> MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division It's true that it was Bill's pet project. But it was one of th

> MSFS was Bill Gates' pet project. He loved it, and even though it was a money losing division It's true that it was Bill's pet project. But it was one of the best-selling PC games for 20 years and sold millions of copies, so "money-losing" is unlikely - maybe in a weird enterprise accounting way. It's also a useful standard game for their games division. Also, MS could probably get the DoD to fund all development. MSFS was used in a lot of military sims over the years, so it's a useful thing beyond gaming. (Lockheed resold MSFS for several years during the hibernation, calling it "Pr3par3d.") If you look at AW&ST around 2000, you can spot MSFS being used for terrain generation in full-page ads for military sims. MSFS is one of the most underrated software products of all time. Even with MSFS5, I was able to get my IFR rating in the minimum amount of instruction time. I would call it the first true virtual reality product.