Microsoft Flight launches in spring as free-to-play

Microsoft Flight will launch into the skies of Hawaii this spring, held aloft by wizardry and a free-to-play model. Extra aircraft, missions and "customization options" will be sold through Games for Windows Live.

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Microsoft Flight will launch into the skies of Hawaii this spring, held aloft by wizardry and a free-to-play model, Microsoft has confirmed. A selection of planes and missions will be available for free, with more aircraft, regions and "customization options" sold through Games for Windows Live.

While you'll be able to fly above Hawaii by twiddling knobs and pressing buttons within the cockpit, following "authentic piloting procedures," if you really want to, Microsoft's hoping to appeal to new players too with optional keyboard and mouse controls from an external view.

Curiously--and perhaps sensibly--a Games for Windows Live login isn't mandatory, but Microsoft will encourage players to sign up by offering freebies and goodies including a Boeing Stearman plane, extra missions, a pilot profile, and Gamerscore-boosting achievements.

Players will get to fly the amphibious Icon A5 for free before the actual plane launches, Microsoft also revealed. "Why should this fact excite me?" you may ask. Well, it's the latest snazzy small plane intended to make aviation accessible to all--though the $139,000 price tag might hinder that.

There's no word yet on how much extra content will cost, but Microsoft set prices surprisingly high in Age of Empires Online, the free-to-play RTS announced alongside Flight.

These were two of the games Microsoft pointed to in 2010 as a sign of its renewed commitment to PC gaming, along with the PC edition of Fable III. Fifteen months later, we've yet to see Microsoft follow through on its observation that it needed to "step up" its PC gaming efforts, but at least we'll get to play Flight soon.

If you want to play a little sooner, beta signups are still open.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    January 4, 2012 8:15 AM

    Alice O'Connor posted a new article, Microsoft Flight launches in spring as free-to-play.

    Microsoft Flight will launch into the skies of Hawaii this spring, held aloft by wizardry and a free-to-play model. Extra aircraft, missions and "customization options" will be sold through Games for Windows Live.

    • reply
      January 4, 2012 8:21 AM

      [deleted]

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        January 4, 2012 8:33 AM

        :/ I need to know if it'll be a full sim (ATC, FSUIPC, VATSIM/FICO support, etc) or if it's just a dumb game.

        My PMDG 737-NX has been lonely in her hanger.

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        January 4, 2012 8:44 AM

        I haven't played any of these since way back in the day, but like you I'm hoping this new one is a true sim and hopefully not too arcadey.

        I was mainly planning on setting it up for my dad, as he used to buy them each year they came out. He was a private pilot for around 30 years, but due to a couple outbreaks of transient global amnesia he had to sell his plane and stop flying altogether. :(

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        January 4, 2012 2:38 PM

        Haiku, have you played X-plane? My pilot friend used to swear by that game but I don't know if he still plays it.

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          January 4, 2012 2:46 PM

          X-Plane 10 actually just came out. There is a demo for it as well. It looks really nice but didn't run that well and it's kinda hard to set up. Nighttime flying in it looks so good though. Check out the videos I posted of it below.

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      January 4, 2012 8:40 AM

      Uhhh, I hate this FTP shit. Just let me pay $50-$60 up front and be done with it.

      The less I have to deal with GFWL the better.....

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        January 4, 2012 9:12 AM

        Ya a "pro" option for $50 would be interesting option for some users. A bit like websites being free but ad supported unless you pay a yearly subscription.

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        January 4, 2012 8:49 PM

        I'm with you on Freemium. Give people who want the full game the $50-60 option, but if people want to pay bit by bit, then fine. I honestly don't like the idea of renting bits and pieces of a game. If I buy a gun, I want that gun permanently on my account. Freemium seems just like any overpriced DLC in the long run.

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      January 4, 2012 11:35 AM

      [deleted]

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      January 4, 2012 12:33 PM

      if the pay options include texture streaming ala tileproxy I miht get suckered into it

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        January 4, 2012 1:25 PM

        Wow are they modeling wing flexing in X-plane? that's crazy. I wonder if it is just a graphic effect, or if it has an affect on the flight model.

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          January 4, 2012 2:16 PM

          Yea they are. I'm not sure if it affects the flight model or not though. Check this example of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijdZwKn7TsQ&feature=player_detailpage#t=147s

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          January 4, 2012 2:20 PM

          It's been there in MSFS since at least FS2004. Our 737 has an actual physics-based wing loading model that determines now much it flexes in any situation...

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            January 4, 2012 2:49 PM

            ^ Tabs is one of the PMDG members. The 737 I'm talking about in my post is from them. It's the best sim plane you can buy. (biased opinion).

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            January 4, 2012 3:10 PM

            Are you still as excited about Flight as you used to be? I posted long ago about how I was worried about whether MS would be turning the FS series into a crappy game with MS Flight but you seemed convinced they were still headed the right direction at the time. This F2P thing is yet another "wtf?" choice. I mean, it could certainly still turn out to be fine, but when you add everything together that we've heard about this game, I'm not encouraged that it will be much of a simulator.

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        January 4, 2012 2:22 PM

        Wow, they made our MD-11 look pretty nice in that third video, hadn't seen that before!

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      January 4, 2012 2:34 PM

      Ok so I just read that MS Flight is not going to support 3rd party addons or mods. What is MS thinking? The sim community is going to shit all over this. I will still get it because it looks fun but it's probably going to be ignored, or quickly forgotten, by most the flight sim community now.

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        January 4, 2012 3:37 PM

        They're basically surrendering the market to X-Plane. It's pretty disappointing, considering MGS head Dave Luehmann saying this back in September 2010:

        http://www.shacknews.com/article/65724/microsoft-game-studios-we-need
        "We are putting some real investment and big IPs behind the Windows platform," he insists, including the PC port of Fable 3 as well as recently-announced Microsoft Flight and free-to-play Age of Empires Online. "However we are not going to stop there."

        Since then, the PC port Fable 3 was released last May, a middling port of a middling game, and Age of Empires Online was released August 2011, to middling reviews. I'm personally not interested in Microsoft Flight, since it's basically, "Fly this one plane around Hawaii!!", and I pretty much did that in Flight Simulator 5.0 until I got bored of it (okay, it was flying a Cessna around Chicago). Flight sims are kinda boring to me aside from takeoff and landing; I find driving sims to be much more engaging.

        In terms of what games Microsoft Game Studios is going to offer on the PC next, we'll have to wait for an announcement. I'm not optimistic, after seeing them arc from 360 ports to free-to-play games on IPs of long-since-burned-down studios.

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          January 4, 2012 3:40 PM

          Maybe they'll bring back Midtown Madness and all will be forgiven!

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            January 4, 2012 3:45 PM

            They had a chance to buy Bizarre Creations from Activision, but didn't. Could've resurrected Project Gotham Racing, but no, Microsoft already have Turn 10 and Forza, and didn't want to spend any money, so they let them liquidate.

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        January 4, 2012 3:45 PM

        So, no Track IR etc? That's madness.

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          January 4, 2012 5:11 PM

          hmm im sure that'll at least be supported. There's no way I will get it without trackIR support.

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        January 4, 2012 4:31 PM

        That right there kills it utterly.

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        January 4, 2012 4:50 PM

        so much for that

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      January 4, 2012 8:19 PM

      [deleted]

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        January 4, 2012 8:42 PM

        [deleted]

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          January 5, 2012 11:12 AM

          Yeah, it's... interesting.

          Magic multiplayer is pretty slick.

          Right now it definitely feels watered down. There are significantly less control binding options than in previous versions, no support for TrackIR, etc.

          The FOV is totally fucked up on Eyefinity setups.

          Disappointed so far, but we'll see...

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        January 4, 2012 8:54 PM

        looks like trackIR is not currently supported : (

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        January 5, 2012 1:45 AM

        here goes.. probably going to start it once to see how it looks then delete.

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      January 4, 2012 8:40 PM

      Welp there goes another MMO that went by the wayside. Can't wait to buy pilot-armor.

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