MS Announces Flight Sim 'Microsoft Flight'
As well as unveiling Age of Empires Online, Microsoft has used the Gamescom 2010 event to announce another nod to its PC gaming history--a new flight simulator. Developed internally at Mi
Developed internally at Microsoft Game Studios, Microsoft Flight is a PC exclusive described as being "inspired by" the long-running Microsoft Flight Simulator series. MS hopes it "will bring a new perspective to the long-standing genre, welcoming everyone, including long-time fans, to experience the magic of flight." Careful scrutiny of the teaser trailer teaches us that planes, sky, clouds, land and water are all quite likely to appear.
"Over the years, our PC heritage captured the hearts and minds of millions of players. Reinventing these iconic franchises with social, shared experiences at their core marks the beginning of our return to PC gaming in bold new ways," said Microsoft Game Studios VP Phil Spencer in the announcement, also referring to AoE Online.
It's safe to assume Microsoft Flight will be social-friendly whenever it arrives, then.
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kapellen421
replyI don't think there is a very big market for Flight Sims anymore, If there ever was a market to begin with.
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Just because FPS, MMORPG and sports are the dominant genres doesn't mean that there's no market for anything else, including flight sims. The difference is just that the target audience is smaller, but that does not equate to the entire genre being commercially inviable.
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I would say the same for that weird Football Manager game on Steam but apparently more people play that than TF2.
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and I would stake my reputation that avid flight simmers spend a crap load of more money on their hardware than even the biggest FPS fan boy, on a significant order of magnitude as well. Have you ever looked into the peripherals that the simmer crowd has available?
Also, you should acknowledge that Flight Sim was Microsoft's only "game" that had any following for many ,many years. It was one of the first PC games I ever saw, back in the early 80's, and I still love to drop in on a sim now and again. -
It's a pretty niche market... but I started paying attention to flight sims again recently and there's been quite a resurgence. Wings of Prey, Flaming Cliffs 2.0, Black Shark, A-10C (soon), HAWX 1 & 2 (soon). There's more high quality flight sims to choose from right now than in last 10 years.
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Look at the forums at www.avsim.com - tell me that's not a sizable market.
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