- rights to FSX have been acquired by a company which has re-released Steam edition, and made some minor improvements to the engine

- Lockheed released its own version called Prepar3d: https://www.prepar3d.com/

- X-plane 11 is largely understood to be the main competitor. FSX and X-plane have different underlying modelling principles. You can easily start an internet flame-war on which one is "better", but X-plane is actively developed and improved

- Aerofly FS2 is also a good "lighter alternative". Still a very solid sim, but easier to get into. Very pretty graphics as well.

All three of these support basic and advanced joysticks. I've had Saitek Yoke, Engine cluster, and Thrustmaster MFDs running in Aerofly in seconds.

From combat flight sim perspective, DCS suite is widely considered the current best-of-breed, though Falcon 4.0 modded / enhanced variations are still widely played. Tons of other "lighter" contenders as well.

To further elaborate on this... Flight simulators as a game genre has all but disappeared. There used to be lots of flight simulator games, like F-15 Strike Eagle and Red Baron, etc. Every now and then there's an "arcade flight simulator" game, but it doesn't seem to be popular with gamers and even less so with simmers.

Flight simulators have become pretty hard core simulators these days. X-Plane 11 and P3D seem to be the most popular on simmer forums, with MS FSX (and derivatives) still enjoying popularity.

Flight sims are a pretty deep rabbit hole and big investment. When you purchase a simulator, it's just a platform for running 1st and 3rd party addon aircraft and scenery. Some of these are fairly expensive (up to $100 or more for a quality aircraft), and the investment in these is why people still fly with FSX.

Combat flight sims are still around too, DCS:World is popular, but IL-2 series and Rise of Flight have some players too. Falcon BMS is popular for hard core fans of modern air warfare (with complex weapons systems that need a manual of their own).

As much as I'd like to still be enjoying flight sims, it's too deep a rabbit hole for me. It takes investment in hardware, software, education and practice.

This explains also why it's not a mainstream activity. It's far beyond what a casual gamer would find entertaining or interesting.

> What ever happened to FS?

Microsoft's IEB, under Don Mattrick at the time (best known for his blunders with the Xbox One launch and lack of success in reviving Zynga's fortunes while CEO), closed ACES studio in 2009, thus ending Flight Simulator development forever.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/112931/Microsoft_Makes_B...

> Is there a current commercial version?

The last commercially released version, Flight Simulator X, is available on Steam from another publisher.

Regarding Microsoft's decision to stop development of Flight Simulator in 2009, I offer two data points:

1) The legend around Flight Simulator was always that there was one and only one reason why Microsoft published it: because Bill Gates thought it was cool.

2) Bill Gates stepped down from his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft in June 2008.

Lockheed acquired it and they still put out new releases. Made it run 64 bit as well if I recall correctly. https://www.prepar3d.com

There's also the flyinside flight simulator, which is a completely new flight simulator engine, focused on (but not limited to) VR: https://flyinside-fsx.com/Home/Sim

A couple of options I know of:

https://www.xplane.com

http://home.flightgear.org (free)

I think you meant https://www.x-plane.com instead.

Yes you're right. Bizarre it came out that way as I went to visit the site before copy/pasting it here... Thanks for correcting it