Microsoft Flight Sim grounded by redundancies

Mayday, mayday, we’re going down: Microsoft’s worldwide redundancies have claimed the team behind its iconic Flight Simulator – a franchise that has been running for 27 years, and includes maps produced with the help of Ian Taylor’s Wellington-based Terralink.

The BBC is reporting that Microsoft's global cull of 500 staff includes everyone at one of its inhouse game studios, Aces, which produces Flight Simulator.

The Beeb calls Flight Sim, which first flew on to shelves in 1982, possibly the longest-running franchise in the history of computer games. As the game evolved, its virtual world expanded. More and more 3D flight maps and terrain were added with the help of country-specific partners including Terralink, with helped create the New Zealand leg of Flight Sim.

Edelman, Microsoft's US public relations firm, said that the decision was made "to align our people against our highest priorities ... You should expect us to continue to invest in enabling great LIVE experiences on Windows, including flying games, but we have nothing specific to announce at this time." With the Seattle-based Aces crew grounded, Flight Sim faces an uncertain future.

Bonus lives
On independent fan site FlightSim.com, speculation is rife that Microsoft will either license the game to a third-party developer, or simply let it rust in the hanger.

Curiously, given its software-centric strategy in the computer market, which allows Microsoft to reap rich profits even as PC makers struggle on thin margins, the company's gaming division has taken the opposite approach, focusing more on hardware - especially its Xbox 360 console, which is succeeding in its war against Sony's PS3 (in the brutal, box-by-box unit sales fight, if not financially).

On the Venturebeat blog, Dean Takahashi notes "In the past year or so, Microsoft has shut down or divested itself of a lot of its hit-making studios. It recently decided to close Ensemble Studios, maker of the Age of Empires strategy games, and spun out Bungie, the maker of Halo games."

But there is an upside.

Assuming they survive in the wild, spun-off studios like Bungie can enjoy "more creative freedom to make games that didn’t run on the Microsoft Xbox 360 or PC platforms," Takahashi notes. (Microsoft retains a small ownership stake in Bungie, which had a previous independent life before the company bought it in 2000).