4 ms·

Microsoft Flight Simulator comes on 10 discs

8 points by occamschainsaw 6y ago

gregjw 6y ago
Wow, shocking they're actually spending the money to produce a physical edition. Good guy Microsoft.
copperx 6y ago
Shipping a read-only 128GB thumb drive would be more practical, wouldn't it?
- sempron64 6y ago
  Interesting which is cheaper to produce. I have no idea about wholesale prices, but let's look at retail to get a rough ratio: 10 DVDs at retail cost $25 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-DVD-R-4-7GB-Recordable-Media/dp/B003ZDNZT2/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=100+dvds&qid=1594930720&sr=8-2 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-DVD-R-4-7GB-Recordable-Media... So $2.50 for 10 discs. An unbranded 128 GB usb stick is $16 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-128GB-Flash-SDCZ36-128G-B35/dp/B00TKFCYP0/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=usb+stick+128gb&qid=1594930866&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-128GB-Flash-SDCZ36-128... Assuming the box will be about the same size, it's likely that the DVDs are simply still cheaper. An interesting lament is that disk media did not really evolve past DVDs to blue-rays or multi-layer to the mass consumer market, as 100GB blu-ray discs are actually available (still more expensive per-GB than DVDs!) https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-100GB-White-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B00POY826G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=224DK5Z66DFRK&dchild=1&keywords=100+gb+blu-ray+disc&qid=1594931021&sprefix=100+gb+blu-ray+disc%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-100GB-White-Inkjet-Printable...
  - colejohnson66 6y ago
    One thing to keep in mind is that those DVDs need to be burned. Retail DVDs are usually "pressed" (like vinyl) IIRC, which is much cheaper.
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  FlightGear is available on DVD (in addition to download), but the scenery is available on a 128 GB flash drive[0] (in addition to download). [0]: http://store.flightgear.org/product/flightgear-complete-collection-128gb-usb/ http://store.flightgear.org/product/flightgear-complete-coll...
robscallsign 6y ago
I'm an avid flight simulator enthusiast with marginal internet and I think this is a great gesture by Microsoft. I live in "rural" Canada, approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) from a municipality of 160,000 people, and internet access for me is a mix of LTE and Satellite, and unlikely to improve (maybe Starlink!). Even limiting myself to focusing on a single flight simulator platform, Digital Combat Simulator, downloading and keeping the simulator updated requires planning and timing to work around my bandwidth cap. I've been following the development of Microsoft's new Flight simulator, but as soon as the download size was announced it seemed like a non-starter for me. But the announcement of a physical DVD changes this, and I'm now quite interested in their simulator.

gregjw 6y ago

Wow, shocking they're actually spending the money to produce a physical edition. Good guy Microsoft.

copperx 6y ago

Shipping a read-only 128GB thumb drive would be more practical, wouldn't it?

sempron64 6y ago
Interesting which is cheaper to produce. I have no idea about wholesale prices, but let's look at retail to get a rough ratio: 10 DVDs at retail cost $25 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-DVD-R-4-7GB-Recordable-Media/dp/B003ZDNZT2/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=100+dvds&qid=1594930720&sr=8-2 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-DVD-R-4-7GB-Recordable-Media... So $2.50 for 10 discs. An unbranded 128 GB usb stick is $16 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-128GB-Flash-SDCZ36-128G-B35/dp/B00TKFCYP0/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=usb+stick+128gb&qid=1594930866&sr=8-3 https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Cruzer-128GB-Flash-SDCZ36-128... Assuming the box will be about the same size, it's likely that the DVDs are simply still cheaper. An interesting lament is that disk media did not really evolve past DVDs to blue-rays or multi-layer to the mass consumer market, as 100GB blu-ray discs are actually available (still more expensive per-GB than DVDs!) https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-100GB-White-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B00POY826G/ref=sr_1_1?crid=224DK5Z66DFRK&dchild=1&keywords=100+gb+blu-ray+disc&qid=1594931021&sprefix=100+gb+blu-ray+disc%2Caps%2C165&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-100GB-White-Inkjet-Printable...
- colejohnson66 6y ago
  One thing to keep in mind is that those DVDs need to be burned. Retail DVDs are usually "pressed" (like vinyl) IIRC, which is much cheaper.
colejohnson66 6y ago
FlightGear is available on DVD (in addition to download), but the scenery is available on a 128 GB flash drive[0] (in addition to download). [0]: http://store.flightgear.org/product/flightgear-complete-collection-128gb-usb/ http://store.flightgear.org/product/flightgear-complete-coll...

robscallsign 6y ago

I'm an avid flight simulator enthusiast with marginal internet and I think this is a great gesture by Microsoft. I live in "rural" Canada, approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles) from a municipality of 160,000 people, and internet access for me is a mix of LTE and Satellite, and unlikely to improve (maybe Starlink!). Even limiting myself to focusing on a single flight simulator platform, Digital Combat Simulator, downloading and keeping the simulator updated requires planning and timing to work around my bandwidth cap. I've been following the development of Microsoft's new Flight simulator, but as soon as the download size was announced it seemed like a non-starter for me. But the announcement of a physical DVD changes this, and I'm now quite interested in their simulator.