The first of many? Microsoft shuts down Flight Simulator studio

Posted Jan 23, 2009 at 12:28PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Lionhead Studios, Microsoft, Sony
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Microsoft's game studios - Image 1 


SCE may be confident that Sony's games divisions are safe, but Microsoft's own games department suffered a whack of the axe. ACES, the studio responsible for the Microsoft Flight Simulator series, has officially been shut down.

This news followed straight after Microsoft's report that they'll be letting go of 5,000 people as part of their restructuring plan. ACES is the latest of Microsoft's Studios to be shut down, following first FASA Studio (responsible for ShadowRun and Mech Warrior), and then Ensemble (Age of Empires and Halo Wars).

Microsoft studios who are in the clear (so far) are Lionhead Studios (which recently released Fable II), and Rare (Banjo and Kazooie 3). These two will probably be kept on. Microsoft may have a large pool of third-party devs to support the Xbox 360, but losing first-party studios will ultimately mean less exclusives, which is bad for business.

Via Venture Beat

 
 
 

Comments

by Justingraziano - 2009-01-23 15:02:28
HAHA

As Sony goes up, Microsoft goes down. Look at all the good games coming to the PS3 this year, then look how many Microsoft has! lol! The Xbox $360 is officially dead.
by Aceboogz - 2009-01-23 17:23:49
GTFO

WTF are you talking about? You sound like a little child. If you ever read qj, clearly someone made an article about how Microsoft is keeping its exclusives a secret. Before you start posting nonsense get your facts straight.
by StingBlah - 2009-01-23 22:25:11
@boogz

Yea but dude, why would a company keep its exclusives "secret" while the competition attracts all the consumers?? MS prolly just didnt want to sound retarded by not having anything planned, so they made up some BS.
by Master Chef - 2009-01-24 01:34:15
lol

Your comments are always extremely stupid and childish, and usually not worth bothering with, but I have to reply. Here are some factoids for you Sony will be posting an operating loss of 2.9 billion dollars, its first loss in 14 years, and more than double predictions which were pegged at 1.1 billion Because of the losses, Sony is planning a major restructuring of the entire company, which will include cutting spending, closing plants, and possibly shutting development studios (which Sony says won't happen, but of course they're not going to tell people something like that). The restructuring plan will also include laying off many more people than MS, 16,000. "Sony goes up, Microsoft goes down" my ass. They're both down chump, Sony more so. And if you ask me, both consoles exclusives are hit or miss. Nothing but Killzone 2 and Uncharted 2 jump out at me on the PS3 side, since White Knight and Heavy Rain look dumb to me, and I don't care for most of Sony's franchises, like Jak + Daxter and Ratchet and Clank. I might get God of War 3, but I've never played GoW so I don't know what it's like. On the Xbox side, the only confirmed exclusives I want are Halo Wars and Halo Recon, everything else looks bland. Star Ocean 4 might be good. If you count PC-Xbox exclusives then add in Alan Wake (if it makes 09) and Mass Effect 2 (which might be for PS3 as well). Overall disappointing year so far for console exclusives, but I'm assuming both MS and Sony will have more to say at E3.
by nomder - 2009-01-24 01:41:38
The Other day....

My little brother had a choice to buy a ps3 or a 360. So he picked a 360 and brought it home. He was really happy until he asked me to take his profile off of my 360 and put it on to his. WithOUT a memory UNIT (we don't own one) the process was going to be pretty long. Then he asked if I could put movies onto his xbox hard drive. No, I said. He asked if he could use my wireless connection to play online. No, I responded, because he'd have to pay 40-100 bucks to buy a wifi adapter and 8 bucks a month just to play a game online that he just paid 60 dollars for. "Well what the hell can I do with it? He asked." "You can take it back and get a ps3 so you can do all of the above and then some," I responded. You know what he did? He took it back. Now we can play online together on the same internet connection for no extra charge. I don't care what anyone says. I don't care how many games there are for the 360 that are better than the ps3. I don't even care that xbox live is better than playstation's service. As a consumer, all I care about is the company giving a ***** about their customers and providing an affordable system that doesn't make me pay 40-100 bucks for accessories that should have been included with the system when it launched. I own 4 xbox 360's and there are now 2 playstaion 3's in my house. The xbox 360's continue to collect dust. I was a playstation user who switched to xbox years ago and now I've switched back. Sony might have marketed wrong, but their product is so much better that I can't believe people still argue for the 360. It's a shame because as consumer whores, they are totally missing the point. Oh well, it's your money, throw it away. Might even help the economy! Lol. BTW, Shadowrun sucked ballz! Worst game I ever played hands down. End Rant.
by BryCee12 - 2009-01-24 07:05:01
Right on!

I get sick of the 360 fanboys an ignore them, because all they sook about is the price, so i came to the conclusion that: Xbox 360 is for people who cant afford a PS3 Argue all you want but its true, think about it. And next time save your money and go for the flagship model. Off that arguement, my friend owns a 360 (as do several of them, though a majority of them own a PS3). He plays his Xbox all day everyday an swears by it, wouldnt trade it for the world, and if you told him PS3 was better he would literally attack you because of it. Well when i first got my PS3(2 years ago now, one of the lucky ones with the 60GB) he rarely came over, though nowerdays he comes over all the time, you know why? because he fell inlove with it, he will call me to ask me if im playin PS3 and if i say im not, he will come over just to play it. The games like MGS(which every 1 has completely forgotten about, like that is the BEST game i have ever played, owns COD4 and Resistance) Resistance 1+2, Warhawk, LBP and more caught his eye, and now his is saving up every cent to buy a PS3. My morale of this story is, untill you have tried both consoles, DONT HATE EITHER OF THEM! specially the 360 fanboys that cant find enough money the buy a PS3.. BryCee
by StingBlah - 2009-01-24 09:36:52
what's wrong with you?

what could you possibly want with 4 Xbox 360's? That being said, you tell it brothaaa!! ps3 owns!
by JaXeRiR - 2009-01-24 11:37:29
Master Chef,

I salute you.
by JaXeRiR - 2009-01-24 11:42:31
BryCee12,

The funny thing is, I've been browsing QJ for a long, long time. All I see is PS3 fanboys ranting about how the Xbox 360 sucks and the PS3 rules, but rarely do I see any Xbox 360 fanboys bashing the PS3. Seriously. You think that if you don't attack the Xbox 360 in the comments section of every single article you can find, as soon as possible, Xbox 360 fanboys will be all over the place bashing your precious console? Wrong.
by jacobian91 - 2009-01-24 12:14:20
y'know

Nobody bashes PS3 because it rocks! lol. I don't know, I've never actually had a chance to play a PS3, so you might as well disregard that. Accroding to G4, Microsoft said that the Flight Simulator series will continue...dunno how that'll work with the studio shut down, but whatever.
by Master Chef - 2009-01-24 21:30:42
Most probably can't afford both, true

But I'd call it a stretch to say people who can afford at least the premium ($300), can't afford the extra hundred for the base PS3. Most can't afford both, and I guess there are a lot of people who can afford an Arcade and maybe one accessory but can't get a PS3. But if you can drop $300 for a premium, you can drop $400 for a PS3 I can afford both and have both, and honestly, the reason people buy premiums and elites over the PS3, is because when you look at the games, the 360 does win overall. And for less money. I just picked up LBP and Res 2, so I now own every PS3 exclusive game, and the only ones that are absolutely must-play titles are MGS4 and LBP. Everything else is good (Resistance, Warhawk, Uncharted), some great (Resistance 2), but not at that classic level. On the 360, Dead Rising, Gears 1 and 2, Halo 3, Fable 2, are all amazing must-play games that can't be beat anywhere else

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