Personal Computer Flight Simmers have justifiably earned themselves a place as an independent section of the Aero Club of SA. They take their virtual flying very seriously, so it was a big disappointment when Microsoft cancelled further development of its industry standard: MS FlightSim. At the time it seemed inexplicable.

The Association of Virtual Aviation writes: “Modern PC flight simulator software so accurately mimics real world aviation that real world pilots are stunned when first introduced to them. An entire virtual world of aviation can be created, duplicating the real world in every detail, or almost every detail. Not only is it possible to create the very accurate flying capabilities of any type of aircraft, but also virtual weather and air traffic.”

FlightSim was so good that, as thousands of real pilots discovered, it was useful for running through a new let down at a strange airport.

The last version, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, came out in October 2006. Since then virtual aviators have had to rely on X-Plane, which now seems to have set the bar above Microsoft’s reach.  X-Plane 10 has over 1,400 aircraft, 33,000 airports, and some of the best looking scenery in the history of commercial aviation sims.

The trouble is, the world has moved on and probably become dumber. So Microsoft is dumbing down its flight sim by changing it into merely a game. And not only is it a game, it is a free game.

So Microsoft evidently decided not to compete. I assume Microsoft took a look at its balance sheet based on the number of developers it was paying, the protracted development cycles, and the lacklustre product sales, and decided it was time to move on from FlightSim.

The reality is that flight simulation has always been a specialised, and thus niche product. It just looked big to us as it achieved so much success amongst flying enthusiasts. But what with Playstation and X-Box, gamepads have made joysticks, yokes, and rudder pedals seem like artefacts from an archaeological dig.

Microsoft’s Flight game is designed to be much more friendly to casual players and gamers who want to play it like a game, but with the option to scale all the way up for serious PC pilots who want FSX realism.

Why is it for free? Because Microsoft needs to circulate the game en masse to get it off the ground. That’s not going to happen in retail stores, where PC games have all but disappeared. So Microsoft is going to give the game away, or at least a micro-version of the game. It presumably expects people to then start paying for the upgrades. This is called the ‘freemium’ model.

Let’s hope it creates the enthusiasm and knowledge of flying that that FlightSim so splendidly did.