Microsoft closes Flight Sim studio News
PC News by Ellie Gibson
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.
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Comments: 1-21 of 21 in total
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"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. |
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@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. |
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LowEnergyCycle
26/01/09 @ 10:35
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@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. |
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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/
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most recently on 26/01/09 @ 10:58
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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 ;) |
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LowEnergyCycle
26/01/09 @ 11:16
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@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. |
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Penguinzoot
26/01/09 @ 11:18
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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? |
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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 1 times,
most recently on 26/01/09 @ 12:58
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Comments: 1-21 of 21 in total
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