Railworks America

Good Morning:

I wonder if this is going to happen to Train Sim World.

https://forums.dovetailgames.com/thread ... post-29332

Ha

No surprise there.

Das what happens.

I hate to see a venture go bust but I really think the flight sim market is pretty well carved up already and not an easy one to break into.

Flight simmers are very critical and relatively wealthy, since good planes and scenery cost significant money, as does good FS hardware.

Were DTG really into flight simulations, or were they halfhearted from the start? Is the market perhaps saturated with Aerofly, Xplane, DCS, Prepare3D (which all support VR now)?

I think TSW hasn't returned a single penny into DTG's coffers yet. Their market strategy isn't very clear, the prototype licenses of popular US railway companies not secured?

If DTG doesn't quickly pull TSW out of the misery it has sunken into, I see no commercial reason to keep this franchise afloat.
No more buggy DLC of truncated routes and one single train running to-and-fro, first but fix the bugs in the existing game, bring on the promised editors and have some 3rd parties involved in expanding the territory.

_o_OOOO_oo-Kanawha wrote:Flight simmers are very critical and relatively wealthy, since good planes and scenery cost significant money, as does good FS hardware.

Were DTG really into flight simulations, or were they halfhearted from the start? Is the market perhaps saturated with Aerofly, Xplane, DCS, Prepare3D (which all support VR now)?

I think TSW hasn't returned a single penny into DTG's coffers yet. Their market strategy isn't very clear, the prototype licenses of popular US railway companies not secured?

If DTG doesn't quickly pull TSW out of the misery it has sunken into, I see no commercial reason to keep this franchise afloat.
No more buggy DLC of truncated routes and one single train running to-and-fro, first but fix the bugs in the existing game, bring on the promised editors and have some 3rd parties involved in expanding the territory.

+1

Well? It was an unexpected surprise for me.
FSX is still in good shape (I have played the boxed version a lot before TS) and the really expensive Virtual Pilot 3D 2018 for Pro´s is looking nicely, for those that can pay for it.

About TSW, my opinion has been since nearly a year ago, that it will go nowhere at some time soon. It was born with core issues, probably not fixable at this time. Nice graphics, terrible performance if you want the best graphics. Mine is parked with no fuel, somewhere in my main computer.

jalsina wrote:Well? It was an unexpected surprise for me.
FSX is still in good shape (I have played the boxed version a lot before TS) and the really expensive Virtual Pilot 3D 2018 for Pro´s is looking nicely, for those that can pay for it.

I know this is off topic, but in the interest of saving someone an unpleasant surprise, Google 'Virtual Pilot 3D' and take note of the scam alerts.

Deleted

Must admit FSW seemed a tarted up version of FSX to me but with only GA aircraft not much interest to someone like me who likes flying the heavy iron. The GA aircraft were not that easy to fly either with complex autopilots, so not going to appeal to the casual simmer. Guess no option of a refund even though it is now a dead product.

I expect the exact reason for it folding will forever remain a trade secret but TSW has got to be on a wing and a prayer I would have thought. Very little discussion at any of the big forums and not much of that is positive.

I genuinely hope that Railworks aka TS20xx continues if only because the prodigal son here was on the verge of starting a route project having become a bit jaded with Trainz. The biggest issue DTG have and I hope it's okay to say this here, is that they just don't seem to listen. Numerous issues reported with TSW and indeed TS20xx but they rarely get acknowledged and even less actually addressed. As a company they need to start to listen and focus less on PR sound bites and actually engage with the simulation community to deliver a much better experience.

Ultimately if it ends, it ends.

Well.. maybe DTG will reassign those FSW resources over to TSW, and maybe... just maybe... there will be some more meaningful progress on TSW.

If they start handing some of the TSW keys over to 3rd party devs the floodgates will open....for them. How many people still buying TS20xx. lots.

eyein12 wrote:If they start handing some of the TSW keys over to 3rd party devs the floodgates will open....for them. How many people still buying TS20xx. lots.

Best comment on Train Sim World yet. There are so many talented people here. Sadley, DTG holds TSW with an iron fist. They have no interest in users ideas.

eyein12 wrote:If they start handing some of the TSW keys over to 3rd party devs the floodgates will open....for them. How many people still buying TS20xx. lots.

DTG can hand over all the content creation they want to outside developers. However, if TSW doesn't include some tools for developers to test their content creations in sim, then it's a mute point. It seems they are more interested in controlling the content then the quality of the sim.