The Knife, that man behind the scenes, a fount of knowledge in the FS world, who shall goe nameless on this website, has told me Microsoft will give up Flight Simulator.

His sources at Microsoft currently, and one from the former ACES team, have told him that Microsoft's move to shut down the Flight Simulator franchise is not all it seems.

They will give up Flight Simulator - but only on the PC. Instead, they are porting over what would have been FS 11 to - big surprise - the XBox, Microsoft's gaming system. 

Why?

More growth (more money).

The Knife explains that the old FS on PC model produced very little in the way of a revenue stream for Microsoft. Oh sure, they sold LOTS of units of FSX - but the gravy train really ends there for them, until the next version would come out; why not make money off the current version on a continuous basis?

You may have heard of World of Warcraft , a massively multiplayer online role-playing game? It has 11.5 million monthly subscribers. They must pay a fee as low as $12.99 a month to play. I'll save you the calculator time - that's about $149 million a month.

You think Microsoft didn't put two and two together? 

The XBox can also do online game play, and The Knife says this is what Microsoft is after - monthly revenue. And who can blame them? They are going to put out, according to him, "a flying game" of some sort, for the XBox, and charge a monthly fee to play online. The game, his sources say, will have what FSX doesn't have - animated characters, ala The Sims. They hope YOU go out and buy and XBox and the game, setting you back about $350. And of course, you can't just buy the XBox and one game - you'll need to buy more - all of which Microsoft gets a cut of. 

So you see, my friends, it's nothing about the FS franchise being a loser - it's about "re-deployment" in corporate speak.

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