Some staggering news from Redmond via Gamasutra. Microsoft have just euthanised the most successful sim studio of all time. ACES, the team behind the Flight Simulator and Combat Flight Simulator franchises, are effectively no more. A skeleton staff of six will be kept on to service existing ESP contracts but it’s curtains for everyone else. Blimey.
Read on for ill-informed speculation.
What this means for the phenomenon that is Flight Simulator is, frankly, anybody’s guess. Phil Taylor suggests a rump of staff may keep the franchise ticking over. FS11 is obviously not going to happen now, but perhaps, with luck, the sim will inch forward through official Acceleration-like expansion packs. With hardware just starting to catch-up with the beautiful-but-needy FSX, and the independent add-on sector as productive as ever, it’s hard to imagine this much-loved series fading from view any time soon.
The only casualty of the closure may turn out to be ACES’ ambitious Train Simulator sequel (the first train game to feature a seamless global scenery a la FS). The last time an incomplete MSTS sequel hit the buffers, the project eventually made it onto shelves as Rail Simulator. The immature TS2 might not be so lucky.
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@Tei: That depends on the game you want to play in Wine. I’ve had reasonable success with most games I care about, except for Bioshock and Trials 2 (both of which are being worked on).
Oh god, be quiet please
Direct X doesn’t “control development”, it pretty much enables it
A brilliant honey trap, though. The way I see it, Windows only has two advantages these days: familiarity and a robust software ecosystem. It’s in MS’s interest to promote the latter in whatever way possible. Making PC games is in the long-term interest of the company.
Dont get me wrong, I’m glad directx exists.
But I’ll only remain glad as long as Microsoft isnt trying to actively distrupt pc gaming, because its something they could easily do. Also something they could consider a valid business plan with their 360’s getting them monthly fee’s now.
@teo
Of course it does, and if it didnt it wouldnt be much of a trap would it? Or are you telling me that in the absense of directx PC gaming would not exist?
So Bill leaves and they nix his honeypot. That’s just so mean. The old fart should (*gasp*) start his own studio, buy the IP, and continue production. MSFS wasn’t the only flight sim franchise on the market, but damned if it wasn’t the definitive one.
In the year 3000, no one will understand the joke in the MST3K movie: “I’m instrument rated on Microsoft Flight Simulator!” And that’s a shame and a half.
I see what Microsoft’s strategy is now. The PC simply has become the proving ground for future Xbox technologies. That’s all the PC is to them, now. They keep updating and supporting DirectX on the PC in order to iron out iterations of that technology first, before implementing it on the Xbox.
That PC games are still being created, is incidental to Microsoft’s cause now. They don’t really care any more. They keep saying they do, but actions speak louder than words. Ensemble, ACES, and GfW staff getting the boot, the continuing sad state of GfW Live . . . they tell me all I need to know.
Well, then don’t be surprised when your Windows sales go down the crapper. Gaming is the main reason why most people, myself included, still bother with your creaky bloated OS. Take away the games, and I’ll say so long to Windows.
I’m sorely tempted to do so already, as I continue to read about these greedy, short-sighted moves by Microsoft.
The Xbox offers MS everything it once had on the PC: complete control.
MS dangled the DX10 carrot in front of XP users to get them to upgrade to Vista; Steam’s hardware survey shows that 67% of respondents still use XP. Any publisher with half a brain will target DX9 now and for years to come. Unrelated to gaming, but MS can no longer dictate web standards, thanks to Firefox and mobile web browsers.
Steam, Impulse, and the like beat MS to the punch with regards to digital distribution. PC gamers show no interest in MS’s bungled attempts to bring Live-style features to the PC. MS isn’t seeing any cut of the action so it’s doing everything it can to funnel people to the one platform it entirely controls. Why else make Halo Wars a 360 exclusive? For the same reason that Halo wasn’t released simultaneously for the PC: they’re afraid PC sales will cannabilize Xbox sales.
Long-term, MS wants the Xbox to be an all-encompassing entertainment experience. Games, movies, TV shows, music: all under MS’s control.
I’m not trying to sound conspiratorial or “FUCK M$!!1,” it’s just obvious where their priorities lie.
Because PC RTSs ported to consoles suck? It’s simple game design really … designing a control scheme around one input device will (almost) always result better controls. Had Halo Wars been cross-platform it would have made compromises on both ends, leaving both the console gamer and the PC gamer unsatisfied.
I think most of what you said makes sense, but let’s remember where Microsoft’s priorities lie: Windows. Still their biggest seller, more than the Xbox will ever be. Keeping that in mind … will Microsoft reduce their internal PC games development? Sure, it’s not profitable for them. But will they actively try to kill PC gaming? No, that’s ridiculous! They rely on PC gamers to fuel their #1 seller.
I’m basing my position on the infamous quote from the MS exec who believes that simultaneous releases will harm Xbox game sales. He was referring specifically to Halo.
I don’t expect MS to outright kill PC gaming, but they could certainly do more to support it (without controlling everything!). The more people using Windows, the better for them.
Re: the quote. I have one tiny objection. He was referring to Halo, but it doesn’t quite make sense for Halo Wars. He said that Halo’s sales would be cannibalized if it came out PC/Xbox day1. I don’t think any of us can disagree with that. Furthermore, I agree that the same could be said of a hyphothetical Halo Wars PC release.
The difference with Halo Wars though, is that I don’t think it’ll *ever* come out on PC. It’s not a matter of delaying the release to maximize Xbox sales. It’s that Halo Wars was designed specifically for consoles, and if it came out on PC it wouldn’t be very good. Not without a serious retooling at least.
Okay, so my objection wasn’t very tiny. :)
Re: MS doing more to support PC gaming.
What should they be doing? DX and creating a stable Windows platform is all they should be doing IMO. And on a side note, control isn’t a bad thing per-se. The reason DX is miles ahead of OpenGL is because of the level of control they have over it. Things move at a snails pace in OGL world because there are huge comities with conflicting interests trying to agree on a standard.