Last Frontier mission 7 - I had more fun with previous Hawaii mission pack tbh.
2 Likes
Dovetail’s Flight Sim World is being shuttered. No real big surprise there. I mean, with FSX, P3D, and X-Plane all making up the bulk of the market, it was a really hard sell for FSW to push another platform, no matter how good it is.
https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/flight-sim-world-closure-announcement.4514/#post-29332
A bit predictable… The Train Simulator business model seemed to work for them, but crowd for flight sims just wasn’t the same. You can’t just ask someone who invested hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars in a flight sim platform to just switch on a dime like that.
1 Like
Wow that was quick. I played it for a few minutes, then I refunded it on steam. Just didn’t offer enough more than XP11 for me.
Considering it seems the third party market is often what keeps these sims relevant, it’s obviously a pretty tough market to break into.
That’s a bummer, despite having love-hate relationship with the sim I hoped for something good in the long run. Seems like the crowd playing it wasn’t too big to support their dev team. It only shows that making good flight sims is really hard. At least they tried.
1 Like
Some interesting discussion on the topic
Well, thanks for trying, Dovetail!
Anybody who tries to make a flightsimulator, have my respect.
3 Likes
I hoped that they will have suces in the end and the FSW will become the new FSX. There was even some compatibility between FSX and FSW in regards to the aircrafts.
At least I had good time with it flying to 
2 Likes
Froogle ripping FSW and conjecturing that DTG might go after LocMart. Not sure that I agree with every point of his we are the world rant, but he certainly brings up some interesting thoughts on the subject.
3 Likes
Very interesting video (I did watch the whole thing). I wonder what amount of his ponderings are speculation and what are informed whispers. Froogle is very well connected with the industry (full disclosure - I “work” with him in providing content for PC Pilot magazine) and it would not surprise me that people in the know have reached out to him and he probably has some inside baseball.
That said - I agree that X-Plane is starting to devour FSX and P3D. It is a shift that has happened gradually, but I do think it is picking up steam. Why? Because you have a developer and his team (Austin and Laminar) that are aviation enthusiasts who seem to want to get things right, and they continually upgrade their platform as opposed to propping up an old architecture.
I don’t know that Dovetail would go after Lockheed Martin though. I don’t see that as a winnable situation and I don’t think the lawyer fees would be worthwhile. It would be doubling down on a strategy just to try to RECOUP money…and I don’t think that is in Dovetail’s best interests. I would LOVE to know how much money Dovetail paid above and beyond the “Consortium’s” offer…
Anyway, very interesting video. I love Froogle and love his take on things.
2 Likes
I can see a scenario where DT would hope for an out of court settlement with LM though. P3D is definitely trampling on DT’s turf, even if it isn’t marketed as “entertainment” software. I’m not saying that LM is entirely to blame here, but they could/should probably do more to enforce the terms of their academic license.
1 Like
I’m surprised no one posted Tim Stone’s article on this yet.
3 Likes
I’ve seen that RPS article. Most seem biased in different directions IMHO. Anyone can have different opinions but we might never know all the facts that went behind the scenes. The worst case scenario is that DTG indeed take on LM for not enforcing its academic licesnce and thus “hurting” its sales. It’s not likely that they would succeed, but the harm done to the FSX and its descendant would be done. It might even backfire in the long run at Robert Randazzo (big antagonist of FSW from PMDG who did spread misinformation about the DTG sim) hurting his sales for the platform he is developing for.
I for one transitioned finally to X-Plane 11. Just bought the sim 2 days ago. Got Ortho4XP and Poland Pro (VFR Overlay) by antwob and I’m stunned! It’s just amazing. The best part is that i got the scenery for my entire country, rivalling most commercial products, for free.
3 Likes
I’m sure Laminar loves the infighting going on between FSW, legacy FSX fans, and P3D. It can only benefit them.
Personally, I don’t care much about how the big personalities in the flight sim world act (Jim Rhodes, Randazzo, Mathijs Kok) because sometimes you sort of have to be direct and rude to get things done. Honestly, that does seem to be the formula for staying successful in this odd little niche…you sort of have to be that kind of personality and it can’t be coincidence that that is what it takes.
From the information I’ve listened to and read so far, there does seem to be a lot going on behind the scenes and everyone is obviously jockeying to put their best interests first. As a consumer more than an industry guy (again - full disclosure, I make money by writing about all manner of flight sim stuff for an industry magazine) - I would love to see the choices whittled down to just three. Sure, there are the drawbacks that come with that (monopolization and lack of choice perhaps), but I’m honestly weary of trying to keep up with FSX-SE, P3D, X-Plane and DCS. At some point, I’m going to have to leave FSX-SE behind.
And I’ve said it a million times - you can’t compete with FSX-SE with a product like FSW because FSW didn’t have enough out of the box to keep interest. FSX-SE has a huge mission set, training, fun stuff to do…it is a full on game and sim even when you don’t look at 3rd party add-ons. Base FSW simply wasn’t enough there at launch to keep people interested.
I’d honestly have loved to have seen where the Consortium idea would have gone. I mean…that is some pretty heavy talent. Of course, keeping a team like that together and not having it devolve into an all out battle with those types of personalities would have been a soap opera in itself.
So now we wait and see what becomes of FSX after all this. Meanwhile, XP11 keeps plugging along, updating every couple months and attracting more and more users.
2 Likes
thx for linking it @near_blind, many answers to my questions in a single article.
Was wondering why just two 3party devs developed addon a/c for FSW…
Best thing they can do imo is to sell it. Hopefuly without asking too much…
I agree 100%. It would might have ended in similar disaster.
I’ll use my own mentality to analyze the thinking of others. It is slightly stressful having these variations of essentially the same thing out there. Seeking simplicity, the human brain wishes that at least some of the other choices would die so that it wouldn’t feel compelled to consider them. Being far less passionate than I once was, I stick with one and ignore even the existence of any other. It kinda works.
1 Like
I’ve always wondered about that “educational licence” and “professional license” distinction in P3D. Be interesting to see whether Froogle’s predictions of legal challenges comes to fruition. For myself, I left FSX a long time ago and threw my betting money on the X-Plane series.
1 Like
I caught up with this story today, and all in all it just reads like a solemn experience on how not to manage a established franchise.
1 Like
Some more views from the community on the causes of demise of FSW
