The End Of An Era - Flight Sim Is No More

What a sad day, I can't recall a more depressing day in my decade focused on the hobby. Hearts and thoughts go out to the ACES team.

Not just affecting hobbyists, but many people who make a living from 3rd party development... Hopefully we might see something new come out of the ashes... This time though without Microsoft's stranglehold on it...

crazy if true- the platform was just turning into an industrial opportunity http://tinyurl.com/4cq74k

They should have rather pulled a few of their OS versions... that would make more sense.

and just when I found this awesome little flash site developed by an agency to promote their product...

http://urlzen.com/52r

I think the ACES team should rally behind FlightGear and teach Microsoft an OpenSource lesson on loyalty and appreciation for its valued employees and the Flight Simulation community.

This affects pilot training, too. MSFS is used heavily in pilot education, because of its realism. Hopefully someone will pick it up and run with it...

Vey sad to see, but for those now out of a job, the modeling & simulation world down here in Huntsville, AL and in Orlando, FL is going strong and always looking for talented developers.

Good luck to all of them!

@franksnyder

Let's hope that the open source community steps up and harnesses all this talent, and compensates them better than M$ did. As huge as the flight-sim community is, it shouldn't be hard for it to support a development team.

This is amazing news. I never would have guessed that a wholesale gutting was in store.

Add me to those rooting for FlightGear and Open Source. FG is capable of excellent realism where it counts, but "gamers" generally find the graphics (mainly scenery) disappointing.

Looking for aSilver Lining, this may not be too bad for FlightGear, hoping that some of the developers join the FlightGear development effort while looking for a new opportunity. Maybe even continue development once they do land something to pay the bills.

So Train Simulator 2 is also No More ? ;_;
I hope that all the talented guys and gals at ACES find another awesome gig.

A real blow today. I raise the whisky and have only this to offer:

To everyone at ACES,

You guys got me through 2 jobs, 2 market crashes, 1 divorce, and untold adventures in simming

Thank you for everything

On behalf of all all of us out here who push the the envelope, with your help......

The best of everything going forward.

Cya in the air.....somewhere. Where ever we all end up, I am on your wing.

Really very sad indeed. Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you to all those at Aces who have kept me entertained over the years, and wish them every success in finding new employment. So I'll raise a glass to all those who made the best program ever to grace my PC and made me a very happy chap when I emerse myself behind the controls. Thank you very much. All the best.

That really sucks. Surely this franchise would have some value even if Microsoft don't want it?
It's the only Microsoft "Game", in fact computer "game" full-stop, that I've used consistently over the years (and how I found your blog years ago!)

Sad to see the fltsim franchise go down this way.

I truly am stunned. Wasn't MSFS their TOP selling game, if not pretty close for many, many years? I don't understand it! I can list off tons of other Microsoft products that should have been killed long ago, but MSFS? That just doesn't make sense. The community is huge and the game still had tons of growth potential. What a crying shame. We're all behind the guys at ACES. Maybe if enough of us complain to MS thye'll wake up and realize what a stupid mistake they're making.

Yeah, Flight Simulator goes back even farther than 1982. I ran it (when it was still a subLOGIC product) on my TRS-80 Model I.

Most people would be surprised to know how many of Microsoft's top products were bought from somebody else (including DOS and Excel, to name a couple).

Of course, X-Plane has overshadowed Flight Simulator in recent years. As a Mac user, I had to say goodbye to FlightSim in the 90s. Nevertheless, it's not good for competition to lose a major player like this.

Couldn't Microsoft have found a buyer for Flight Simulator, especially considering it doesn't really compete with their other product lines?

This is really sad....all the way from the first time playing FS2.0 back in 1987 to FSX, I still recall those exciting moments when a new version of FS was booting up in front of my eyes... and couldn't wait to push F4 and F8 to see how the Cessna fly off Meigs field... Big thanks to all of the great people behind all versions of MSFS since the days of BAO and sublogics, too many great memories just because of your hardworks over the years.

Well I'm stunned.. I have been around FS virtually since day dot & I have never had a PC that didn't have one version or the other installed on it, in fact many of my PC's were built specifically to run FS.

I can't imagine what the folks at ACES are going through, but I wish you all the very best & thank you for thousands of hours of entertainment & for helping me get through my PPL, couldn't have done it without you.

Although I'm not a fan of FSX, my FS9 will be around for many years to come & I'm sure there will be many other still flying in years to come.

Now is your chance ex-employees: leave and write a new FS from scratch. The job market right now sucks anyway, and the sort of skills you have aren't easily transportable. Compete with MS and beat them. Funding? Hard. Pool those savings together. Look at it this way: What is your alternative?

Maybe this event will enable others without ties to a OS, to develop the product further. I can't realy understand how a product that was still growing in popularity has be cut. With people in the Western world getting older (fact) and FS entousiasts being older men generaly(fact) Growth was still in reach. Apperently you don't have to have brains to become CEO just guts.(but whats in a name mr. B?)If MS is betting on the Xbox alone, then it's even more stupid what they are doing. jostytosty

Damn! I really loved the Train Sim and was sooo looking forward to the second one... I hope the talent finds employment soon.

I don't get it. Wasn't Flight Sim a regular cash cow for Microsoft across all these years? I'm sure there were ups and downs, but I don't understand the logic of the closure.

Well... what can I say? I'm not sure if there was a great "halo" affect with Flight Simulator, but for me there was. It was the only reason I would always choose to install (or have pre-installed) Windows on my new PC. Every time I considered the switch to Linux I would tell myself, "but then I couldn't run MS Flight Simulator." Sure there is always X-Plane (and I have it too), but Microsoft's version did many things right (beyond eye candy) that X-Plane has yet to achieve. Even FlightGear does a lot right (I love their magnetic compass motion). Hopefully these two projects will pick up the slack.

That really sucks for people who used to work for ACES. The economy is pretty tough right now but having a high quality well-known product like Flight Sim on a resume can only help.

Like so many of us I grew up with Flight Sim, I've owned countless versions and spent many happy hours exploring aviation and the earth in general. Unfortunately I think the demise of FS is just a reflection of what's happening in PC games in general. The current generation of consoles have such a great user experience with hi-def graphics, games that just work and seamless integration with online multiplayer and marketplace services that the traditional advantages of PC gaming have all but evaporated. When you factor in that laptops sales have overtaken desktops the writing is on the wall for PC games.

Like the Chey and others I was also looking forward to Train Sim 2, it seemed like it was shaping up to be a great product, but alas it's not to be :-(.

I just can't believe that they (Microsoft[in the head?]), have done this!

This's not just a Flight/Train Simulator problem for us simmers; weren't Aces the developers for the ESP platform, a tool being sold to, used by, and being looked at by various Governments, Military Forces, Aviation Companies and Future Planning Committees? It is prudent to expect that, with the demise of Aces, that programme would also be halted.

I had read that ESP was hailed as being an answer to problems that had yet to be thought of, and a future 'major potential money-earner' for MS.

See this link, which is only dated 3rd Dec 2008 (& the one from this, "MS gets serious about simulation"): http://www.flightsimx.co.uk/announcements/microsoft-esp-showcases-the-future-of-immersive-simulation-experiences/.

Unless ESP was moved from Aces to another MS development section, I don't understand MS's willingness to let this future-tech go. Very Weird!

Also, I just found the following blog: http://wing-fell-off.blogspot.com/. The relevant entry is for Sunday, February 24, 2008. An extract is posted below.

"At the recent 2008 Serious Games Summit at the Game Developer Conference (GDC), Shawn Firminger , studio manager of Aces studios, delivered a talk outlining the development journey of Microsoft ESP."

It goes on to say:

"The GDS (Game Developer Conference) ESP presentation is also featured in a post at ausgamers.com

http://www.ausgamers.com/features/html/2601259

The Ausgamers' article further mentions Microsoft's long term commitment to ESP with a roadmap planned many years into the future. Plans for version 2 and 3 of ESP are still in process, however that article mentions that the next version will see more focus on ground elements with marine elements further down the track.

For further information check out the Microsoft ESP home page."

Now, I know there's a recession, but that was only a year ago. Ridiculous!!!

Really sad news for all flight simulator pilots all around the world and of course for all ACES employees. I really hope that there will be a solution - new jobs for the ACES members and a future for flight simulator. Maybe the original BAO crew finds together again to continue the development or - and I think that meight be the best solution - the sourcecode will be offered under GPL to the opensource community to benefit from the power of all the talented developers.

In the sixties I worked as a young technician on a real simulator where I got hooked up on simming. As pc's came begin '80 I bought successively all simulators from fs2 to FSX. Still addicted and member of IVAO, now 65 retired, sitting here in my flightsim room, 22 inch 1920x1080 screen in front of me, a beamer behind me, projecting a large landscape on the wall in front of me, yoke on the desk and rudder pedals on the floor,I really feel bad of MS's decision. Maybe it will bring in the short time some money for MS, but in the long term MS will loose the rest of goodwill from a importent community.
The only reason why i had to stick to the MS operating was Flight Simulator. With every release from DOS to VISTA I had to accept the confrontation with their surprises and unwanted possibilities. So if MS ends with Flight Simulator I will end with MS's operating systems.
This is not yet the moment to thank the FS-team for the good times they brouht me with Flight Simulator through all those years because I hope that the FS-team will find a way to go on seperated from MS, I will surely support that.

i hear ya brother just googlein tryin to figure out when 11s coming out and i find this crappy news

I too have been a flight sim fan from the sub logic days! I too only support Microsofts OS because it runs Flight Simulator! So, where is the logic in chopping Flight Sim? Microsoft will loose custom, thats a sound business thought for todays economy? I feel sure there are other people who feel the same. Without the restrictions of Microsofts latest OS perhaps there will be a Phoenix arise for all us loyal flight sim enthusiasts! Aces thank you for helping me fly!

I have to say that anyone who owned FSX should've seen this coming. FSX stunk so bad that I bought X-plane. I wish the Aces guys well, but... Don't give me a Big Mac and say it's gonna turn into a Whopper. I'll find out your lying eventually.

Flightgear is the most used sim of the three on my pc. Great community of open source people too.

X-plane is an easy transition from MSFS. They don't conflict with each other on the same comp either. No reason to delete FS when installing X-plane or Flightgear.

Also YSFlight is fun. Had to throw it in there. It's a simple sim, but it starts up immediately.

Micro$oft is evil.

I say we start up an online petition to remind Microsoft how big of a following Flight Simulator really has. It may not do anything but then again it may, so if you ask me it cant hurt to try !

And with the flight sim down went also Train Simulator 2, which hurts me the most. The guys had made such fantastic work with big hearts, and then some damn idiots who thought that their profits were not huge enough, killed the dreams of both the users of these great simulations and the people who made them happen...

I think, there is only one right reaction to this: boycott Microsoft. Let's kick the greedy bastards where it hurts the most: no more of our money to them. And imagine, I even thought about maybe giving Windows 7 a chance. Now: not a chance...

Thanks for everything and best of luck, ACES guys - you do deserve a better employer. And if possible, please keep also the MSTS 2 project alive under someone else's wings!

I'm sad now - and angry. :(

Never was a fan of MicroSoft as a company this debacle confims the obvious. Love FS pity it runs on MS Windoze.

I'm a long time train simmer who wants nothing more from Microsoft. M$ has kicked us train simmers in the #### TWICE in the last five years. Good luck on Windows 7, You'll need it LOSERS. The only software I want is open source freeware for OS X

Great! Now the wonderful third party developers whose endless creativity and hard work has taken MSFS from being mediocre to fantastic can have a stable base platform to develop for. Every version since my original apple 2 based sim seemed to me to be as good as it gets. Well, this is it! As good as it gets! (Don't tell anyone tho' but all over the world in little rooms, the boys are making amazing addons!)

It's unfortunate that another group of people have been laid off. If there are any software developers available with ESP background please reply. We have a few positions available for development of another simulator.

I keep reading various blogs confirming this or appearing, surley the flight sim community world wide is big enough to support these guys, what is th future of flightsim and where is going? this is a question i think we would all like to know, Best of luck to all those who have lost your jobs.
http://737throttle.com

Message to Microsoft - have you guys lost all sense of reality?? What are you thinking!? This product beats any OS you've released over the years, in quality alone!!

MSFS is the reason I started building my own custom PCs in the 80s, to keep up with FS development, always pushing the hardware envelope. To all the guys/gals affected by this - you are an amazing software development team and your passion and talent have been showcased in every release of this product. I sure hope and pray you have the opportunity to transfer your skills to a new platform...

THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING FOLKS

Looks like the guys that created both the Flight sim and Train sim are back at. They are no longer part of MS and have started their own company called Cascade Game Foundry. I hope they make the new version available to other OS's outside of windows. Linux and Mac would be a good start. I wish them the best of luck and will be keeping an eye out for future announcements.

http://www.cascadegamefoundry.com/

Have always had flight simulator from an early age, always have tried keeping my pc specs up to scratch so that I can play it at a reasonable frame rate.

Nearest I'll get to flying without spending a small fortune. Will certainly be supporting cascadegamefoundry if their fs is as good as it was at microsoft, hopefully with continued support on it in the way of updates and service packs.

As airports expand and change the flight sim also needs to adapt, but ideally I'd like to do this without the need for umpteen add ons.

Hopefully see something from you in the near future. Take on board the advances that real environment extreme have allowed the exceptional graphics on top of fsx and develop something truly exceptional.

If you get it right, you'll have a good few million people waiting to buy your latest version!

Good luck.

Just another example of Microsoft stupidity....thats why i'm getting rid of my pc's and buying a mac.