Microsoft Flight Simulator - Free!

[lanux128]

• Microsoft shuts down Microsoft Flight development

[Deozaan]

• Microsoft shuts down Microsoft Flight development

-lanux128 (July 26, 2012, 09:56 PM)

Alaskan Wilderness, the latest - and now presumably last - add-on, launched just three weeks ago.

-http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-07-26-microsoft-shuts-down-microsoft-flight-development

Um... This DLC launched just yesterday:

Carbon Cub Deluxe

[tranglos]

• Microsoft shuts down Microsoft Flight development

-lanux128 (July 26, 2012, 09:56 PM)

Um... This DLC launched just yesterday:

-Deozaan (July 26, 2012, 11:30 PM)

Yep, both. They released the last DLC aircraft and announced the shutdown a day later (it may have even been the same day for some). A great shame, too. I was this close to upgrading my system with a new i7 CPU, board and graphics to match, just for Flight. It is / was pretty amazing, even with all the blanks not yet filled in.

[40hz]

Funny how Microsoft keeps talking about how they will "continue to produce the best entertainment and gaming experiences possible."

If that's the case, why discontinue what is easily the best all around PC-based flight simulator out there?

Do they even listen to what they're saying?

Oh well...the single thing that - up till now - guaranteed I'd always need to keep at least one Windows machine in my house just disappeared.

[jgpaiva]

I wish that when companies like this decide to discontinue products, they at least made it open source. It could be so useful for someone who's making their own flight simulator.

[tranglos]

Here's a post-mortem by someone who used to be on the Flight team. Things don't look good, particularly with respect to whether MS might sell the franchise to a third party. Wonder if they'll keep the servers on, because Flight mostly refuses to work without logging you in.

[40hz]

^Microsoft does not release code. The best anybody can hope for is for them to either sell it off or "sundown" it like they did Microsoft Money. And I have faint hope for that. Like the Spartans, Microsoft abandons its weak or unwanted children on the hillside. It doesn't put them up for adoption. That looks too much like an admission of failure or a lack of vision. And Ballmer can't afford any more of those on his watch. He's already got the Win8 Waterloo fast approaching.  

Of course I wouldn't rule out Microsoft doing a "Requires Metro" edition some time in the future to help them sell more of that loser.