusance
[wow!! I have never met a Microsoft Executive or Personnel before !!!


EXACTLY what I was thinking Alrot.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 5:27 pm
by Cusance
ALROT WROTE >>> "..!! What ?? that It will become a simulator Once I spend $1.000 or more?
do u really think I'm that stupid"


I couldnt possibly comment on that.

Re: Say what you want...

PostPosted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:52 pm
by Camel_Moe
Once I spend $1[glow=yellow,2,300].[/glow]000 or more?



Lol, probably the worst ever place for a typo, but stiil about 100 cents more than i'm willing to pay for a P-51, minus the cockpit. I still can't figure out why they did that at all.

Seriously though, while I can understand people having high hopes for the future, it's a very valid point. Why anyone would be motivated to spend large dollar amounts to get a more sim like experience is beyond me, and I don't see MS trying too hard to acomplish that.
As soon as you start to move from game to sim, your starting to compete with other existing sim products, ironically including FSX.
There is a very small grey area between sim and game, where it's still mostly a game, and can be sold as such, to gamers, but in order to make simmers happy enough to make it worth going after that segment, MS would have to provide much more than the grey area allows.
At that point they would basically be selling FS11, with a game strapped on, and a paid DLC model that would indeed make the package cost outwiegh the gain for most simmers.
Sure, simmers buy payware, and investments can run into the thousands for FSX, or X-plane, but that's in addition to a relatively cheap base program with much more depth to begin with. It's voluntary, and not required to make for a very full, very flexible experience right out of the box.
Under the current DLC model, to make Flight anything like what most of the "cross our fingers and hope for the future" crowd seem to be waiting for would simply lead many simmers to do the math and go with another product anyway, and therefore it's not really worth it for MS to try in the first place.
I don't pretend to know where MS IS going with Flight, but I'm not sure they do either. They really don't seem to have prepared for the reaction they got, and I have the feeling that even though there has been some positive reaction, they haven't gotten near the level of positive reaction they were looking for either. I do suspect that future focus will remain mostly on the gamer however.