it's a bait-and-switch!
they SAY it's meant to please both the "casual audience" and experienced FS fans.... but i highly doubt that
the "no addons" move was a blunder of unprecedented proportions - they basically just told every FSX enthusiast to go buy X-Plane 10 instead :facepalm:
how on earth can anyone be THAT thick-headed and end up being made someones boss is well beyond me...
Moach, you need to take a step back and cool it. You've exploded into ridiculous claims and insults based on, allowing me to quote from my previous post--a
single sentence on a single
third party website.
Since you are evidently *not* in the beta, I don't really think you're qualified to make the sweeping assumptions that you're making. Why don't you settle down and wait for some actual data from the team, rather than just going on hearsay and vague second-hand statements?
Another thing to keep in mind is that the game is still in beta. No game is ever perfect in beta, so anything that isn't yet perfect isn't grounds to scream "THE SKY IS FALLING AND MICROSOFT IS EVIL."
seems so.....
but - i do think there might be something less than completely legal going on....
think of it this way - M$ allowed an intusty to develop around payware FS addons
they knew about this, and how much it meant, both financially as well as for the community...
now, this payware industry could be considered a highly specialized marked - complete with fair competition between different publishers as any rightful business would have it
M$ had full awareness of this - and for years, continued to provide the base for this market to develop, and even though with every release some items became obsolete, there was room for publishers to continue their business freely
what they're doing now is to forcefully inject themselves into this payware addons market - but in a way that forces out any competition in quite a hostile manner
just as their history serves us in pointing out - they're instating a monopoly situation - and THAT's illegal
publishers like Abacus, PMDG and alike could conceivably take this to court - claiming a flight simulator series release without an SDK, coupled with the new DLC model creates unfair competition and strips them of their ability to make profit to a dramatic extent...
this could be counter-argued by the claim that Flight is not intended as a sequel to FSX -- but then again, this is something quite debatable - specially considering they wrote on many occasions that Flight WAS meant to appeal to legacy FS fans
yep - this whole "freemium" shennenigans could very well be against the law in this sense, specially if those payware companies would act on it....
they do have grounds to claim M$ is forcing them outta business, and that they're doing it intentionally and could very well have been premeditating the whole thing since the moment ACES got canned so it'd tip over their way
we as consummers, are also entitled to the claim that this unfair condition limits out ability to choose, and prices will rise uncontrollably - so we are harmed by this situation as well
so, while DLC is not really wrong in any legal way, the way they're jumping into this at this time, after all these years of knowingly brewing a third-party industry sounds pretty serious to me :facts:
an easy-out for M$, would be to simply release the SDK and allow existing publishers and users to create content in a way that puts everyone in a level playing field
note - this is ONLY possible because there is ALREADY an established marked for FS payware content - hence the problem... if there wasn't, then there'd be absolutely nothing wrong with it, except the millions of angry fans
if i were the one making money out of FS addons - i'd be lawyering up over this :nono:
Yes, let's "lawyer up" over a statement that may not even be true.
Even if it turns out to be true, I say--go ahead and lawyer up. Let me know how far that gets you, since you clearly don't know anything about the legal aspects of the software industry.
If you want a conspiracy theory, go read my last post talking about why a greedy Microsoft would
want third party addons to be possible...
So, basically, for free, we're getting what could be called Flight Unlimited IV. Except you can, for an associated cost, purchase more scenery and aircraft from M$ if you want a 'richer' experience.
Thanks, but no thanks.
For FSX, you got a demo for free. If you wanted a 'richer' experience, you could go purchase the full version and get...more scenery and aircraft.
In the grand scheme of things, how is this any different, other than that you can now pick and choose what aircraft and scenery you want, instead of being locked into all-or-nothing?
---------- Post added at 10:31 ---------- Previous post was at 10:26 ----------
but all indicates the "store" is limited to M$ content - and i see no reason why they'd keep prices within the constraints of summing up to a full game....
A
single sentence on a
single third party website indicates this. I would hardly say that constitutes "all."
specially because if there's no competition - they can just have their way with you.... and that's how EVIL people think, so why would they allow third-party addons in their store when can be evil and have it all for themselves, without any pressure for making things of good value?
As I explained before--because they can make money off of other people's addons in the store without any pressure at all for making things of any value.
but the chances of that happening would be better if the existing payware industry went about taking legal action to have a mandated SDK distribution...
Nothing in any law states that every game or simulator ever made needs to have a public SDK available.
they're robbing you! - that's what's happening - no SDK + DLC model means MONOPOLY - no good will come out of that!
It also means less money for them and I think they're going to realize that.
i'l stop throwing gasoline in the fire once i see an official statement that user-made addons - including freeware - will be available in the "store"... 'till then, i believe there should be trouble headed their way
I've got a better plan--how about you stop throwing gasoline in the fire UNTIL you have any reliable source at all to back up the claims?
people will lose jobs over this - and there's nothing they can do... M$ has set them up a trap, let them stir up a paying comminity - than fence it in all for themselves
How is "Flight doesn't allow third-party addons" any different from "FSX was the last version of MSFS and they're not making any more" to the third-party developers? In both scenarios they don't make any more money from developing stuff for new versions. Yet, I haven't seen any addon companies suing MSFT for killing the franchise originally...
....
