Today the biggest event in our industry begins- FSEXPO 2021, and there is no presence from Microsoft … for me this is a yellow card … If Msfs really wants to be the best aviation simulator, why is it avoiding such important events as Fsexpo? ? … this only strengthens the position of those who say Msfs has turned more towards banal entertainment for children - xbox ..
What do you think about it?
14 Likes
Whatever their reasons I think it is a concern. Perhaps they have no wish to interact with members of the public at a venue they have no control over? You would get members of the press there asking questions, and this does appear at first glance a little standoffish.
6 Likes
It is pretty shocking and actually they will be in a whole lot of pain if the competition takes a leap forward (which is what many expect).
3 Likes
That’s a huge if. Laminar Research won’t be doing that as they flatly refuse to engage in satellite photography, let alone photogrammetry. LM are left with a somewhat orphaned product, and I don’t see that progressing in this direction either.
4 Likes
Maybe they just don’t care about it? FSExpo had 1100 attendants in 2019. Compare it to E3 from the same year which had 66000. Is it really worth the hassle for European company to prepare for such event when you don’t know if you will be able to fly to the US next week?
9 Likes
Can we expect any news from Laminar?
If your numbers are right and that is really “the biggest event” then you have the answer as to why they are not participating right there. Why would they bother with such a relatively small audience - of which probably most of them already own MSFS anyway. I wouldn’t recommend that to my own company, especially if the important people had to fly to another continent in the middle of a global pandemic.
4 Likes
Just checked and 1100 was in 2018, 1600 in 2019. Still a very small event. And half of the “sponsors” don’t even attend. Add to that “hybrid” type of event. In my opinion, it’s just not worth it.
That in itself says a lot about any company.
3 Likes
I remember reading this on avsim, but i believe Microsoft has cancelled all expos becuase of Covid. I dont think this is specific to MSFS, just general safety concerns.
2 Likes
I just checked, and they won’t be attending IP Expo 2021 in London either, though they do have a single spokesperson at one of the plenary sessions regarding AI.
What’s best to promote a simulator:
- an event where you reach 1600 dedicated simmers
- an event where only a fraction of 66000 might be into simming?
What’s best to promote a game which at least the name uses the word “simulator”:
- an event where you meet dedicated, knowledgeable and critical people.
- an event where you meet an audience of people looking for the next game they’ll play on.
Of course, it would only take 2.42% of E3 audience to being simmers to match (per your audience numbers), not a high number itself but… attending FSExpo is not just reaching out to the simmers, it is also reaching out to this industry actors and vendors, something which, well…
7 Likes
AM has said that he played MSFS for about 15 minutes and did not like it because it looks “like an apocalyptic wasteland”. That says what you can expect from him: a guy who plays his biggest competition game for 15 minutes and then says something that stupid doesn’t even care.
I have seen images from their coming version that are a small improvement but still have the same issues: wrong lightning, wrong shadows and wrong colors plus their trademark legoland scenery. I think they don’t even intend to change anything about their terrain at all. It is going to be airplanes and their flight model.
2 Likes
What I suspect:
Microsoft are planning to one day host a virtual Flight Simulator Conference, in Microsoft Flight Simulator itself.
That’s why some developers are making interiors.
That’s how you destroy the competition.
Do you really think MSFS need promoting around simmers? Every simmer knows about it. Hardcore simmers will bash it till the end of time (many times rightfully so). New people that could become simmers never heard of FSexpo. But they do check news from E3 and similar events.
And there is still pandemic issue. Company I work for loooooves getting awards. We won some very very prestigious ones this year. But no one was allowed to attend ceremonies as we have ban on corporate international travel.
4 Likes
The pandemic is really making conventions and travel abnormal, so that’s very possible. But it is also possible that they’d prefer to stay within the safety of their hosted QandAs where it is very controlled and the questions are approved in advance.
1 Like
I think they just prefer to spend the time working. Preparing a presentation and travelling to it is an awful strain if you have work to do.
Expos are for increasing market share and it seems to me Microsoft/Asobo have no particular need right now, the product is well known and sells well.
Let’s be realistic, I looked at some of the numbers I could find, there were less than 2000 attendees from what I can see and that was before pandemics and people being wary about attending in person events. Is it really so surprising that Microsoft/Asobo are not going to go to the expense of sending people? I believe PMDG are not attending either, does that mean that suddenly their aircraft are of a lesser quality or maybe I should think twice about buying ther 737/777? Perhaps the powers that be decided they aren’t going to bother, and really I wouldn’t blame them if those are the types of numbers that the event gets. Microsoft has very much more powerful marketing avenues available to it.
It leads to believe:
- They neither care about nor want to engage this group
- They don’t want to face this group and answer hard questions outside of a tightly controlled format where they can guide and control the narrative and only bring up the points they want to talk about.
- They suck at PR
2 Likes
Or they believe that they have sufficient marketing power to reach all the same groups of people that will be attending this event, in their own way. Which industry player is not aware of MSFS at the moment? Would a presence at this event sway the opinion of people who have already decided MSFS is not a good sim and XP 12 is just going to be better anyway? Perhaps they simply decided it is not worth while.
1 Like