We’re getting towards the end of the year and I always love this time for the opportunity to pause, reflect, and think about what has come before. DCS World has had a turbulent couple of years and there are big challenges to come for the sim which I want to explore in this editorial. But also, history teaches us that where there are problems, there are also opportunities for growth and change. With that in mind and spirit, let’s explore some of DCS World’s recent troubles and some hopes for its future as well.

Third party are a source of strength and also sometimes turmoil

We’re going to talk about some issues with the core of DCS but I wanted to start with the thing that has absorbed a lot of time this year within the community’s discussion forums. There have been some difficulties with a couple of third party developers for this sim and specifically… RAZBAM.

The breakdown in the relationship between Eagle Dynamics and third party developer RAZBAM has been a significant issue on multiple fronts: its hurt consumer confidence, content integrity over the long term is an issue for affected modules, and the future of the sim as it exists today will undoubtedly be changed by it in a big way.

To get through some of those, let’s start with a summary of just a little of what we know. This is not a full litigation of every moment in this dispute, I’m going to gloss over a lot of details and minutiae, but just some of the main story beats as best as I can summarize.

Back in April of 2024, RAZBAM CEO Ron Zambrano announced that the company was suspending their development and maintenance of their DCS World modules citing a significant dispute with Eagle Dynamics. That message was quickly followed by Eagle Dynamics CEO and co-founder Nick Grey posting a statement in response refuting some of the claims and expressing disappointment with the public nature of the dispute.

This lead to what has been over a year and a half of occasional statements from one or both parties, discussion and comment from contractors involved, and then a leak of a recording of the conversation that appears to have lead up to the current situation.

To quickly summarize of that leaked video: RAZBAM was seeking to develop a DCS World module of the Super Tucano. The deal they had worked out with the Ecuadorians (I’m not sure if it was directly with the government or a wing of their armed forces) was that RAZBAM would offer the aircraft module to Ecuador’s armed forces for free at the end of development. In exchange, they would get the information that they needed to enable them to complete development of the module in the first place. Presumably they would then make money on that development by selling it on the consumer end. This was cited as a breech of their contract, according Nick, and that a new contract for the project should be developed for it. Payment for the F-15E was also being withheld while this was worked out.

It sounds like the new contract, had it gone forward, would have moved the project to MCS (Mission Combat Simulator), the professional side of the DCS World ecosystem, leaving the door open still for a DCS variant for the public.

The call ended on what appeared to be something of a positive note but obviously talks quickly broke down after that. Most of you know the rest of the story.

You can seek out the video on various Reddit groups if you really want to watch for yourself but keep in mind that it is something that’s been leaked.

Modules in the balance

Now, having watched the video, some folks have sided with Ron and RAZBAM and other folks sided with Nick and Eagle Dynamics depending on their read of the situation. That’s all valid and understandable but I don’t find myself particularly concerned about joining a side in this because I think that misses the greater issue: What happens next and how that affects us. The future that seems likely to me is that we’re ultimately going to lose four DCS World modules: M2000C, AV-8B, MiG-19 and F-15E.

Why? Well, as DCS World evolves, core technologies will change and those changes have, in the past anyways, nearly always required third parties to perform basic maintenance to keep things running smoothly. Many legacy modules have seen significant work to keep them working smoothly over the years.

Eagle Dynamics has more or less committed to maintaining compatibility with these affected modules through to the end of DCS World 2.9 but I really worry about what what happens when 3.0 arrives. It hasn’t happened yet and it may not happen for quite some time but I suspect we will hit a moment where things will begin to break. If these four modules make it through that transition to 3.0 and beyond, and they are still functional, I will rejoice but I suspect that problems will begin to crop up.

They aren’t the only modules that I worry about as it appears that another third party, Polychop, has had its own troubles. Internal disputes between former developers and the owner appear to have spiralled into yet another legal dispute.

The fate of the SA342 Gazelle and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior is seems less dire than with the RAZBAM situation, but they may also suffer from troubles as the core of the sim changes and experienced developers are not part of the process of keeping said modules up to date anymore.

These issues together have caused the community to be concerned about their third party purchases in general in that they may not have the same staying power that their first party Eagle Dynamics modules do. That’s a problem.

To be fair, maybe some of these issues are going to be overblown and maybe things will go better than I think they will. There are also plenty of other third parties that are moving along well and seemingly without the same kinds of issues. Still, the current turbulence has cast a long shadow.

Core technology issues continue to challenge

Excepting the third party content situation, DCS World I believe is also really suffering right now from a core technology deficit. It is one that’s being worked on but I don’t know if its going as quickly or in the right directions.

Inside the cockpit, DCS World has managed to provide a level of simulation experience that is difficult to beat. It doesn’t really matter if its one of the sim’s classic helicopter offerings like the UH-1 and Mi-8 or its one of the sim’s most recent additions like the F-4E Phantom or MiG-29A Fulcrum. These aircraft look, fly, and operate in a manner that I find immensely satisfying and, based on expert opinions, are generally doing what they should be too. But outside of the cockpit, we have issues.

What I’m talking about are the other systems that support modules. Examples include how the AI drives their vehicle convoys and avoid attacks (they don’t unless scripted), ATC systems that have had the same issues and limitations for years, radio communication with wingmates, the way that the AI interact with flight models and the world in general. DCS World has seemingly not put as much into its these core technologies as maybe it should have, and all this time its suffering because of it.

These aren’t new issues either. But the sim hasn’t dealt with a lot of them yet and one of the reasons that I think the dynamic campaign has taken as long as it has is that they are know that things won’t work unless the core systems are smarter and more developed. You can’t realistically launch a generated scenario with 40 or 50 planes without some sort of better ATC that can guide the process of launching and recovering those jets. You can’t require a vehicle convoy to reach its destination if it gets hung up on scenery or the convoy is lightly damaged and they aren’t able to get around destroyed vehicles. Just two examples of many.

I can point to any number of items including one of my personal pet peeves: The replay system! After decade or two of sim development, this particular part of the experience still isn’t flexible (can’t rewind), isn’t reliable (sometimes does the complete opposite of what happened), and it doesn’t seem like its going to be fixed any time soon.

You can insert your favourite DCS issue here as well. Most of us have run into them at some point, most of them have been around for a very long time, and they take away from the incredible experience of the aircraft that we’re flying.

While I have an immense amount of patience with the challenges that developers face and the lengthy and often very specific demands of the community at large, I do find myself needing to call these kinds of issues out from time to time too.

None of this is to say that DCS hasn’t improved either! The sim has gotten better in performance and visuals, it has picked up more modules and more variety of modules. Its started to take seriously new features like more flexible multiplayer spawn points and offering up a logistics simulation. I love to see those things! But the wait for these and others has been long… sometimes decades long.

In my efforts to be constructive, I think some of these issues could be solved by creating some sort of “strike team” within the company that isn’t engineering or aircraft focused but is instead aimed at user interface, user experience, and gameplay. I think if they had that, things like the new quick mission builder would have been more satisfying to use, more gameplay elements would work their way into the experience, and the modules themselves would gain in value from that core technology support and development.

DCS World’s bonafides as a simulation is absolutely solid but it remains far behind when it comes to the entertainment/game part of the experience. Doing more in this area would benefit the sim and offer even better value. It’s possible! It could happen! I hope it does.

Opportunities

There are folks out there who are convinced that the latest round of troubles is the end of DCS World – that it’s going to wither and die because of them. I don’t see it that way.

As devastating as the potential loss of several third party planes might be (if and when it happens), people will adapt and move to different modules, the series will continue to gain new content, and we’ll be moving on from whatever those troubles were. And as troubled as core gameplay features are, they are being worked on and improved incrementally.

There are also always opportunities in challenge and so I hope for two things to happen.

First, I hope that Eagle Dynamics can do what I suggested above and use the current crisis to reorient towards better third party relations, better connections, and better mitigation strategies (whatever they may be) so that players feel a little more assured about those third party releases. Easier said than done but I do hope that these are things that are on the radar.

Second, I’d really like to see a concerted effort to find ways to mitigate any potential module losses as they come up. It may feel wrong to write the obituary of beloved content before it happens but developing new modules that replace old ones shouldn’t be something that we write off.

Perhaps Eagle Dynamics develops their own F-15E, or a MiG-19, a Mirage 2000, or an AV-8B. Maybe they aren’t exactly the same modules as before (i.e. a Mirage 2000-5 instead of the 2000C… we’ve heard rumours before, after all) so its not exactly a replacement but spiritually it allows for people to flow to the new option.

There are opportunities to fill in losses in the long run and we have to be pragmatic about these things. The current troubles will pass, we’ll move on, people will find new ways to play or they will consider a competitor product, and move on to that. That’s how these things go over the long term but I do hope that lessons are learned, processes are changed, and evolution of the sim continues.

Final thoughts

We’ve been through turbulence and there’s more ahead but its not all doom and gloom either. DCS World has evolved, can continue to evolve, other third parties will continue to provide incredible experiences, and we’ll move on from the current troubles in time.

I do hope that there is careful thought and attention to how we do that in a way that helps provide the kind of support and confidence to the community that’s needed.

I’m excited about DCS World and Beyond 2026. We’ll have to see what they’ve been cooking for that and what teases we might see.