Could someone kindly explain to me why Addon prices are so expensive? Maybe is they charged less more people would buy? (Sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

Well, keep in mind this is as much a niche market as it could be. Factor into that the time that is spent for development of accurate products, and you get what you call "expensive" pricing. Honestly I don't find prices to be far off, though. You can pay $60 for a silly game like CoD Black Ops, or purchase a high fidelity recreation of a real aircraft for the same.

If cars were $100 would auto makers sell more cars?

It depends on what expensive is to you. I think most flight sim add-ons are pretty darn cheap considering how much I enjoy them. For example, I spent 70 dollars on the NGX (I would have gladly paid $200). I have already logged over 100 hours flying this wonderful plane. Or I could spend 50-60 dollars on some simple-minded first person shooter for X-Box, play it for a week and never touch it again. Granted, some add-ons aren't worth the money, but in that case just don't buy them :)

Some of that would depend on whether people actually think they are expensive, I personally don't think so for the entertainment they offer. Take the PMDG FSX 737 NG for example, which most people would agree is among the best FS aeroplanes you can get, certainly the most complex one; it is 69.99 dollars, which to me is 45.35 Pounds Sterling. For that money I got four realistically-simulated variants of the 737 NG, plus a set of six PDF manuals, some of which are based on the real Boeing ones, and free support on their forum. Now let's look at what other things I could get for the same money: Well, I could buy a gram of cocaine if I was a drug addict, or a barrel of oil if I was so inclined, or a nice shirt, a pretty decent pair of jeans, a reasonable pair of shoes, fifteen pints of beer, 25 bacon sandwiches at a snack bar, get an okay-ish locomotive for the model railway in my loft, a cheap MP3 player, a simple holiday camera, a reasonably okay mobile phone, four music CDs or maybe three DVD movies. Some of those are not bad actually, but I doubt any of them are likely to keep me entertained for years on end, and probably none of them took four years of hard work to make, or are likely to be the best of their kind. So, lets look at something a bit cheaper: The forthcoming Just Flight Vickers Viscount for FSX, which would cost me about 20 quid, so that'd be 31 Dollars or so. Now it's probably not in the same league as the PMDG NG, but it's reasonably realistic, and you get about seven paint jobs, plus manuals and support, and it would also keep me entertained for some years. Or, I could get six pints of beer, or twelve bacon sandwiches, or maybe a couple of DVD movies. Hmm, I think I'll go for the Viscount instead, but if you prefer the bacon sandwiches, then it is of course up to you. But to answer the question properly, the vast majority of FS add-ons take a lot of work, for an aeroplane there's the planning, the time and skill involved in creating it, the research, the sound recording, the texturing, the marketing, the web hosting, etc, etc - try getting GMAX and making one yourself - some of them take literally years (or approaching a decade if you happen to be Level D makiing a 757 LOL), but the point is, you are paying the cost of roughly a nice night out for what is likely to give you many nice nights in (where you won't be out spending money). Quite rightly, you expect to be paid for the work you do, and so do the people who make all those add-ons. Al

I love bacon...

I love bacon...

And why wouldn't you? After all, it's the official snack of the cold early-morning airfield. Al

Well said Al, I'd like to nominate your reply for "pinning." I trust your bacon is sliced at a #6 setting at the very least or that really wouldn't be a sandwich now would it.

Not sure if it's a worldwide thing, but we've been enjoying bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches here. It's the end of the garden season, but we haven't had a frost yet so we are still enjoying fresh tomatoes from the garden. Store-bought tomatoes don't make it, but the classic BLT is a real treat when you've got the home-grown variety. We had a similar pricing discussion on another forum a few months back. We were talking about scenery. I was thinking that I would buy more sceneries at $5 than at $30. Since they are downloads, once the work is done it costs no more to produce 6 than to produce 1. For $30, I would want an airport I fly to regularly, but for $5 I would buy more airports in out-of-the-way places that I might visit only occasionally. I think this dynamic is different, though, for an aircraft add-on.

It depends on what expensive is to you. I think most flight sim add-ons are pretty darn cheap considering how much I enjoy them. For example, I spent 70 dollars on the NGX (I would have gladly paid $200). I have already logged over 100 hours flying this wonderful plane. Or I could spend 50-60 dollars on some simple-minded first person shooter for X-Box, play it for a week and never touch it again. Granted, some add-ons aren't worth the money, but in that case just don't buy them :)

+1

Adding to what Jim said - FS is such a niche market, sometimes you really dont have the option of selling more no matter what the cost. If you make a popular add-on, and everyone that wants it buys it, then you're essentially out of revenue. Developers have to take this into account. Unlike that simple minded first person shooter which sells tens of millions world wide, the FS Add-On Market is numbered in the thousands. So let's say it takes you a year to develop a plane with two other co-developers. Let's say that your market of users is in the 5,000 person range world-wide. Well if you sold it for 10 dollars (inexpensive?) that would earn you 50,000 dollars. 50,000 sounds good, but remember you're going to lose 25-30 percent to taxes, so we're down to $40,000, well divide that by 3 people and you have made 13,000 dollars for a years worth of work and I'm not sure many people could live off that. Not to mention the cost of the software used all of which are expensive I think (GMAX, Photoshop, Visual Studio...). Of course this is an over simplification, but the concept is sound. If there were 10,000,000 flight simmers out there EA would be making the 777, in fact they would have made the whole simulation and it would look 100x better than FSX...and also be controllable with a single throttle and 4 buttons.

Now let's see... The NGX cost me £44.21. I bought two litres of Grouse on the same day.I've still got the NGX, and I fly it daily. The other purchase has evaporated...must have a word with the store about that.That whisky disappears very quickly... No. The NGX was a much better buy. Worth every penny. It doesn't give me a hangover, either RegardsBillC0.9nm SW R03 EGOW Horizon GenX 2.0 UK SceneryFS Commander 9.0Just Flight PA-28 ArcherPiper PA28R ArrowNemeth Design EC135 EurocopterCS 767CS Hercules C130..and now the PMDG 737NGX.Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHzScythe Infinity CPU CoolerAsus P5B Deluxe MotherboardCorsair XMS2-6400 C4 TwinX PC2-6400 4GB Dual Channel InterleavedAsus GTS450 1GB GDDR5 with v189.50 driversSamsung SH-W183 18x18 DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB SATA-IISB X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS EditionEnermax Liberty 620W PSU ATX 2.2Lian Li PC-S80B Black Aluminium CaseThree 120mm FansVista Home Premium 64-Bit OEMDell 2408WFP 24" LCD monitorViewsonic VA1916w 19" monitorLG Flatron L1715S MonitorATEN VS-461 4 port DVI Video SwitchCH Yoke & Pedals AOR 8200 ScannerRealistic PRO-44 ScannerRacal Avionics European Approach Platesfor Central Europe (4 volumes) ..and a flight attendant's uniform for the missus...unworn.

HelloIf Aivlasoft dropped the price of their EFB I am sure they would sell a lot more, in fact they would dominate their market the product is that good.But for me it is just above what I am prepared to pay.

Could someone kindly explain to me why Addon prices are so expensive? Maybe is they charged less more people would buy? (Sorry if this is in the wrong forum)

Two points. 1 - What matters is total revenue not number of sales. It doesn't automatically follow that reducing price will increase revenue. If the price is halved then sales will have to double to maintain revenue. If they don't then the developer will lose revenue. 2 - If enough other people are prepared to pay the developer's price giving the developer the expected revenue, the price is reasonable.

HelloIf Aivlasoft dropped the price of their EFB I am sure they would sell a lot more, in fact they would dominate their market the product is that good.But for me it is just above what I am prepared to pay.

I wish I could comment on that but both times I have tried the demo it hasn't worked for me :(Looking forward to the TOPCAT Flight Planner coming though.