the end of an era?

The recent Microsoft announcement about layoffs, has particular interest to me. I first started flight training in 2000, and did my C172 PPL at my local airport. I don't fly much in the real world these days, but I do "play" simulator flying, using MS Flight Simulator X - a fantastic and very close to the real thing, if you add in things like live ATC through the VATSIM network, scenery addons, aircraft, etc. It's a great world, and you can make it as real as you like.

The recent announcement by Microsoft:

"This is a landmark day in Flight Simulation, as Microsoft announces the layoffs of 5,000 employees, as well of the closure of it's ACES Studio on Friday.

ACES, home of Microsoft's PC games division, was best known as the developer of the popular 'Flight Simulator' series. As of this time, it is unclear if this will result in the end of the series, but early reports claim that it is. We will do our best to stay on top of this situation as it unfolds.


For those of us in the FSX world, this means that Microsoft is basically killing the line, the longest flight simulator family of release in the world of personal computers.

Some in the community are hoping that some other game publisher takes over the line. Others yet, are suggesting that if the line does not get picked up by another game publisher, that they not let the platform die by way of releasing it to the community - open sourcing the codebase basically. I doubt this will happen. The most likely scenario is that one of the big publishers (Activitision, Ubisoft, EA, etc) will end up taking over the codebase and the developers, testers, creative people, etc.

Let's hope MS doesn't let this wonderful product go the way of the dodo bird. It would be a real shame.