Like I always say “It is what it is”
The people who want the past will always be sad.
The people who accept what is will… be… and move forward in their lives.
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I believe from the launch of MSFS 2020, Jorg has said MSFS is a “Gaming as a Service” Platform, which can only exist with streaming, due to the amount of data, and, the licensing of the data.
I for one, am ok with the subscription model as a concept (even though I did buy MSFS 2024) because it does provide more consistent revenue for the company, which has real ongoing costs for providing the infrastructure, paying the staff, fixing bugs, continued development, and licensing all the various data services like weather, traffic, etc, etc.
Streaming is how it works technically, subscriptions is how it works financially. That’s just the nature of it (in my opinion). However, the issue of End of Life is real, and there are already consumer groups advocating for clarity of rules about what happens to games that are purchased, that depend on streaming, being shutdown at some point.
I’m not particularly concerned because I believe MSFS has strong endorsement from MS, and the consumer demand for quality flight simulation is healthy.
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I’m fine with a subsription model. This allows MS to continuously develop the sim and they don’t need to find reasons for how to sell new versions.
But this in turn asks the question … how important is MSFS as a franchise to them?
Even the application is called “Microsoft.Limitless”.
It could just as well be a driving simulator, a hide and seek or a hunting simulator if those topics were more profitable than the “flight” side of things while the platform gets built.
You think? They will always think up a new revenue stream. All games companies do it. Tech evolves and possibilities evolve with it. Just look at the amount of suggestions in the wishlists. Some of which are doable but others not. But they might be in the future.
I hope they never give up on it, especially with the new patch for Su3. I’m. On xbox x and the flight I did earlier was probably the best flight I’ve done since November. An 8 hour flight from India to Finland in the A321lr. And I was lucky to approach Finland at the moment there was storm clouds and battering rain. It was amazing. Though I crashed because of poor configuration of the plane and me not wearing my glasses.
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Forza Motorsport, a “tentpole Xbox franchise” of 20 years, have been killed this week, with half of the development team laid off. It took two years of struggle with bugs and low-quality content, frequent updates and improvements, but the tide didn’t turn and so one of the most iconic franchises is no more.
Microsoft does not hesitate to pull the plug on any game or franchise if they don’t consider it successful enough, no matter how much legacy it has, or how long it’s been going on. They may say something today, and pull the plug tomorrow.
MSFS 2024 has been struggling the same way (bugs, low quality content, not enough players) for 9 months now. Just saying. Nothing, that any executive says today matters in the long term.
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Before anything happens, it’s better to download the entire MSFS2020 to the PC.
Unlike MSFS2024, MSFS2020 can be used without internet.
Come on mate, this is just clickbait stuff. Just because they closed one franchise it does not mean they will shut them all down. The entire world is at risk in one way or another but we need not yark about it on all the posts. It is not the end of anyone’s world if they do - you just have to find a different game to enjoy! This is business, when one company acquires another there is always asset stripping! Not news.
I’m not sure the cases are that comparable. Forza Motorsport tried to do an iRacing, leading players to all the online competitive racing.
That didn’t work because everyone doing that is already invested on iRacing (which is subscription only). There are many other options, and word of mouth was bad. Besides, the very same publisher makes Horizon, which is probably the greatest driving game ever made (which is not the same as a racing simulation).
But flying? If you’re not on PC you’re completely SOL. On PC you have one other established option that’s much worse looking (unless you shove hundreds of dollars into scenery, ortho and what not), whose add-ons are a lot more expensive and arguably flies better (it’s certainly better than 2020).
Game pass and MP probably bankroll MSFS. I hope the company doesn’t hollow out gaming to bet on cloud services and AI grunt work. It will come back to bite them hard
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Nobody is shutting down Forza Motorsport franchise.
Another overly dramatic and inaccurate narrative… this poster is basically spreading misinformation.
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I’m just posting this for anyone following these 2 interconnected issues (both of which are the larger context that the future of MSFS falls in to…)
Gamer’s Nexus reporting in a video today:
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at 6:11 in the video, on the Stop Killing Games EU and UK petition (consumer concern about what happens to functionality of purchased games that depend on streaming, when the company declares them End of Life.)
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at 24:19, future of Xbox, referencing a video by Laura Fryer (a founding member of Xbox team)
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The key takeaway here is that Microsoft’s Xbox gaming division is not in its best shape. I’ve said it many times—my humble opinion is that Microsoft, as a whole, needs to rethink its culture and put quality at the center. The old model of releasing average-quality software full of bugs, running on platforms you fully control where users have no real alternatives, simply doesn’t apply here. In gaming, the competition is fierce, and players have choices. Quality is not optional—it’s everything.
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So what choice do we have?
Another video I came across discussing MSFS being somewhat insulated from Microsoft layoffs
I remain hopeful / confident that the MSFS and Asobo teams are doing their best to get MSFS 2024 to a working state. I really do hope they don’t hit some budget limit and say “good enough”. I really hope this time they really push for consistent quality in all areas, and have a re-do / new marketing launch to get better reviews, and regain engagement, for the longer term health of the platform. Even if they called it MSFS 2025…
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would you buy it again…?
I wouldnt worry too much as someone else said, isnt most the services that 2024 use, used for other business aswell not sim related so if they pull the plug alot of business will stop working aswell
There was the layoffs of 6000 in May, and the layoffs of 9000 just last week. And if leakers are correct, there will be yet another round later. This is all in effort to try to be in a prime spot so that Microsoft can invest 80 billion in AI this year.
My concern is not that MSFS will be shut down, but just one of what the priorities will be going forward. WU, surprises, and promised roadmap items may be shifted. Each of those projects, it gets its own separate project funding, and who knows what will be the priorities now. Local legends and famous flyers might be cut. Bush trios were to come back in SU5, but as they don’t generate much revenue, who knows at this point. I think the focus will shift towards what is going to generate sales in the marketplace. Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Jorge is in charge anymore, not is Xbox. It looks like the decisions are coming direct from upper management in the main corporation.
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Remember 2009?
It was only the community that kept FSX running, but even with Lockheed and later FSX Steam, there were pretty much no real improvements.
But at least we bought the sim and weren’t fully dependent on servers to use it properly.
When they abandon MSFS2020, will they keep the servers running? You can use it without internet, but…
The MSFS2024 is impossible to use it without internet
It took a whole decade for us to get the MSFS2020.