Microsoft closes Flight Sim studio

By Ellie Gibson Published 26 January, 2009

Was writing cheques its body couldn't cash.

Microsoft has shut down Aces Studio, the developer behind the highly successful Flight Simulator series.

Rumours of the closure first popped up on Gamasutra, and a Microsoft has since confirmed the closure to Gamespot. "Following our annual strategy-review process, IEB is making adjustments within our business to align our people against our highest priorities, and the closure of Aces Studio is one of those changes," the spokesperson stated.

"You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great Live experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing additional to announce around Flight Simulator specifically at this time." More Crimson Skies then? Oh go on.

The first Flight Sim game made its debut on the IBM PC in November 1982. According to the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2009, that makes it one year older than Word, three years older than Windows and the longest-running Microsoft franchise of all time.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (22) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Xerx3s #1 3 years ago

    "The first Flight Sim game made its debut on the IBM PC in November 1982. According to the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2009, that makes it one year older than Word, three years older than Windows and the longest-running Microsoft franchise of all time. "

    I still have a copy! \0/

    It was brilliant. :D

    Come to think of it, ms has been doing games for quite a while now.

  • Dizzy #2 3 years ago

    The current flight sim will probably last until 2020 performance wise ;)

    Plenty of companies are making add-ons.

    Still a pity... this team was a very experiences gang.

  • penhalion #3 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s

    You shouldn't be suprised about the dates or that Microsoft have been doing video games for almost as long as Nintendo. It's only the fanboys and reviewers who seem to conveniently forget that certain games exist. They do this especially well, when they want to claim a new game somehow defines a genre or has created a new one from some mythical place!

    It's like the old rogue trooper cover system, which pre-dates gears of war yet gears is now credited with creating it. This is dispite the fact that Epic later freely admited to being influenced by such games. Big kudos to them for that given it was the press crediting Epic with inventing the cover system in the first place and not epic themselves.

  • LowEnergyCycle #4 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s "Come to think of it, ms has been doing games for quite a while now.

    Almost as long as I've been alive, in fact. Wow. I didn't actually know that.

  • Xerx3s #5 3 years ago

    i can still remember getting a second-hand workpc (286 or 386) from me dad which had all kinds of awesome dos games on it. Flightsimulator was one of them and it was fucking awesome. Had played nothing like it before. In retrospect, there wasn't much to do but that didn't make it any less fun. Crashing planes was the best. *cough* ;)

    EDIT: Come to think of it, makes one wonder what people where doing during worktimes as every 2nd hand work pc I got was absolutely loaded with awesome games (and what must have been a megaton of company documents I now realise, corporate espionage anyone?). Ahhhh, simple times before they had network/pc policies. \0/
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/09 @ 10:58

  • rotmm #6 3 years ago

    I always thought that the MS Flight Sim would have been a fantastic XBox360 product. That type of game doesn't appeal to most, but there is a significant gamerbase of hardcore flight-sim fans that would never usuallu look at a console, but who would also love the idea of playing on their 50" TV's with a well made MS Flight Stick.

    Sure, those aren't the kind of gamers who would buy 8-10 games per console, but they are the kind who would relish the kind of DLC model that the 360 provides so well.

    I have been waiting for that announcement since the launch of the 360, but it looks like it's never going to happen and I'm just deluded ;)

  • syst #7 3 years ago

    Oh, man. MS Flight Simualtor on Xbox 360 was my secret dream.

  • LowEnergyCycle #8 3 years ago

    @Xerx3s

    Off-topic, but heck! You just reminded me:

    A guy left our company to join the Marines last year, and when he'd gone wefound nothing less than an entrirely catagorised collection of hardcore pornography. That he'd even gone to the lengths of grading out of 5 (by sticking Xs after each file name) was the icing on the cake.

    Our network policies used to be fairly... um... poor.

  • Penguinzoot #9 3 years ago

    That type of game doesn't appeal to most, but there is a significant gamerbase of hardcore flight-sim fans

    That's exactly what I would have thought. I mean, I always enjoyed messing around in Flight Sim (for a few hours per year), but I know a lot of fans are pretty religious about it. I was always under the impression that MS regarded FS as a bit of a niche but flagship product that they were actually quite proud of.

    So, is this the end for FS (sad, if so), or does this restructuring simply mean that FS now comes directly under the aegis of MGS?

  • oceanmotion #10 3 years ago

    The latest Flight Sim game has been out for yonks and still doesn't perform well apparently. I think patience just ran out on this one and seemed the obvious choice for the cut. I don't think they will can FS, just start over and hit the ground running. Bill Gates is a big fan.

  • IronCladChicken #11 3 years ago

    The MSX has been completly forgotten already?

  • smurphs #12 3 years ago

    "The latest Flight Sim game has been out for yonks and still doesn't perform well apparently."

    Is that the case? I've just bought a new laptop (which can play older stuff - it's got a Geforce 9200 in) and was hoping to pick up a copy soon.

  • rascoj64 #13 3 years ago

    this sucks, love flight sim!

  • viper_h #14 3 years ago

    I've played FSX on my Q6600, with a GeForce 8800GTS and it runs like crap. You think they could've bothered to optimize it a bit...

  • T4RG4 #15 3 years ago

    Flight Sim for X360 would be tops. Always thought its a shame there are no good flight games on the machine. Could do with being brought up to date with consoles in mind (presentation/options/specific leaderboard challenges perhaps). Not dumbed down, just polished.
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/09 @ 12:58

  • Scoops #16 3 years ago

    Can't be bothered to check but didn't MS take this off softLogic which introduced the program before that?

  • Eraysor #17 3 years ago

    As much as I love FSX, even Crysis runs better on my rig than that game.

  • FogHeart #18 3 years ago

    Strategy Review+Adjustment+Align=Dilbert cartoon.

  • Dop #19 3 years ago

    Scoops: Not Softlogic, Sublogic, who originally did the flight simulator which Microsoft bought up.

  • koopa #20 3 years ago

    Crap, that probably means no FS 2010 this year, they released the game every two years right?

    But on the bright side, Maddox will probably (or hopefully) finish Storm of War: Battle of Britain this year.
    Edited by 1 at 26/01/09 @ 16:31

  • Pro_Gamer #21 3 years ago

    ...and Flight Sim counts as a video game now? o_0

  • jmg123 #22 3 years ago

    Shame about this, I loved one of the dos versions in the early 90's on my amstrad. never really had a pc capable of playing the latest versions since. :-( It would be great if they made it for the 360, as it (and a few other exclusives) would tempt me to get one to complete my console collection.