This has been an interesting topic to read. I’ll avoid repeating many comments posted before, so will summarize those I agree with:
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FS2020 is, in many ways, what Microsoft ESP was planned to become - an earth simulation platform.
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I’d be surprised if other MS games using the same core technologies did not appear in the next few years. Not only possibly other sims (Train, Ship, Racing, etc) but adventure & exploration games too. These probably would be developed in partnerships with other companies, Microsoft being responsible for providing the “data” components, and the third-party the “game” components of the game.
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Asset creation, especially the current time-consuming process of aircraft / building / living-world model creation will become simpler & faster with newer technologies now appearing on the market. This makes non-“traditional” uses of the core technologies increasingly possible.
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Thus, the core technologies will be used for non-flight, non-game products, targeted at fortune 500 companies that will spend big bucks on systems that can show ROI (return on investment).
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Our use of FS2020 is creating a huge amount of data on how best to build a globally distributed information system that simultaneously streams real-life data to thousands (perhaps 10s of thousands) of individual devices.
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As network technology improves (5G & beyond) & expands into new geographical areas, many of the current limitations & problems will end. I’ll predict, at some point, an end to caching of any data - it will become irrelevant as network systems reach multi-gigabyte, low latency five-nines (99.999 %) availability. It will take while, but probably not as long as the 40-years to get from dial-up modems speeds to today’s multi-GB availability.
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FS2020, like ESP before it, has huge potential, but only as long as it has the support of key top executives within Microsoft. Lose their support, and, like ESP, it could disappear overnight.
{Edit, ok, lockheed martin picked up ESP, but you get my point}
Jon
