Was Microsoft Flight really that bad?

Microsoft Flight released to the world on February 29th 2012. Unfortunately though, it wasn't too well recieved by the flight simming community and within a year, Microsoft stopped developing for the game in July 2012 before cancelling all support and shutting down Flight's multiplayer servers on October 14 2014.

 

One major factor to why I believe it failed was down to the fact that being the only major release of a flight simulator in six years after FSX, it gained too much hype for what it actually was, among many other reasons I do explore.

 

In this video, I look deep into the simulator itself and answer the question to whether or not this simulator really was as bad as it initially was.

It was that bad. Microsoft pulled it because they knew they'd blundered and the whole franchise collapsed because of it.

 

Anyone excusing it wasn't around at the time to be able to proffer an opinion. As, indeed, weren't you..

Yes. Yes it was.

It was that bad. Microsoft pulled it because they knew they'd blundered and the whole franchise collapsed because of it.

 

Anyone excusing it wasn't around at the time to be able to proffer an opinion. As, indeed, weren't you..

Oh yes, don't worry, I know all about the background of Microsoft Flight and the canning of the ACES Team in 2009 (including speaking to a developer from the ACES Team not too long ago) which you are right, led to the end of the Microsoft Flight Simulator era. This video however looks at the simulator itself, taking out the context behind it and removing the backstory completely to just look at then content in itself when compared to other simulators before.

 

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Flight has become like a red flag to a bull in the sim community. It became and has become almost obligatory to bash it, even by many people who (proudly) never purchased or tried it.

 

Many people who did try it seemed to have made up their minds beforehand, and often bragged to the effect that they "Played ten minutes, and demanded a refund" yet if you told them you were giving their current sim of choice that little time to prove itself, they would explain to you why you couldn't possibly make a fair decision.

 

Essentially, bashing this particular sim became pretty much a fad: like an internet meme that everyone wanted to be in on.

 

Meanwhile, many of the things that people are praising Flight sim world for were there, just waiting for further development years before we even heard of that the DTG sim. Who knows what Flight might have become by now if lynch mobs had not begun forming even before its release?

Did anybody ever find a way to extract the Deluxe aircraft from Flight to FSX?

 

I always liked the Icon A5 and Stearman

Did anybody ever find a way to extract the Deluxe aircraft from Flight to FSX?

 

I always liked the Icon A5 and Stearman

Whilst I were doing this video, another guy decided to break into the simulator to see what could be moved. Unfortunately however, the aircraft and the scenery is all hard-coded into the simulator itself, meaning no chance of extracting anything within it.

 

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Flight has become like a red flag to a bull in the sim community. It became and has become almost obligatory to bash it, even by many people who (proudly) never purchased or tried it.

 

Many people who did try it seemed to have made up their minds beforehand, and often bragged to the effect that they "Played ten minutes, and demanded a refund"

 

It was actually free (2 aircraft & Hawaii included) & players would pay for extra aircraft & scenery.

Microsoft Flight is the best flight sim ever. Way ahead of its time. I enjoy it almost every day (I've using it since July 2012). Every time a new flight sim comes out, I try it but later I come back to Flight. Yes, to me is the best ever.

The thing is that us flight sim enthusiasts are an odd bunch. We are prepared to sit and stare at a monitor for 4 hours with a set of head phones on, simulating the real world flights of airliners. Thanks for the free sim, but i had no idea what to do with it (i can hear suggestions being made already) but they closed it to third party developers, which is a huge pull of Flight sim because the quality and realism can be outstanding. I get that Microsoft was aiming at a wider audience, but i can't see how it was going to work...might hold an average gamer's attention for more than a week. No disrespect to the average gamer of course, as their tastes are more comprehensive than mine.

It seemed that Microsoft started from a platform that was hugely successful, and tried to go backwards, i don't see how it could have succeeded.

...they closed it to third party developers,...

 

More correctly, I believe, is that they had yet to provide an SDK and open Flight up for third party addons.

 

The fact that they had not yet released an SDK does not mean that they would not have done so eventually.

 

IMO, Flight was never finished and MS pulled the plug too early. Their money, their choice.

 

MS took a bunch of heat for not releasing an SDK, undeservedly so IMO.

 

Flight simmers must have short memories, as most seem to have forgotten the uproar in the 3PD community when MS released several different versions of the FSX SDK. I always suspected that MS did not want to go thru that again with Flight.

 

Personally, I thought Flight was a considerable leap from FSX and wish it had been given a longer leash.

 

Had the community been more supportive of what it was, instead of condemning it for what it was not, MS might have let it been completed.

 

peace,

the Bean

More correctly, I believe, is that they had yet to provide an SDK and open Flight up for third party addons.

 

The fact that they had not yet released an SDK does not mean that they would not have done so eventually.

 

When the Flight project was originally started it was going to be a continuation of the series, but along the way Microsoft decided they wanted to control everything, including keeping all of the profit from DLC (ie. add-ons). This was when a certain project lead took over and made a comment that including 20,000 airports was too confusing for new users. It was only when it became apparent that they couldn't possibly meet the community's expectations that they tried in desperation to get some developers on board. According to the developers the terms were terrible and basically it was too late as most people had made up their minds.

 

Underneath was a decent upgrade over the FSX sim engine. However, it was seriously hamstrung due to the lack of available content. There were only a few relatively complete aircraft with the rest being basically just the external model, and only Hawaii and Alaska to fly around. It wasn't a model to entice existing sim fans who couldn't fly whatever aircraft they wanted where ever they wanted, or new users who ran into the same problem. How many people have loaded up the sim and gone for a flight over their home town, or somewhere they have been? Other than Hawaii and Alaska, this wasn't possible in Flight.

I've always been disappointed in how fast the plug was pulled. For what it was, a simple GA sim, it was very good. The scenery was way ahead of what existed in FSX, and I wish the devs at P3D had been able to come close to the Flight scenery, they aren't even close.

 

Flight even had some FSPassengers-style options, where you would fly passengers or cargo between different locations.

 

The models were fantastic. Compare the Maule in FSX to the Maule in Flight.

 

Overall, Flight should have been given a much better chance than it got, and it's death was the last nail in the coffin of our beloved MSFS.

We are prepared to sit and stare at a monitor for 4 hours with a set of head phones on, simulating the real world flights of airliners.

 

Not all simmers do airliners. Some of us do light aircraft, gliders, etc.

They mistook us for an arcade game community, clear lack of vision and market research!

Yeah, "Flight" could have been great with the right people at the helm.

Not all simmers do airliners. Some of us do light aircraft, gliders, etc.

 

Roger that!! ;)

Going back to the OP.

 

Yes, Flight was that bad.

 

And I better stop here cause I can feel my blood starting to boil already with so much falsehood, myth and usban legends by now.

 

BTW "Not all simmers do airliners. Some of us do light aircraft, gliders, etc." that has been a subset in Flight Simulator since the beginning. Just like gliding, helicopters, etc, etc, etc.

 

Cheers,

BTW "Not all simmers do airliners. Some of us do light aircraft, gliders, etc." that has been a subset in Flight Simulator since the beginning. Just like gliding, helicopters, etc, etc, etc.

True, mabe, but the poster I quoted didn't seem to understand that (or ignored it). Too many think that if it's not an airliner it's not an airplane -- just wanted the correction in there.

Larry N.,

 

And that's the beauty, everybody is independent in his/her own nitch. Who cares what others are doing or thinking or saying. Just ignore them. The original intent of FS to be inclusive for all or at least a great mayority was the right one and I think they achieved it.

 

Cheers,

Larry N.,

 

And that's the beauty, everybody is independent in his/her own nitch. Who cares what others are doing or thinking or saying. Just ignore them. The original intent of FS to be inclusive for all or at least a great mayority was the right one and I think they achieved it.

 

Cheers,

 

Right on. The Beauty of Flight Sim `whatever` was the variety. Of the user base. Of the developer platform. Of the core sim, and uses to which it could be put.

 

`Flight` squandered all that, and more, lost the support of the only community they had and the developers they needed, then pulled the plug suspiciously soon when it was obvious a arcade sim wasn't what was needed.

 

Almost as if that was the plan...

 

MS probably make more net income from licensing and leaving us `troublemakers` to others. It's quite funny how certain licensees have adopted the old business model and flourished, while others have gone to the DLC darkside. And haven't.