NZFF

Just a bit more info on what we'll get next year, although I'm sure this won't make any difference to how the community ties itself in knots. Jorg is the ideal person to head this, with his evident enthusiasm, and down-to-earthness which is a bit lacking in the community. He once again makes the point that MSFS was never called 'MSFS 2020', it was the community which named it that. I have been thinking that maybe the community have brought a new sim on themselves, I can just imagine the conversation:

Hey, you know our great plan to make MSFS a 10-year project? The community insist on calling it '2020', and I'm wondering how we'll actually get to sell it for another 7 years, if it is already perceived as an old sim?
Yeah, dammit, nobody's gonna get too excited about it in 2025, or 2027. if everyone thinks of it as an oldie from 2020. Let me think about that...

So here we go, MSFS 2024, which does suggest a MSFS 2026 and 2028...

https://youtu.be/VPhScg_FINE

Looks amazing, it certainly answered my questions about how it handled the close-up ground detail which the trailer showed. This is actually how I hoped it would be, with a world-wide plausible layer of 3D detail -- rocks, trees etc -- layered over the aerial imagery. So I'll now be able to land in a field on the West Coast to view the Alps and not have the blurry immediate surroundings spoil the distant scenics.

Not a lot of detail of the new physics, but it does look like this will be a major upgrade. Hot air ballooning, anyone?

12 million users!
Wow small wonder we are positively flooded with choice in the aftermarket, if you sold just 1 thing at $1 to just 5% of those users, you would have NZD1m in the bank.
But yes, what a laidback and upbeat crowd.
In the full-length clip they had no sound for the Trimotor demo trailer, and Jorg called for help.
The MC said: Hey MS is asking ME to make the sound work??
Great atmosphere, and a great product.

I've gone from being a bit dubious and dare I say even a bit disappointed when it was first announced (like I think a lot of people were) to being very excited. It does look like a significant step forward and not just MSFS with a few extra missions tacked on. I have been consistently impressed with Asobo's willingness to work with and listen to the community, even if they sometimes have got things a bit wrong, so I did suspect they weren't about to just do a blatant cash grab and screw us all over.

It's interesting that of 12 million users, 3m are core simmers, 3m are core gamers. I take from this that they won't want to prioritize either group, but the gamers will get their fair share of features. Which is fair enough, even though a lot of very vocal folk online talk about it just becoming a video game, and abandoning simmers. Then there's the 6m casual gamers, who may be enticed by the occasional weird addon or tie-in, but even I'm looking forward to the Dune addon:)

We are just over a week away from the P3D6 release, so it is a good time to compare the two now. I must admit that the P3D6 trailer does nothing for me, now it looks like stepping back 5 or 10 years. Yes, I know I'm one of those who say you can't judge anything from a single trailer, but I suspect that I won't be a P3D6 fan.

I'm really enjoying the presentations at FlightSimExpo this year. It's obviously growing incrementally each year, and some big developers are taking it serious and are in attendance this year. Hopefully, I might get to attend in person sometime in the future.

I've been a Captain at Flight Simulation Association since August 2021, and watched this website grow.
I've really enjoyed the discounts that they provide, and these have well and truly paid for my annual subscription. Plus getting access online to FlightSimExpo is a bonus.

Flight Sim Expo 2023 FSElite Interview with Microsoft and Asobo Studio