The Death of Microsoft Flight Simulator

Keane Ng

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Sep 11, 2008
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The Death of Microsoft Flight Simulator



The future of Microsoft's decades-old Flight Simulator series is uncertain after reports that the entirety of the Fight Simulator staff has been laid off.

community [http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorX/] of hobbyists. I have respect for my elders, and Flight Simulator is older than me: having been in continual development since 1982, it's technically Microsoft's oldest product for the PC and likely the longest-running franchise in the games industry as a whole.

Which makes it all the more bizarre to think that Flight Simulator may be no more after wrote [http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=21981] on his blog.

Twitter updates from associates of the Flight Simulator team are saying that the layoffs took place yesterday. The cuts come as part of a planned 5,000 layoffs at Microsoft, the first wave of which is reportedly slashed [http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1836] 30 percent of its game testers team, according to VentureBeat. And the shakedown seems to be far from over. "Also, next week, the game group is expected to undergo a management restructuring," VentureBeat wrote.

Fans might take heart, however, that the death of Flight Simulator isn't completely set in stone. Boomtown [http://pc.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=17328] contacted Microsoft for confirmation of the layoffs, and, after receiving a "no comment" response, received an email: "We can say that you should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great LIVE experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce."


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Cousin_IT

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All I got out of Flight Simulator was the knowledge id probably never make a pilot. Combat Flight simulator, on the other hand, was awsome
 

Zer_

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Feb 7, 2008
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I loved flight sim. Playing online was really neat. We'd collectively set up destinations in our F-16s and fly in formation. Fun stuff. If only X-Plane had such stunning visuals.
 

mokes310

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I hope these reports come out to be false. I really love the Flight Sim franchise!
 

AceDiamond

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Khell_Sennet said:
I miss MS Space Simulator. Same thing, no gravity.

But IMHO the Flight Simulator line of games, hobbyist-accurate or not, could have benefited from some action. Its ending is of minimal impact to my life. Them discontinuing the Mechwarrior games on the other hand...
This.

hell the first MS Flight Sim had a WWI dogfighting sim built into it.

And I too am pissed that there is no Mechwarrior 5 yet. Or a new Mech Assault (at least the rights got taken back by some of the creators...yet they've done nothing with it)
 

SilentHunter7

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Nov 21, 2007
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I...It...They...
DOES NOT COMPUTE!

Now who am I going to go to to get my modern era flight sim fix?
 

Ancientgamer

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AceDiamond said:
And I too am pissed that there is no Mechwarrior 5 yet. Or a new Mech Assault (at least the rights got taken back by some of the creators...yet they've done nothing with it)
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/

Just thought I'd throw that out there. it's already in beta testing too.
 

curlycrouton

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Jul 13, 2008
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They....they can't do this!
Damn you Microsoft!

I love that game. How could you..?

Noooo...

So on, so forth.
 

nathan-dts

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Jun 18, 2008
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Nooooooo; I had such great memories with Flight Simulator. My favourite thing to do was to go into space by holding a button (I believe it was F2 but most likely not) and then nose diving down into a tree.
I remember also, practicing my landing for hours in a row.
 

AceDiamond

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vivaldiscool said:
AceDiamond said:
And I too am pissed that there is no Mechwarrior 5 yet. Or a new Mech Assault (at least the rights got taken back by some of the creators...yet they've done nothing with it)
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/

Just thought I'd throw that out there. it's already in beta testing too.
Yeah that's true I forgot about this.
 

JRCB

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Jan 11, 2009
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No! Flight sim got me into gaming. In FSX, my favourite part was turning off the seatbelt sign and doing a barrel roll. (Yes, it can be done.)
 

Hippobatman

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Jun 18, 2008
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Never played much Flight Sim. Was still in elementary school the first time, and I couldn't even start the plane. When I got my friend to start and take off for me, I quickly got bored and flew smack into some buildings.

Too bad for the community, though, if Flight Sim really has passed away.