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microsoft sells entertainment license to the unknown


Culley44

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This could be so, but I believe it to be wrong..A company as large as LM would never make the sort of investment Prepar3d has needed to launch  it if there was any risk re licensing.Teecee.


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I wonder if its John that is buying the fs franchise as there is only a few sim companys that i believe have shown any interest in buying a simulator platform but the person who is buying might be a UK resident.. it would be great if it was John as i know we would get something great :)


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with esp being owned by lockheed, its hard to say what the next flight sim would look like as far as compatability goes, its would be an amazing thing if orbx did buy it, that would be a truely amazing platform,it would pretty much have to be built from the ground up, pilot and orbx would be a great choice, but i imagine it's in the millions, a kickstart program for whoever bought it shouldnt be out of the question, i would give up on softwares i want to support the idea.


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This could be so, but I believe it to be wrong..A company as large as LM would never make the sort of investment Prepar3d has needed to launch it if there was any risk re licensing.Teecee.

Having said that, though, LM own the non-entertainment rights to ESP therefore, ultimately the 'Entertainment' rights to the franchise are still up for grabs. If Microsoft are continuing the way that they have been for the past few years, it doesn't surprise me that they would have sold out to someone. The rumours on AVSIM are rife with who is supposedly to have brought it though; a certain Mr Meyer for one. Although, with the number of potential candidates he would certainly be a more amiable one! If I'm honest, if this information is to be true, we may be seeing a reincarnation of MS Flight around the corner. Well, we all want an arcade sim, don't we?

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Interesting, certainly didn't expect this if it is true. Too early to do much but speculate....I suppose MS could sell the code base twice under different licenses, or maybe it's just the name? Outside of "Sid Meier", "Flight Simulator" is probably one of the strongest brand names in computer gaming, despite not having a new release in years....anyway, interesting times. That's a good thing, right?  :)


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If this is true true my money goes to Aerosoft they have the clout the money and are already involved peripherally.Remember also a while back there were whispers of said company producing a standalone sim.


We shall see.


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a couple years back the company that developes train simulator 2014 were asking what trainzers would like to see in a flight sim platform, as u said aerosoft sounds like a posability as well.


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But recall that any new owner of the franchise, if not LM, must incorporate at the very least the technical advances of LM.


 


That in itself will involve patents and rights, not owned by MS.


 


Could a new owner jump to 64bit?   If not then what could they offer?


 


But to speculate now is premature.


 


JUST WAIT AND SEE.

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" We can also tell you that the licensee is not one that we would have thought to have been a logical candidate in terms of direct knowledge of the product, leading us to conclude that this licensee had the deepet pockets."


Above quote from Avsim does muddy the water a little,suggesting it to be  a company not generally associated with the genre..........hmmm a bit worrying.


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No we did not buy it, it was too expensive and it would take millions of dollars just to get the source code to a compilable state. There is no value in the code; the value was in the team members working at ACES and they have all moved on to other companies and indeed some are working at LM on the new code now.

I wish whoever purchased it (if the gossip is true) lots of luck and very deep pockets; they will need both.

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"not...logical" and "deepest pocket" sounds like EA or Ubisoft to me.

 

Or a certain 'Mark Zuckerberg' who recently brought out Oculus. I can't see that EA or Ubisoft would have any interest in it; I wouldn't rule out Valve (Steam) though. 

 

I wonder if any announcements will be made at E3 starting this week :/   could be a very intersting week com Friday :D :D

 

Certainly could. Although, with the rumours that Aerosoft are a potential candidate, wouldn't E3 be a bit high-key for them? Seems to me, if it is true, that it's either someone who will kill the franchise (Facebook) or someone that could take our little niche hobby somewhere exciting.

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Xbox boss Phil Spencer has recently taken to Twitter to discuss Microsoft's plans and said that hardcore gamers will be the show's main focus. "Both new IP and new sequels" will be shown off, and there will be announcements about "some new studios we are working with".

 

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-05-06-microsoft-names-e3-2014-press-conference-date-and-time

 

MS E3 2014 Press Conference and Streaming Schedule

When: June 9 at 9:30 a.m. PDT (local times)

Where: GameTrailers, IGN, Spike TV, Xbox.com, Xbox LIVE
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i still hope its aerosoft,i agree with the above, ea would make a great platform but there support is terrible,also the same with valve,on the other hand valve likes to create products that work across windows mac and linux,i really couldn't see ea or valve having any interest in flight sims, lockheed or aerosoft would be the most logical, and i was kidding about orbx buying it.once we find out we will have a bigger picture where flight simming will go, until then fsx, orbx and p3d is all the enjoyment i need :-)


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All in all it may well turn out to be the beginnings of a new chapter in flight sim albeit a couple of years down the road.If it happens and if it is done properly it may well turn into a good thing.Nothing like competition to bring out the best in people.


Lets just hope it doesn't turn out to be Flight II or some such turkey.


Gary

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All in all it may well turn out to be the beginnings of a new chapter in flight sim albeit a couple of years down the road.If it happens and if it is done properly it may well turn into a good thing.Nothing like competition to bring out the best in people.

Lets just hope it doesn't turn out to be Flight II or some such turkey.

Gary

I don't get it. Who cares about another FS in the future? We have P3D v2 now!! The new chapter has already begun.

Spirit

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That's the point exactly P3D version "whatever" is old lame ass stuff and if and it is a big if, someone takes it on and does the project the way most of us would like, then that can only be for the better.


Say what you will about p3d v2 and its ok I have it and FSX running DX10 .I spend more time on FSX .The two are still based on ancient tech, the ESP code was first put out in 2006 in 2008 Microsoft shutdown Aces.


In 2009 L/M buy the ESP code but not the rights to the FSX franchise.


So you say you would not be keen or at least a little bit interested in a new up to date modern flight sim?


Your happy running what is basically become old crappy memory sapping/leaking creaking software?


Yes it is currently the best we have but as a community is that what we have to settle for and keep shelling out cash for?


I for one would at least be keen to see somebody breathe new life into it,so long as it maintains the basic integrity of the "old" but current versions.(I realise that means more cash to buy add-ons etc)


Pardon the rant and I do not post this to inflame/upset anyone certainly through Orbx we see vast improvements over basic stock,however imagine where we could go with a new Sim.


All this may be moot as it may never see light of day but its a worthy topic for debate IMHO.


Regards.


Gary


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Gary, no problem with your post, stay calm and made ​​the best choice you deem useful to you. I've never invested a penny off my license fsx but I understand that those who have invested heavily in fsx see this as a good news (if it is). But now that I've invested in p3d I will not change my mind while Microsoft did not move a toe for 7 years and spends his time selling his family jewels ......


 


Have all a good fly with p3d, fsx, fs11, xplane and other and other ...


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"I don't get it. Who cares about another FS in the future? We have P3D v2 now!!"

 

Exactly

Some people need to get that there are different groups when it comes to FSX / Flight simulation.  Some want FSX never to change (AKA FS9 syndrome), some want the P3D flavor, some want 100% backward compatibility, some like me don't give a rats butt about backward compatibility if the platform is persuasive enough. Point is that it seems that most want Flight Simulation to continue. 

 

Give your head a twist and you may remember way long ago that one of the objectives of a Flight Sim game for Microsoft was to help sell PC's back in the early 80's.  Could be much the same in today's environment.

 

Regards

jja  

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I hope it's Lockheed... Would likely mean I wouldn't have to pay for a few new licenses from a certain developer.


However, I really feel like this could go either way. Lockheed finally gets the license, or some other company gets the license and makes what will become Flight 2.0. Even if it was sold to Lockheed, I wouldn't make the switch over until every addon I own is updated for it. Every ORBX addon, PMDG, Aerosoft PBY, and the Coolsky DC-9. I've put too much into aircraft I love to move to a new platform anyways.


 


I wouldn't be surprised if that license got sold to a company like EA who will just rekindle the failure of Flight and market it as a "next-gen" game. But as I said, I'm staying on FSX. 


 


Also, want to add, what will this mean for FS's activation servers? Will we still be able to activate FSX if we need to reinstall? And what will this mean for developers like ORBX and any addon developers? Suppose this developer is just in it for the money, isn't it likely that they could flat out demand a percentage of every developer's revenue and completely ruin the mod-ability that made FS so popular? Could this even affect us as consumers and our licenses? TBH, I'm not looking forward to whatever may happen...


 


Hopefully this will force companies like PMDG to make their stuff P3DV2 compatible if this new investor wrecks FS by as I said above, preventing re-install of FSX and charging those developing for FSX a "tax" of sorts.

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Outrage, do you assume everything you own and love gets ported for free? It reads that way, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it! :)

Ehh, most Carenado stuff besides my Arrow IV is P3DV2 compatible. ORBX is also being nice giving us P3DV2 installers for free.

PMDG and Coolsky may be another story as lots of their stuff is as far as I can tell very dependent upon FSX. I've aslo seen people using the PBY in P3D V2.

 

To be honest, there's not too much I need worry about right now unless Microsoft shuts down the FSX activation servers and drastic stuff like that. 

How I feel in the long run is that if the addon market is affected in any as I stated above such as payig a tax to the owner of the entertainment license, developers who haven't moved will be forced to move over to P3D V2. After seeing all the greatness of V2 I hate how I'm still holed up in the dyeing FSX, however, myself and others like me as well as developers still developing for FSX and not V2 will have to move over.

 

Give it a few years, I don't think anything to Earth-Shattering will happen yet.

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Yeah me neither. There would be a significant amount of effort to re-work the code to be better than P3D (and it would have to be otherwise the people on P3D won't shift), or to develop a new sim from scratch (in which case why buy the license anyway?). I'm not worried short-term, and even long-term have seen so much 'vapour-ware' that I don't get excited too much about announcements. Watch this space though ... we could be in for a treat. Maybe. But not soon.


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I have to agree with Spirit and.......just think about the work that LM has done and the results.  They have deep pockets and they obviously saw value in the code they bought.  Just getting to 64 bit will take them a while and they have, what, a two year lead on anyone and by the time any deal would go down, more like three. The good news is that we can all look forward to a better FS tomorrow than today. And at the end of the day, week, year...it's about the enjoyment of the product you own. I wish that  I could have 1940 scenery in P3dv2.2, I'll bet each of us would like something special, but the overall picture is that what we have is really good and getting better....in the meantime, we can sit on the side lines and cheer for our favorite candidate to take the plunge.


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I think Google Earth will buy it as at present Google Earth has a very simple flight simulator in the Google Earth now and they have 3D version on the Google Map. So there will be not much effort to join/mix it with FSX to generate a new flight simulator..


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