There has been many recent talks about the simulation world starting to diminish. Many stuff going around saying sims are just not what they use to be, people are getting laid off because the demand for sims are down.I really don't think there will be much "shortage" of companies making sims. First off, there are lots of planes that companies have not touched on yet.
I haven't seen much legit (keyword: legit) current sims on the Rafale, Fulcrum, any Vietnam-era planes, Grippen, Nighthawk, and the list goes on. Obviously, there may not be such a demand for certain planes, but I'm sure a good amount of the people in the sim community would give it a try! I'm certainly one!
I bought JF18 when it came out. Now, certainly most normal people would say I'm a fool to also buy DISH. But hey! I love sims and I gotta try them out! Although I may be dissapointed by certain ones (no names), I'm still willing to go out and buy them and hold on to them.
Also, just look at the F/A-18E Super Hornet; it will most likely go into active service starting next year, and Digital Intergration and EA Janes got their own respective products out to simulate the plane.
When the YF-22 Lightning II came out, there were a bunch of companies all trying to simulate the YF-22 and some even tried to simulate the F-22A Raptor! Of course all of them were probably really off from the real thing, but nonetheless sims were created.
Imagine what will happen when the REAL F-22A Raptor goes into service? For one thing, EA Jane's have not made a F-22 study sim yet. I think they will when the real one goes into service sometime soon in the future.
The F-22 will (hopefully and I have confidence it will) be the new Air Dominance Fighter and lot of companies will try to jump on that fact and create a sim.
Also the JSF will come out soon after the F-22. What's also good about the JSF is that (I'm sure most of us know) the Brits are going to get JSF into their inventory too! Thus game companies over there are going to produce their own sims on the JSF.
Making new sims isn't only about simulating new planes but also ones that are long gone from service. There are plenty of sims of World War II and in that area of the timeline.
For one thing, to date, there has only been ONE legit sim on the F-14 Tomcat (Fleet Defender rules baby!). Even though the main purpose of the Tomcat is strictly Air-to-Air, that sure didn't stop me from the purchase of the old Microprose sim!
Aside from that, there are helo sims (the upcoming Gunship! and rumors of a Longbow III), ground war with tanks, etc.
Finally, what there may be a shortage of are the numbers of computer programmers that can produce these simulations. A simulation is really a program in essence. It is not easy to create a program that can fully replicate a fully functional killing machine.
If there is a good reason to produce a simulation and a good demand for it, simulations will always be here-- I just hope some of the stuff I listed above will give the reasons and demand.
[This message has been edited by Raptor (edited 04-02-2000).]
posted 04-02-2000 04:50 PM
