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Microsoft Flight launches in spring as free-to-play
by Alice O'Connor, Jan 04, 2012 8:15am PSTMicrosoft 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.
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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. Extra aircraft, missions and "customization options" will be sold through Games for Windows Live.
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. : Shacknews
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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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