When is MSFS considered finished?

[johnost]

I know that MSFS is still considered to be in development, but have there been any fairly recent predictions of when development will be considered "finished"?

[loki]

Asobo and Microsoft have stated from the beginning that this is a 10 year project that will keep evolving. You can see their current development updates and roadmap on the official site to get an idea of where they're at.

https://www.flightsimulator.com/janu...opment-update/

Basically, like many modern pieces of software, this isn't really going to have a final release like we got with FSX.

[FrankPilot]

It’s a 10 year commitment to support, further develop etc - not finish. “Finished” maybe should be considered as when major bugs are gone, sim is stable, good performance etc. We have a way to go to that “finished” but hopefully sooner rather than later in 2022. They did say recently that there would be more focus on fixing, QA etc, so here’s hoping. Cheers.

[danbiosca]

This 10-year commitment is really something innovative in the gaming arena, and might well be considered "revolutionary" (as far as I know, anyway). It's supposed to keep you state-of-the-art for 10 years, even surviving one or maybe more OS changes.

Even so, I agree that the frequent mandatory updates (average 2 months each) are a bit exhausting and tend to break things that previously worked fine. And above all, most updates render many add-ons useless, forcing their authors to update them in turn, in a crazy endless race to nowhere.

Oddly enough, this happens in a sim which supposedly encourages the use of 3rd party add-ons, having even included an in-game market system, and such an easy solution as a Community folder where simply drag and drop external add-ons.

Well, it's been a year and a half already. Let's see what the future brings.

[johnost]

Thanks for all your informative comments. I must say that I hope Asobo/MS will reach a point where they consider MSFS to be basically complete within the next year or so. This should not exclude continuing, optional updates - or even a Version II to be for sale. But 10 years of required updates would probably break a lot of SSD's or HD's or require new computers!

[cobalt]

This 10-year commitment is really something innovative in the gaming arena, and might well be considered "revolutionary" (as far as I know, anyway). It's supposed to keep you state-of-the-art for 10 years, even surviving one or maybe more OS changes.

Even so, I agree that the frequent mandatory updates (average 2 months each) are a bit exhausting and tend to break things that previously worked fine. And above all, most updates render many add-ons useless, forcing their authors to update them in turn, in a crazy endless race to nowhere.

Oddly enough, this happens in a sim which supposedly encourages the use of 3rd party add-ons, having even included an in-game market system, and such an easy solution as a Community folder where simply drag and drop external add-ons.

Well, it's been a year and a half already. Let's see what the future brings.

My experience is entirely different with respect to "most updates rendering many add-ons useless". I have hundreds of add-ons, and none have been rendered useless by updates (or anything else). Which add-ons are you talking about?

[Head In The Clouds]

My experience is entirely different with respect to "most updates rendering many add-ons useless". I have hundreds of add-ons, and none have been rendered useless by updates (or anything else). Which add-ons are you talking about?

I noticed some add on aircraft DO need updates after the updates to the sim, that in itself is getting a bit tiring, but otherwise, airports and the like seem to function just fine.

[daspinall]

I have the PMDG DC-6 been sitting in limbo because of updates... That I don't mind it's the ASOBO updates that knock the sim for six that drive me mad..... after a year and a half this should not be happening but it still happens.... It's sad really because when it works MSFS2020 is awesome, and even more awesome now I've upgraded the GPU.......

[danbiosca]

My experience is entirely different with respect to "most updates rendering many add-ons useless". I have hundreds of add-ons, and none have been rendered useless by updates (or anything else). Which add-ons are you talking about?

Some Drzewiecki Landmarks packs became unusable after an update and remained so for months. Also, some aircraft liveries and scenery textures changed to chequered pink after some updates. Excellent free utilities such as Shift+Z Stats or the amazing TBM930 Improvement Mod have required updates after some MS updates... just to name a few.

I can't believe this is new to you. It's not for nothing that Asobo recommends emptying the Community folder before every update (before!!! Just in case!!!)

[rooitou]

Asobo and Microsoft have stated from the beginning that this is a 10 year project that will keep evolving.

Maybe in the 10th year we'll get a flyby view?