Microsoft announces Microsoft “Flight”

http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/

    They don't say much outside of this replacement being a part of their "Live enabled" software.  They talk about it having a social, shared experience and that they are reinventing it.  That scares the hell out of me just to think of what they might mean.  I don’t know how good they could possibly do at reinventing something that was 28 years in the making especially when they laid off everyone in the company that was involved with the actual development.

    I am afraid that whatever they come out with is going to be some pansy, candy-assed, arcade-ish, unrealistic version of the original flight simulator series.  I can just picture some more "presentation" oriented application that would be based more on fantasy,  imaging generated for aesthetic fantasy and dumbed-down informational sections about aviation trivia.  Like "Barbie and Ken fly to Paris" or some such idiotic commercialized bastardization of the flight simulator.  Perhaps the Sims 3 level of realism version of Flight Simulator or the equivalent of what EA did to the SimCity franchise when they handed the Maxis title over to Tilted Mill and they came out with the flop "Sim Societies" which hardly even related to the SimCity Series.  I just get the feeling whatever they do they will have a tendency to want to make it a game rather than a simulator.  You know, "reality isn't interesting enough for everyone" and that sort of mindset.  On the other hand there is a momentary pipe dream of the idea of the current flight simulator operating in a virtual world, real-time multiplayer network with air traffic control which would be extremely appealing.  However, I just can't imagine who in the world they would find that could manage to start from scratch and bring it up to the quality and level of realism that the Aces team had achieved to date.  Let alone the negative feelings I have towards Microsoft for laying off the guys on the Aces Team to scrap the title and then turn around and try to come out with a replacement afterwards. 

    Regardless of what they manage to release as this "Microsoft Flight", if it turns out to be an "online only" based application as is all software released by UbiSoft now, I will not even consider purchasing it just as I no longer by any UbiSoft titles of this type.  Making it mandatory for me to have an internet connection just to use software that I purchase is simply not acceptable.  I refuse to pay for a product from a company that wants to make me affectively have to keep running back to them for permission to use it every time.  It's simply not going to happen.

    Another remaining problem is Microsoft's reputation for consumer applications.  They have repeatedly, throughout their existence in the consumer market, abandoned their customer base.  They have repeatedly, simply dropped product lines.  Microsoft Flight Simulator, Microsoft Train Simulator (twice), Microsoft Money, Pocket PC Streets and Trips, Pocket PC Money, among others that I can't think of at the moment.  So, the notion of going back to them on a product series that I fear will fall short of what I already had at one time and that might also be abandoned some time down the line does not necessarily inspire me to invest my money or time.