I can certainly understand the comments which are based on the disappointment at not being able to develop for Microsoft Flight, but what seems hypocritical are the comments faulting Microsoft for wanting to make money on addons.
After all, in the past Microsoft spent millions developing Flight Simulator XX, and third party developers took advantage of the SDKs and freeware tools made available here at FSDeveloper and elsewhere, not only to add to the flightsim community freeware libraries as was the tradition for many years, but also to eventually capitalize on the flightsim community, often making much more profit from Flight Simulator than the company which spent vast resources developing it.
I won't criticize the goal of Microsoft to make money off MSFlight. It is their perfect right to do so, however, I doubt the current set of additional content (3 aircraft and a single set of scenery) is going to be very profitable in the long run.
The FS2002/FS9/FSX series has been succesful because beginning flight simmers could just start out with a mouse and keyboard, purchasing add-on aircraft, software and hardware as they progressed and as their flight sim needs saw fit. This, in turn, made for a large market for FS add-ons, and
because of that availability of add-on content, FS9 and FSX sales perpetuated, FS9 now literally going for a decade.
Food for thought: What would have happened if Microsoft would have put only FS9 or FSX on the market, and completely locked it down like they did with Flight? Would the two packages have been as succesful as they were?
I'm not making a point that the Flight SDK or any add-ons should be available for everyone and for nothing. Microsoft doesn't need a free lunch, but they could at least give us the opportunity to develop add-ons which can be placed in their (commercial) Marketplace.
Additionally, they can earn quite a few bucks by putting a 'Development' or 'Professional' version of Flight on the market for a comparable price to FSX, which doesn't require code signing and has a bundled SDK. This can both be a development platform for parties who want to develop for Flight (and can submit their add-ons to the Marketplace) as well as a more advanced 'simulator' for people who are experienced with either Flight or FSX and want to do more with it. That way, the free version of Flight can also be a major stepping stone to the 'Flight Professional' version, which can be compatible with a lot of (maybe even existing) add-ons on the market, and eventually as an FSX replacement for the coming decade.
In short, I'm not criticizing the choice that Microsoft makes by only offering its add-ons exclusively through the Windows Live Marketplace. I do however have my doubts about the fact that no third parties are allowed in that Marketplace, and if that will work in favor of Microsoft's sales in the long run.
A similar model, with third parties in a store-like platform, has been employed very successfully through Apple's App Store and Valve's Steam.
