Buy it and they will come!

[tra757 2]

It’s be a while since I have piped up on the list but after seeing the Prepar3D website today and digging a bit in the forums I decided to respond to something RSR said in another post about the marketing of Prepar3D.

 

It is stunning to me how Microsoft has mismanaged its Flight Simulation business. So badly that it is a wonder they are still in business. So now, it would seem, that MS is out of the flight simulation business altogether. One bright spot in their history, though, is ESP. I’m not up on the details, but I would assume that MS developed ESP and then use it to develop FSX or developed both at the same time. Whatever, it is probably the best thing MS ever developed for the FS community.

 

So here we have Lockheed Martin creating a Flight Simulator with ESP. To me, this looks like Flight Simulator 11. It has the fidelity of FSX, the extensibility of FSX (via ESP), the compatibility of FSX and a company behind it unlike Microsoft. Lockheed is all about flying so whoever at Lockheed made the decision to do a sim, and then picked ESP to build it with, we owe them a great big thank you, or at least a $199 thank you, which they would love. I don’t think they care who is buying P3D. I don’t know who they are marketing to, but when I look at their store page, I see 3 purchase levels for P3D. The retail version for $199, the academic version for $49.95 and the developer version for $9.95/month ($120/year).

 

You might think that $199 is a lot for a simulator, but hasn’t it been everyone’s wish for more realism? A more real flight experience? Isn’t P3D what we have all been waiting for? When I bought FSX, I think I paid full retail, which at the time was $79. Would I pay $199 for something better than FSX from a company that has the ability to take the sim to places MS never could and or would? So who is Lockheed marketing to? I say who cares. We are going to buy it and probably make it the number one FS on the market and Lockheed is going to love it. We will talk of the things we want to have in our P3D experience on the forums and the developers on those forums will pick up on that and run with it.

 

Did you know that X-Plane’s Austin Meyers is building commercial flight instruments now? Did you know that you can get a commercial version of X-Plane? Did you know it costs $750? Do I want a commercial flight simulator for $199? Dang right I do. Do you want PMDG and all the others that build perfection to port to P3D? Buy P3D and they will come.

 

Frankly, I think the majority of those that spend much time on these forums would gladly spend $199 on P3D. For those penny pinchers and student flyers, there is a $49 version and the developer option isn’t a bad deal either. This is what we have all been waiting for and just like all the other sims that have come out in the past, it is up to us to make it popular so that the developers can clearly see a path to return on investment and profitability. That’s why they are in business anyway, right? FSX becomes more and more irrelevant with each passing day and I could not be happier that a company like Lockheed is going to continue to build on ESP. So go buy your copy now, after all, it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.

 

Tim Rotunda

Austin, Texas

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

You are looking at an evolving market here..

 

When some of the major players have separate businesses that develop for the professional market, they must be concerned about the prospect of a $49 or even $199 market for P3D aka FS11 developing, that might undercut their investment.

 

It will be interesting to see if P3D V2 will be for the professional market only, with "professional level" pricing, including for any add-on airplane that is licensed to work with P3D, or if the prospect of a larger user base will allow a "hobby" market to flourish.

[TheDanger 182]

Not again, there are plenty of threads the same as this already

[Ian McPhail 55]

Microsoft sold the ESP to LM. Neither party is naive, and both would have the best lawyers money can buy to protect their investments.

 

If MS ever returns to Flightsimulator Eleven then I will publicly eat my hat.

 

It would be the most sensible thing to do, but what a climb down that would be, and for what part of their entire enterprise might it be: and bad decisions are followed by clean-up actions, the promotion of the guilty and the firing of the innocent.

 

The Future is P3D (my choice) or one of the others such as X-Plane which has in Austin Meyers one of the most indomitable developers around: Austin must have worn a steel helmet in the early days of XP..

[Zeus67 15]

Not again, there are plenty of threads the same as this already

I agree. If it not the license, it is the pricing. If you don't like P3D then don't use it, but please don't evangelize about how we P3D users will go to simmer's hell for daring to use a Non-Consumer product.

[quadraspleen 7]

please don't evangelize about how we P3D users will go to simmer's hell for daring to use a Non-Consumer product.

Have you actually read Tim's post?

[Malabar 0]

So go buy your copy now, after all, it comes with a 60-day money back guarantee.

 

Tim, do you know if I have to have a student ID to purchase the Academic version?

[gandy 18]

you dont need a student id as that would be hell to manage as they are selling the Academic version globally but in usd

[tra757 2]

I have been flying P3D for about a week now, and I have to say, I am very happy with my decision to move beyond FSX. I have moved all my a/c over to P3D and will never look back. It is 10 times the FS today than FSX ever was. I signed up for the developer program and will see what I can think up. I might start on a migration app that is easy to use to help folks migrate their FSX fleet over to P3D, which might help folks on the fence about moving to P3D. I wrote Pushback Pro for Fly! and one for an earlier version of FS but I really like the PMDG putting a pushback in the FMC so I will think of something else to do.

 

Sorry to rehash something that's be talk about so much, but after flying this simulator, I really think it is the future of FS. Don't want to dash the hopes of the folks that already moved to X-Plane, but P3D is just that good and will only get better. I have always said, "its not a game, its a simulator" so I think its great to have a company like Lockheed picking up ESP and moving forward with it as a simulator and not a game.

 

Like I said before, buy it and the developers will come and build new things for it. New aircraft are probably the biggest need for a new FS, but the beauty of P3D is compatibility. If you haven't purchased it yet, go get the student version and check it out. As I understand, the only difference between the student and the full version is a inconspicuous water mark. Not sure if that is 100% accurate but it is well worth ever penny of $200.

 

Tim

[Zeus67 15]

My only correction is that the Academic License's price is $50.

What is really needed and LM won't create is a FSX-like launcher. An user interface where you can select the aircraft and create your default flight before firing-up P3D. Otherwise you are stuck with whatever default flight you have created when it starts.

[gandy 18]

I believe LM has already said the tools are there for someone to create an interface but i cant remember.

[Jessica Bannister-Pearce 120]

I believe LM has already said the tools are there for someone to create an interface but i cant remember.

 

It's possible. Back in the days of ESP, developers could type in to the run command something like 'ESP.exe /Dev' to access several choices for individual start up screens (ESP also dropped you into the cockpit on startup).

 

So it depends if LM still have that function in place.

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

[Zeus67 15]

I understand, but that still means that somebody who is not LM will have to develop that User Interface.

 

It's possible. Back in the days of ESP, developers could type in to the run command something like 'ESP.exe /Dev' to access several choices for individual start up screens (ESP also dropped you into the cockpit on startup).

 

So it depends if LM still have that function in place.

 

Best wishes,

Jess B

 

P3D have some launch arguments that enable you to select any saved flight to be used as the start flight.