MSTS 2?

Howdy forum. I was wondering if anyone heard of any release date for MSTS 2. If you have an idea please post.

Nope.........


No MSTS 2.

I heard that it would be released around may or so.

I'd say you'd be lucky if it was out by fall 2005. Kuju, the origional developer, quit halfway through production, and now it is rumored that the Microsoft team is completely rebuilding it. Of course, others say that they dropped the project all-together. Which would you rather believe ? Nothing has been heard from M$ for a while on this. For more mindless speculation, visit this forum: http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dc ... =DCConfID1

Also be sure to check out the file library (in the link at the bottom of the page) for the largest assortment of free addons to MSTS on the net (but you already knew that).

Last summer it was stated on the Microsoft site it would come out September '03. then it was moved to the next month each month, and by November, they said 2005/2006, without giving a reason. I heard Kuju went bankrupt (No proof have I). But it is a fact that they had it working, because microsoft released screenshots from the Horshoe Curve PRR route, with a K4s under steam. and yes, they had PEOPLE!

Those screenshots were from the work Kuju had done up to the point that they went under (yes, I believe they went bankrupt). Now we have no idea what's going on at M$, whether they picked up where Kuju left off, scrapped it and started again, or dropped it. No one who has tried to contact M$ tech support has gotten a straight answer, so don't expect it anytime soon.

On the EB games site, it says (i can't remember) either July or August 1 for a release date in the USA

Like I said, see the forum here: http://www.train-sim.com/cgi/dcforum/dc ... =DCConfID1
They know a lot more than I do (and some have sources close to the project) and their conscensus seems to be sometime around 2005. Also, they seem to think that the Kuju version was scrapped, so the screenies you saw are no longer relevant. We have no idea what the new game will look like. EB games has been cited several times, and I believe I heard that they actually refunded preorders until further notice. Microsoft has been a little slow in getting out the news to everyone. It should be noted that those who really know what's up are under strict no-talking orders from Microsoft. Personally I hope that the guys who are building MSTS2 are from the Flight Simulator development team, but we'll see.

At least they did a little update to www.microsoft.com/games/trainsim

the last time that was updated previously was sometime around E3

There are a number of 3rd party supplier updates, too. Not sure if any are recent, though.

It's official. MSTS-2 is dead
http://www.trainsim.org.uk/

Hello All,
I for one, a purchaser of MSTS, was really looking forward to MSTS 2, as it promised a lot of new stuff.
In the general sense, what does this mean for the Train Sim market in general?
And, to open a whole can of worms, Which train sim is best?
I'll state my opinions:
MSTS has tremendous aftermarket support and is very affordable, graphics are acceptable, even incredible on good systems.
TrainMaster has the physics setup down to a T, and with the raildriver tie-in, should be even better when the new version utilizing DirectX 9.0 comes out.
I haven't seen trainZ yet, its being shipped to me, but from what I understand, it is an excellent platform.
Comments?
cya, Joey

I suppose that Microsoft might sell the code, in such form as it may be, to another developer to continue the project?

Hello Again All,
Just a guess on my part, but that would probably involve a name change from Train Simulator 2 - only to differentiate between them.
The real underlying question I was getting at: Microsoft isn't stupid, they must have looked at the sales of TrainSim or at the other simulators out there and decided that it wasn't a market they wanted to be in.
Does this mean that the future of train simulators in general is on a downward spiral?
Just food for thought
cya, Joey

I don't know. As far as I know Railroad related computer games are still a fair market. My local WalMart still stocks MSTS and both RT2 Platnum and RT3, all at the same time, and they seem to be selling fairly well.