The return of Flight Simulator: can we really trust Microsoft?
The announcement, during E3, that Microsoft is going to bring back Flight Simulator was both received with surprise and disdain. Looking at Microsoft’s behavior in recent years, it’s difficult to believe the sim will ever fly.
One year ago I wrote, in this space, that a Windows 10 update killed my Flight Simulator installation, putting an end to a love story of many, many years. I published that article on June 17th, 2018. It’s ironic that almost one year after, Microsoft surprises everyone by stating that the company is back with Flight Simulator, the classic it gave the world more than a quarter of a century ago, and it left orphan exactly when 25 years of market presence were celebrated.
Now Flight Simulator is back, and Microsoft says it is going to deliver “the next generation of one of the most beloved simulation franchises”. According to the blurb from the marketing department, “From light planes to wide-body jets, fly highly detailed and stunning aircraft in an incredibly realistic world. Create your flight plan and fly anywhere on the planet. Enjoy flying day or night and face realistic, challenging weather conditions.”
Microsoft Flight Simulator: PC first, Xbox after
Microsoft Flight Simulator will be launched for PC first, according to the information available, and Xbox later. Despite the clear indication that this is a PC program, many of the comments online suggest something that I mentioned here before: that “virtual skies are full of real idiots”. As I’ve written before, there is a group of people that seems to have nothing else or better to do than to disseminate false claims, based in nothing besides their “religious” beliefs, apparently.
The comments sections on different websites are being filled with comments that go from the most idiotic suggestions about what Microsoft Flight Simulator is or is not to the pure hate of people that seem to have a hidden agenda… or are simply idiots looking for an audience. As I’ve written before, flight simulation is a genre that for a while seemed almost dead, and that now is recovering, with multiple options, for different tastes and interests, so we should be glad that companies try to invest in new programs. There are a few companies investing in fantastic stuff, some of which was on display at the recent FSExpo, and apparently Microsoft wants to return to this segment of the market too.
Register for the Insider Program
What this return means, that’s the big mystery, because Microsoft was able to keep it a secret, and the announcement was considered one of the most surprising news from E3. No one knows, as far as I know, from reading around multiple websites and comments, what this new Flight Simulator is, but Microsoft seems to be doing it right, as the company even announced the creation of the Microsoft Flight Simulator Insider Program, through which users can work directly with the team to define the future of the simulation.
The note on the sign-up page for the Insider Program says this:
“Do you share our passion for flight? Are you interested in working directly with us to deliver the next generation of Microsoft Flight Simulator? The Insider Program is for you! Join your fellow aviation enthusiasts to get exclusive behind-the-scenes updates from developers and partners, gain access to preview builds, and advanced content updates before the general public. Best of all, you’ll become part of the Microsoft Flight Simulator team responsible for providing feedback and recommendations critical to helping deliver the very best experience! You, matter.”
Well, I immediately signed up, because I want to know what’s coming. My problem, you see, is that I was also a beta tester for Microsoft Flight, and we all know how that ended. Some of you may not remember it, but part of the marketing of that program was very similar to what I see here now. Compare the videos! So, yes, I want to believe, but I am afraid that when I look at Microsoft’s track record, I have a hard time believing their words.
Has Dovetail Games left the room?
Before I continue to explain my doubts, though, let me take you through some other information that I deem is interesting. The announcement now made is, no doubt, the result of some preparation time, maybe a couple of years, and it apparently coincides with the demise of Flight Sim World, about which I wrote here before. In the article I dedicated to the crash of Flight Sim World I mentioned that Dovetail Games would probably leave the area, and a visit to the company’s website reveals that Flight Simulator is not to be seen there any longer, although you still can find it on Steam.
Microsoft has, now, the license to rebuild its own Flight Simulator, confirming what I wrote one year ago: Dovetail is only tied to the 32-bit version, that will fade away completely. There is a new Flight Simulator, which will be available under an entertainment license, and that explains why Lockheed Martin does not like to talk about any changes on Prepar3D’s distribution, which is based on the commercial license of the Flight Simulator platform.
What about Prepar3D?
Now, obviously, this creates a problem to all those “students” that use Prepar3D, not so much because Microsoft will go after them, I believe, but because after having invested large amounts of money in a sim that continues to have ties to the past — and has legal limitations in terms of use by the general public — they discover, me included, that there is a brand new flight simulator, with a graphics engine that, from the initial images, real delivers on something that Microsoft has promised for ages: to be as real as it gets.
So, the same weekend enthusiasts in a small event for flight simulation, FSExpo, discussed the next patch for Prepar3D or the new XPlane code, Microsoft took to the games event E3, and surprised everybody, even those that do not know what a flight sim is, with the announcement: Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming back!
The images, the video, everything is impressive, although one has to wonder what kind of a computer you need to run this new version. I believe, if it ever turns into a product we can try, we will feel like going back to the early days of FS, when no computer was powerful enough to allow moving all the sliders to the right. We’re back on square one, even with the most powerful PCs, I think…
The computer you’ll need to run MFS
One should note that this new version will run on the next Xbox. Under the name Project Scarlett, the next-gen Xbox console will feature a custom AMD Zen 2 processor that promises four times the power of the Xbox One X, features ray tracing support, up to 120fps gameplay, 8K resolution, GGDR6 memory and variable refresh rate support. The console will also include a lightning-fast SSD that promises a 40x performance increase and virtually no load times. This should give you an idea of the type of computer you’ll need to play the 4K HDR promised for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
We don’t really know much about the new Microsoft Flight Simulator, but now that I’ve pointed to some aspects that are important to know to better understand why Microsoft is taking the reins of its old app, let’s look at the reasons why it may fail. No, I don’t want it to fail, although some may consider that another flight simulation is a bit too much for the demographics of this segment (let’s remember that less than 2000 people made it to FSExpo), but, as I wrote earlier, I am afraid of Microsoft. Yes, they may have looked at the market and decided — with so many things happening — that it was a good business decision to bring a modern Microsoft Flight Simulator to the market, but if they make the same mistakes made with Microsoft Flight, then this new app will not even leave the ground.
Is this, finally, “as real as it gets”
The fact that this is a PC/Xbox software is a first reason to be afraid. There is no way that a console joy pad can cope with the tens/hundreds of keys needed to run a flight simulation. So, is the new sim “as real as it gets” from a flight simulation enthusiast point of view, or is it an arcade exercise with flashy graphics, but not much else?
Will the new MFS be a modular base, to which independent creators can add aircraft, sceneries and other software? Or will Microsoft want to have it all — like they did in Microsoft Flight — and kill the golden hen before it even flies?
Because Microsoft is selling its online service with games and a monthly subscription, will they want to do the same with MFS? I don’t think the flight sim community is willing to move that way… unless the perks offered are really good. I mean, constant updated content, adventures, missions, ATC and many other things. Still, I don’t believe it can be done. And I rather have a sim I can download and play, even when my Internet connection is not working. Also, I rather pay for the app than subscribe to things I’ve no interest in. Anyways, that should also be possible, and apparently Microsoft’s online service does allow you to either subscribe monthly to play multiples games, or buy the ones you want. I am just not sure if you’ve to keep subscribed to buy games.
Microsoft makes promises, then breaks them
These are all questions that need to be answered. But there is more, and that’s the part that I am mostly concerned with: I‘ve seen Microsoft push products and ideas as “the next big thing”, only to drop them sometime after. And I’ve seen that happen over and over. From the 80s until early 2000s I wrote professionally about the games industry as a whole, and flight sims always made part of my work, because of my passion for the genre. I saw the birth of consoles, from Sega the PlayStation or Xbox, to mention some of the projects introduced those decades, I wrote about the lows and highs of the industry, visited the big events, from ECTS in London to the E3. Throughout that time I watched how Microsoft pushed new ideas, only to drop them after some time. Microsoft Flight Simulator and Flight are two examples that flight simulation enthusiasts know too well. But there is more.
Microsoft introduced some of the best joysticks for flight simulation, like the SideWinder family, from 1995, with the Force Feedback 2, from 1998, being the top of the line (I still have two in working order on the shelf behind me). In 2001 the company introduced the SideWinder Game Voice system, designed for teams of players to keep in touch during games, and also introduced the SideWinder Strategic Commander, a controller packed with buttons and programmable. To be used with the left-hand, along with a mouse, it allowed for a faster control in RTS games.
The demise of the SideWinder family
Although changes in the voice chat market made products like the SideWinder Game Voice less interesting, the fact is that Microsoft never gave the hardware the support it deserved, and discontinued it in 2003, despite the fact that the Game Voice could be used as a voice command device using programmable macros, a feature that put it ahead of everything else at the time. The SideWinder Strategic Commander had the same fate, and Microsoft discontinued the whole SideWinder family of products in 2003, citing poor sales. In 2007 a new SideWinder line of products was launched, mostly with a “me too” perspective, and since 2014 there are no SideWinder products.
Microsoft’s has a series of flops in its career, from the Microsoft Watch to the Windows Home Server, Zune Music Player and others, a path similar to many other companies, but one thing that always puzzled me was the kind of love/hate the company has had with the PC and gaming throughout the times. Microsoft is responsible for making PC gaming a popular form of entertainment, not only because of Windows, but because in the early days of gaming Microsoft introduced some of the most exciting titles the market saw, from Microsoft Flight Simulator or Microsoft Combat Simulator to Close Combat, Motocross Madness, Crimson Skies or Age of Empires, to mention a few.
We love PCs, we hate PCs, we love PCs…
From 2001 onwards, though, Microsoft believed consoles were the future and got rid of some of its best studios — including ACES, the one responsible for Flight Simulator -, only to discover that PC users were not moving to consoles as they imagined. This has led to the company suggesting, time after time, that they care about the PC, love the PC, etc. Still, Games for Windows Live, Microsoft’s own platform to compete with Steam was a disaster and subsequent experiences by Microsoft have not helped to make PC users happy with the company. Now, at E3, Microsoft suggests, again, it is in love with the PC. We will see!
More than two decades writing and following the games industry has made it clear that Microsoft has made promises that it never fulfilled. Especially to PC users. I’ve seen them say “We love PCs” more than once, and yet most times it’s as if Xbox is the only thing in their minds. It is as if no one in the company really understands how specific PC users are: they like to tinker with their games, be able to move them to different folders and drives, don’t need avatars. I just signed in to the new Xbox PC Pass from Microsoft, because I wanted to try the system, and it was a complex thing just to sign in, even worst to find the games I wanted to try, at the Store. It’s a mess, compared to what Steam (and I don’t like Steam) and other systems offer. Not that I intend to use it much. Just sell me the new Microsoft Flight Simulator — if it’s going to be a real sim — and I will be OK.
This brings me back to my problem with the announcement of a new flight sim from Microsoft. How serious is the company about this new software? Can we really trust it will deliver? And will it be a real sim or an arcade amusement in 4K HDR? One more question: will it have helicopters? I’ve not seen a single one in the video…
I am also curious to see if VR, at least for the PC version, is a feature that Microsoft Flight Simulator includes. Microsoft does not seem to have any VR plans for the Xbox, but things are different in PCs, and flight simulation and VR headsets are the future. It would be nice to hear from Microsoft about all those things.
I’ve registered to be a Flight Simulator Insider. I am curious to see what’s next.
