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Thread: Why did they stop making FS?

  1. #1

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    Why did they stop making FS?

    Why just why did they stop making FSX? I always wanted to ask someone this, and why just why would they shut down the on-line portion of this simulator? I know you can find forums supporting the on-line portion but why did they shut it down?
    Was this a move by TSA? I heard it was for both the stopping of making this simulator and the on-line portion.

    Tony

  2. #2
    EAA Staff / Moderator Hal Bryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
    Why just why did they stop making FSX? I always wanted to ask someone this, and why just why would they shut down the on-line portion of this simulator? I know you can find forums supporting the on-line portion but why did they shut it down?
    Was this a move by TSA? I heard it was for both the stopping of making this simulator and the on-line portion.

    Tony
    (Split to new thread.)

    Definitely nothing quite that sinister, Tony. The Feds looked at us in the immediate aftermath of September 11th because copies of one of our products had been found in the home of at least one of the hijackers, and a French news show used our sim to recreate the attacks on television which prompted a brief "ban it!" outcry. We moved on from that pretty quickly.

    As for the shutdown, only some key Microsoft management folks know for sure, but I can tell you that while, FS was an expensive product to make, every version was solidly profitable. That said, we had a long shelf life, so, towards the end, when our colleagues in the Microsoft Games Division working on titles like Halo and Gears of War were grossing 3 to 4 times in their opening weekend what we'd make in 3 years, it was tough to compete. Should we have been competing with titles like that? Should we have been in the Games Division at all? I think the answer to both of those is probably "no", but that wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, when The Day came that they brought everyone together for the big news, a lot of us thought that the announcement would involve us moving to another division, not that we'd be shut down entirely.

    I obviously don't agree with the choice that was made, but I can't complain: First, Microsoft was extremely generous with other offers within the company and, when I decided against that route, with the severance package. And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway.

    Hal Bryan
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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bryan View Post
    (Split to new thread.)

    Definitely nothing quite that sinister, Tony. The Feds looked at us in the immediate aftermath of September 11th because copies of one of our products had been found in the home of at least one of the hijackers, and a French news show used our sim to recreate the attacks on television which prompted a brief "ban it!" outcry. We moved on from that pretty quickly.

    As for the shutdown, only some key Microsoft management folks know for sure, but I can tell you that while, FS was an expensive product to make, every version was solidly profitable. That said, we had a long shelf life, so, towards the end, when our colleagues in the Microsoft Games Division working on titles like Halo and Gears of War were grossing 3 to 4 times in their opening weekend what we'd make in 3 years, it was tough to compete. Should we have been competing with titles like that? Should we have been in the Games Division at all? I think the answer to both of those is probably "no", but that wasn't my decision to make. Anyway, when The Day came that they brought everyone together for the big news, a lot of us thought that the announcement would involve us moving to another division, not that we'd be shut down entirely.

    I obviously don't agree with the choice that was made, but I can't complain: First, Microsoft was extremely generous with other offers within the company and, when I decided against that route, with the severance package. And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway.

    Thanks for this info. I did not know this ran so deep as to cause some to lose jobs. I just thought they stopped making the simulator. But like you said, the Lord does work in mysterious ways. I have purchased a few copies of this simulator and handed them out as gifts as I am sure others have done. I wish they would have offered more missions or even add ons. But great work, I love this simulator.

    My very first simulator was purchased back in 1990, this was an Indy 500 simulator and really good for the time, so I have been using them for a while and really like FSX.

    Tony

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    Jim Rosenow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hal Bryan View Post
    And second, if I hadn't left, I wouldn't have landed here in Oshkosh, which was always a semi-secret dream of mine anyway.
    I think a lot of us have had THAT dream over the years, Hal! Live the dream, man!

    Jim
    Last edited by Jim Rosenow; 12-19-2013 at 07:54 AM.

  5. #5
    EAA Staff / Moderator Hal Bryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
    Thanks for this info. I did not know this ran so deep as to cause some to lose jobs. I just thought they stopped making the simulator.
    I don't recall the exact number, but I believe it was just over a hundred positions that were eliminated.

    Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
    I have purchased a few copies of this simulator and handed them out as gifts as I am sure others have done.
    Thank you for having helped me pay the mortgage!

    Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
    But great work, I love this simulator.
    Thanks, Tony - on behalf of a lot of great friends and former coworkers. It was a lot of fun, a real labor of love for all of us who worked on it.

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Rosenow View Post
    I think a lot of us have had THAT dream over the years, Hal! Live the dream, man!

    Jim
    Doin' it every day, Jim!

    Hal Bryan
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    i seem to remember being told microsoft flight is functionally the same and now available as a download?

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    Jim Rosenow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cdrmuetzel@juno.com View Post
    i seem to remember being told microsoft flight is functionally the same and now available as a download?
    I can't speak to MS Flight...haven't tried it, but I do know it's available as a download @ https://microsoftflight.com/en-US/home/ The software is free (the business model was to charge for additional content, apparently), but Wikipedia says in July 2012 MS permanently discontinued development.

    I do know that Lockheed Martin bought the the intellectual property rights and source code for the Microsoft ESP product. Microsoft ESP is/was the commercial-use version of FSX SP2, which now lives on as Prepar3D. Haven't tried that yet either, but I hear good things about it. LM updated it to use multiple computer cores and be more 64-bit OS friendly. It's good to know Hal's excellent work lives on!

    Jim
    Last edited by Jim Rosenow; 12-20-2013 at 08:47 AM. Reason: More Info on Flight

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    I did not think FSX used dual core even if your machine had it. Hal what about this, it seems I read somewhere FSX does not use dual or quad core. Is this correct? If it does is there something one needs to do to get the most out of this program?

    Tony

  9. #9
    Jim Rosenow's Avatar
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    Tony,

    It's my understanding that you are correct about FSX not using multiple cores....based on discussions, not my personal experimentation. I'm not aware of a way to make it multiple-core aware (I think it's called hyper-threading) cause it's not programmed into the software (not a lot of multiple-cores around when it was written). P3D has been re-written internally to allow H/T.

  10. #10
    EAA Staff / Moderator Hal Bryan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 1600vw View Post
    I did not think FSX used dual core even if your machine had it. Hal what about this, it seems I read somewhere FSX does not use dual or quad core. Is this correct? If it does is there something one needs to do to get the most out of this program?

    Tony
    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Rosenow View Post
    Tony,

    It's my understanding that you are correct about FSX not using multiple cores....based on discussions, not my personal experimentation. I'm not aware of a way to make it multiple-core aware (I think it's called hyper-threading) cause it's not programmed into the software (not a lot of multiple-cores around when it was written). P3D has been re-written internally to allow H/T.
    Service Pack 1 for FSX did add multicore support - you can read my friend Phil's blog post about some of that work back in '07 here, if you're interested:

    http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ptaylor/arch...rk-in-sp1.aspx

    Hal Bryan
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    Vintage 714005 | Warbirds 553527
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