End of an Era - Dark Ages for a Hobby

A couple of months ago I read about the first layoffs ever at Microsoft. At the time I took no notice of what teams had been laid off. I assumed they were getting rid of support staff. So when I read a couple of days ago that Microsoft had closed Aces Studios - the team that's been building Microsoft Flight Simulator for decades, I was caught somewhat by surprise.

I shouldn't have been. I'd predicted the death of the franchise when they released a buggy, resource intensive, half baked, DRM crippled, activation encumbered monstrosity that was Microsoft Flight Simulator X. I also saw that the addon developers had started to get very greedy, charging hundreds of dollars for multiple products while Microsoft spokespeople babbled on about a brave new world where payware would be the way forward. I even saw the teamup with AVSIM as anything but good as it removed AVSIM's credibility as an unbiased organization. My musings were not popular at the time with the online flight sim communities (actually mostly just one community) that I frequented, and over that and some other trolling and more personal nastiness that you get when people aren't having to deal face to face I left that group.

Make no mistake though. Microsoft Flight Simulator and all its code bases are dead. People are still trying to put positive spin on how some kind of phoenix may rise out of the ashes. They're delluding themselves. It'll take decades before anything of similar sophistication and wide ranging appeal can be written. Those that contributed to freeware and even payware addons this time around will be less willing to spend their time and effort on something that they now know from experience could be killed off at a whim.

So why did this happen? Why did the era end after decades of the Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise being a flagship vehicle for the company? Well as far as I'm concerned the company drove the product into the ground with greed. FS2004 had a kiosk mode that allowed schools and museums to set it up to display a flight without any user input. Not only was there no such mode in FSX but Microsoft wanted to charge much more money to permit such use. FS2004 required one patch through its life (though it could have used more) and there were no significant changes to the engine or requirements for addons. FSX had 2 service packs and an "Acceleration" addon that required changes to addons each time. Both required advanced hardware at release, but FSX was buggier and had ridiculous unmeetable requirements for smooth running which only improved with the release of the service packs. The franchise up to FS2004 had relied on a great deal of good will freeware development (though there were certainly commercial addons). The emphasis shifted from the modding community to the commercial vendors supplying addons and their prices spiralled upwards. Where did they think such developments were going to lead???

I'm actually less happy about the loss of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 code base. It had some immensely irritating bugs and limitations but an effort starting from it as a springboard would have had a much better chance of producing something great than starting from a half polished, buggy development driven by dollar signs aka FSX.

There is another important issue here - activation. FSX was the first and only version of the simulator that required that it be activated online. I'm very much against this kind of copy protection mechanism, because if a company goes broke or changes direction, it may no longer be possible to activate the product. Though it was unthinkable when FSX was released - I was ridiculed as some kind of tin foil hat nutter at the time - this now appears to be exactly what has happened. So now how long will people be able to use the simulator legally without resorting to hacks and cracks?

I have a young son who I hope to see grow up sharing some of my own interests and hobbies, even though they can often be expensive. There's a standing joke around here that the first words my son would utter might be "Flight Simulator". By the time he's old enough to sim, I imagine it will be quite difficult to find an environment which will readily run any of these old flight simulators. If something doesn't fill the void flight simulation on a home computer might be an antiquated hobby enjoyed by only the most dedicated people. He may never get the joy of playing and learning I've experienced, and that saddens me.

So far I've only considered my own selfish motivations. So I'd like to conclude with a word about and to the poor blokes who lost their jobs building something many of us love....good luck finding new ones in these tough times. You don't deserve to be fired like this after giving us such a rich evironment to play in. Your work will still get some use over the next few years. Thank you.