FlyByWire’s A32NX will not return to the Marketplace nor be available for Xbox
A surprising step back today from FlyByWire concerning the team’s ongoing development of the acclaimed A32NX and also the upcoming and very exciting A380X. Citing mostly licensing issues, the team has decided to definitely pull the A32NX from the Marketplace, which also means the aircraft won’t be available to Xbox users.
You may remember that FlyByWire was forced to temporarily remove the A32NX from the MSFS Marketplace after complications caused by Sim Update V. Now, a bigger concern comes to front due to the need to essentially have two separate versions of the aircraft available to users: the “standard” A32NX, which has always been directly available from FlyByWire and is licensed under GPL-3.0, and the Marketplace edition, which requires an MIT license, as per Microsoft’s requirement.
We won’t bother you with license technicalities, but essentially the problem here derives from the need to maintain two separate versions and how overwhelming that is to the voluntary team of developers that contribute to the project. The team has concluded that it’s not feasible to continue developing both versions given the resources that they have available. The same applies to the prospect of having the aircraft available for Xbox. While that would definitely be exciting for the team, they simply don’t have the manpower to provide the necessary support for the influx of new users. Remember, FlyByWire is made up entirely of volunteers, who give their free time to the development of freeware aircraft out of passion for this hobby and the whole community.
One last reason that led to this decision is a more technical aspect of development. We’ve heard countless times that the MSFS SDK still has a long way to go, some functionality is still missing, you know the drill. More than a year after the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator, while a lot has been done by Asobo, there’s still plenty to do on the SDK, and this is affecting some of FlyByWire’s future plans. In an effort to work around the existing limitations, and because the team wants to implement new features on the aircraft, they are considering running certain components outside of the simulator. This would not be possible to do with the Marketplace edition of the aircraft.
In the end, while these are certainly unfortunate news – especially for Xbox users – they imply a number of changes that will hopefully be positive for the overall FlyByWire workload and their projects. They surely have a lot to focus on, and getting some freedom from licensing issues and other bureaucratic matters should help enhance and accelerate the development of their current and future products.
Rob Sorensen
I would think that – at best – there will be no new updates for the plane, but if you already have it installed, you “may” still be able to fly it (as it is) in MFS2020. The worst-case scenario, is that the plane is disabled by them altogether. My gut is telling me that it will be the latter. This was likely done because MS doesn’t want new consumers buying the standard edition, then sweetening it by adding the FlyByWire to it for free.
If that happens, I am 100% ditching MSFS2020 altogether and moving to whatever platform FlyByWire brings the 320NX to – even though I have invested over $1,000 in the game over the past year. Leave it to Microsoft to perpetually Fu*k up a good thing.
Anyone can tell FS2020 is overly beurocratic – and it is a half-assed designed product (especially compared to other flight sims like DCS, which has never crashed on my computer once). I have had enough of Microsoft’s corporate BS – especially after the sh!t-show that was the recent version 5 update. They have very clearly proven that they are nothing more than a corporation that cares more about their own bottom line than the interests of consumers – and because of this, they just don’t deserve my money.
One more strike and I am literally gone.
Rob Sorensen
To update my previous comment, it appears as though the FlyByWire 32NX will still be playable in FS2020 – the installation will merely be conducted by the standalone installer, and not the FS2020 marketplace. I hope this is true, and MS is not blocking it in any way (not sure how ignorant this sounds). At first glance to someone who is not properly educated, the announcement looks like impending death for the plan on the FS2020 platform altogether.
If this is accurate, it alleviates a lot of my previous concerns. I absolutely love flying this plane.
John
boy, you seem to have anger issues. Nobody cares what you spent on the sim and nobody cares if you stop playing the sim. Grow up dude.