X-Plane now available via Steam

• • Addons, Payware
X-Plane10

As first seen by me at SimStop this week we see X-Plane is now available via Steam. This is a sensible move from the Laminar guys, the product has always been up against the popularity of the MS franchise and anything that gets X-Plane in front of new eye-balls is a good thing. Be interesting to see how DLC will work and if other 3rd party tools will continue to work with the Steam delivered version.

X-Plane 10, the modern 64-bit desktop flight simulator from Laminar Research, creators of the X-Plane franchise, has made its debut as a digital download on the popular Steam platform. On the first day of its release X-Plane skyrocketed to the number seven spot on the Top-Seller list in Steams USA store and to number five in the German Steam store. X-Plane 10 was recently green-lighted by Steam and also received top-ratings when voted on by Steam users for consideration for inclusion in their product offerings.

see the Simstop article

Dovetail Games’ Licensing Deal With Microsoft Takes Flight

• • Payware
DoveTail

Well I guess I couldn’t not post something about this story, even if it really is splattered all over the simming communities so be surprised if you don’t know about it already. After a couple of months of speculation it turns out the mystery licensee of the MS Flight platform is DoveTail, the creators of Train Simulator. Going to be interesting to see if there are any practical synergies between the two platforms or if it’s more of an investment thing where they essentially market them as two completely separate products. Either way you’d have to say it’s a positive thing for the community to see a little life breathed back into Flight. Also of interest is their agreement to distribute FSX via Steam so going to be some pretty interesting DLC options on the horizon I expect…

The award-winning creators of the best-selling Train Simulator franchise have today announced a global licensing deal with Microsoft, granting them the rights to develop and publish all-new flight products based on Microsoft’s genre-defining flight technology. The company is currently investigating new concepts in this area and is expecting to bring a release to market in 2015.

In addition to this licensing agreement, Dovetail Games is pleased to announce that it has also acquired the rights to distribute the multi-award winning Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition via Valve’s popular digital retail channel, Steam

see the DoveTail press release