They do. MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division, it soldiered on. Once he left, it shut down. This is a (very cool) advertisement for Azure Maps. It won't make any money, but as a proof of concept goes, it's going to be hard to do better than this.
> MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division
It's true that it was Bill's pet project.
But it was one of the best-selling PC games for 20 years and sold millions of copies, so "money-losing" is unlikely - maybe in a weird enterprise accounting way. It's also a useful standard game for their games division.
Also, MS could probably get the DoD to fund all development. MSFS was used in a lot of military sims over the years, so it's a useful thing beyond gaming. (Lockheed resold MSFS for several years during the hibernation, calling it "Pr3par3d.")
If you look at AW&ST around 2000, you can spot MSFS being used for terrain generation in full-page ads for military sims.
MSFS is one of the most underrated software products of all time. Even with MSFS5, I was able to get my IFR rating in the minimum amount of instruction time. I would call it the first true virtual reality product.
>But it was one of the best-selling PC games for 20 years and sold millions of copies, so "money-losing" is unlikely - maybe in a weird enterprise accounting way. It's also a useful standard game for their games division.
I guess "loses money" might be stretching it, but it was never profitable at the level that normal Microsoft software is profitable. It stuck around because BillG made it so.
On that note, Prepar3D is fabulous. I am an "academic" user who has spent thousands on addons because I am a goof. I am so excited for MSFS2020.
This is an urban myth I'm afraid. This was not Bill Gates' pet project nor was it conceived by anyone at Microsoft. Like many other MS technologies, it was initially conceived by a small company that was first supported, and later bought out, by Microsoft. It's been around since the 80s.
I have a Linux desktop and Mac laptop. I am considering installing Windows so I can run this simulator. Maybe that is the real business motivation for its release :)
