I hope they'll leave some space for the freeware content providers.

...

I don't want MS to develop add-ons themselves, but I do see the point of them doing like Apple and centralizing a place to offer all downloads for their base product.This could be a gold mine for all sides involved.As to the poster asking about freeware, I'd hope they allow it to. If they are going to follow the Apple model that would suggest they will.

Anything more than 25-30% is the going market rate.

Ant, that is a point I've raised more than once. Aside from a few of the larger publishers who handle the entire process in-house (Aerosoft, et alia), most payware developers have to pay a percentage of sales to someone...Until Microsoft announces details on their services, no one knows what the costs will be, but it would make no sense for them to make the costs of participation too high, else they risk having few -if any- developers interested.

I haven't seen this many ill-founded conclusions based on so little actual information since I accidently stumbled upon a conspiracy theory blog about Area 51....."Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been the lone gunman, because I saw a picture of him, and other people were in the picture with him". That logic is about as sound as what is being passed around here.

That's a completely non-sensical comparison.PMDG, Aerosoft, and others have made tons of money changing code, manipulating features, and creating additional content for a program Microsoft created. To this point they've allowed it to happen but it's well within Microsofts right to start taking a cut now if they choose to.Microsoft doesn't owe it to those companies to create a product they can profit off of.Furthermore, a massive online market place, available in the UI of the sim would open up 3rd party developers to millions of new customers. It's a win/win for both sides.You think anyone would know what Angry Birds was if not for it being readily available in the App Store? That kind of mass exposure is what leads to mass sales. Maybe Aerosoft should think about that before whining about the fact that they might not be able to independently publish anymore for a sim they didn't create.

FSX addons like scenery and aircraft are essentially plugins.There are many software applications that use plugins (ever heard of Photoshop or ProTools?). Pretty much most of these allow free 3rd party development because they realise that a restrictive plugin system will reduce the amount of 3PDers, hence reducing the usefulness of their software.You are right that MS isn't obliged to allow 3rd party development. There may be advantages (mostly for MS) to having everything centralised but there are no doubt disadvantages (for the customers) when one company completely controls development (eg two 3PDs decide to make the same aircraft, MS says they will only allow one). Particularly a company such as MS which isn't the most open of companies. I ask you this, would the PMDG 737ZNG pass Windows Live certification?

Ant, that is a point I've raised more than once. Aside from a few of the larger publishers who handle the entire process in-house (Aerosoft, et alia), most payware developers have to pay a percentage of sales to someone...Until Microsoft announces details on their services, no one knows what the costs will be, but it would make no sense for them to make the costs of participation too high, else they risk having few -if any- developers interested.

You are quite right Bill that no one knows what the costs will be. I was responding, of course, to the person who claimed MS would take a 15% commission. I was just trying to highlight that a 30% commission (or thereabouts) (as used by Apple, Simmarket and FSPilotshop) seems to be a typical number for publishers. I'm not saying that is what MS will charge but I am just saying that I don't know where the 15% number is coming from. If people would like to make claims about how much they think MS will charge as a commission then it would be nice if they could back it up with some sort of numbers rather than just a random "IMHO".As for the 30-50% range I gave, I back that up by stating that the 30% comes from Apple, FSpilotshop, Simmartket etc. The 50% comes from one FS addon publisher I know that takes a 60% (yes, that's right sixty percent) commission, admitedly this includes some other costs but still...

one FS addon publisher I know that takes a 60%

Wow... complete extortion right there, they must cater to a particular group to be able to operate at such high costs.

Hi,The FLIGHT will be released with a limited scenery (Hawaii) and a limited number of aircrafts. Both scenery and airplane will be of very good quality compared to FSX.A new FLIGHTSTORE will also be released, where add-on developers (and MS themself) can sell their add-on airplanes, sceneries ( new parts of the WORLD) and other utilities.With the FLIGHTSTORE concept (ala APPLE STORE) they will make sure to get a steady revenue stream by taking 15% profit from all add-on sellers.New add-on sceneries will be developed and sold thru FLIGHTSTORE.In addition the initial release with Hawaii only scenery will also be XBOX verified.Multiplayer and VATSIM alike system will all be part of XBOX LIve.This concept is well within the strategy of MS.rgs

Will go with P3D evetually then. Screw MS if they think they are going to make me pay for different parts of the world. Just another way to nickle and dime the end user. Instead of giving us the whole world like all previous releases, they now choose to give us just a small part and then charge for the rest in piece-meal fashion.... No thanks.

Will go with P3D evetually then. Screw MS if they think they are going to make me pay for different parts of the world. Just another way to nickle and dime the end user. Instead of giving us the whole world like all previous releases, they now choose to give us just a small part and then charge for the rest in piece-meal fashion.... No thanks.

The post you quoted was a "horoscope" (or should that be "horrorscope?") of possibilities. It was not by any stretch of the imagination a reliable list of facts...

Will go with P3D evetually then. Screw MS if they think they are going to make me pay for different parts of the world. Just another way to nickle and dime the end user. Instead of giving us the whole world like all previous releases, they now choose to give us just a small part and then charge for the rest in piece-meal fashion.... No thanks.

Seriously, so you are ready to pay a monthly fee to use Prepar3D, one year = $120.00 + Orbx scenery (good scenery by the way) but you won't buy scenery, plane or what ever MS will be selling for Flight.....you lost me here.@n4gix, you've been in this business for awile now, I understand that nothing is for sure unless it's comming directly from MS but if you had to give us your best scenario about what a 10GB sim. may have in it after seeing Hawaii HD scenery what do you think Flight will be, the whole world of parts of it?

@n4gix, you've been in this business for awile now, I understand that nothing is for sure unless it's comming directly from MS but if you had to give us your best scenario about what a 10GB sim. may have in it after seeing Hawaii HD scenery what do you think Flight will be, the whole world of parts of it?

Alain, I've already posted my thoughts on this subject at least twice in the past few months. Unlike some folks, I don't keep chewing on the same piece of cabbage ad infinitum, ad nasueam...

Alain, I've already posted my thoughts on this subject at least twice in the past few months. Unlike some folks, I don't keep chewing on the same piece of cabbage ad infinitum, ad nasueam...

Sorry I missed two of your post on that specific subject , I'll look for them....

Alain, I've already posted my thoughts on this subject at least twice in the past few months. Unlike some folks, I don't keep chewing on the same piece of cabbage ad infinitum, ad nasueam...

MS didn't deign to release real new shots and since a year and a half we have kept on seeing the very same Maule and the very same scenery shots ad infinitum, ad nauseam I would dare say.Seeing your avatar I see you could be religious, this time you do not have to trust MS, they " slightly " tend to stockpile dollars instead of acting for the communities.

I haven't seen this many ill-founded conclusions based on so little actual information since I accidently stumbled upon a conspiracy theory blog about Area 51.....

Looks like some of those conclusions weren't so ill-founded after all.