Used FS2004 the day of release and used it for six years. Tried FSX the first day it came out and tucked it back away in hangar for four years until I broke it out again (or I should say until hardware/tweaks caught up). Used it for two years. Tried Prepar3D when v1.4 was released and haven't looked back to FSX since. P3D is FSNext!

One in four still using FS9 predominantly - my o my ! Aren't the developers losing out by ignoring it !! ??

 

I would never develop a 3rd party product for a platform that has a ratio of 1 to 4, keep in mind that even though some folks are still using fs9, that does not necessarily mean they are going to buy your 3rd party product. Way to risky, those that dumped fs9 got it right from a business aspect.

I voted for FS9 without "earlier"

 

+1. I do use FSX (more and more) but reluctantly as I prefer some things in FS9. However, with a new more powerful system I'm certain FSX/Prepar3d will be the mainstay for me then BUT mainly for the benefits of Orbx or Orbx-like packages.

Let's say you only get 300 (at 30 bucks a pop to equal $9,000) sales on your product. From there you spend a significant amount of time re-exporting the model so it works properly in the other sim. You tell me if the time and cost of 75 ($2,500) sales is worth it. Don't forget you still have to pay everyone on your team for their part. Oh, and taxes.

 

Most developers already answered this question.

 

A lot of people seem to think it's really easy to make an addon that works for both sims.

 

True... to a degree.

 

But then again, who could make a living out of 9 grand divided 4 ways - or 5 including the taxman ?? Even 2 or 3 products per year, doesn't quite cut it. Therefore, aren't most developers in it for 'the joy of it' ?

 

Also, look up "Price Elasticity of Demand" - if they reduced the price to $15 (or even $10), they'd possibly sell 5 times as much - increasing total revenue by 250%. Given the marginal cost of delivering a product online is relatively tiny, that would be all profit. So, thay creates a completely different cost/revenue relationship.

No-one in the FS world has cotton'd on to that one - yet !

 

:rolleyes:

FSX + DX10=WOW

FSX + DX10=WOW

 

+1,000

 

Like having a new sim! Makes you think how awesome P3D will be if they fully support DX11 on 2.0...

I use both FS9 and FSX on about an equal basis, but this survey doesn't really allow for that answer.

 

Same for me

But then again, who could make a living out of 9 grand divided 4 ways - or 5 including the taxman ?? Even 2 or 3 products per year, doesn't quite cut it. Therefore, aren't most developers in it for 'the joy of it' ?

The measure of success in this market is largely driven by the company and their ability to think out of the box. PMDG, A2A, Orbx and others have made a respectable amount of money. I am only giving you an example of a product that did "so-so" and is a standard measure of sales that I generally see. I can attest from personal experience however that many other developers have gotten significantly less sales. Even some of the big ones.

 

Also, look up "Price Elasticity of Demand" - if they reduced the price to $15 (or even $10), they'd possibly sell 5 times as much - increasing total revenue by 250%. Given the marginal cost of delivering a product online is relatively tiny, that would be all profit. So, thay creates a completely different cost/revenue relationship.

No-one in the FS world has cotton'd on to that one - yet !

It has been tried, with some moderate success for folks like Lionheart. For companies like A2A and PMDG, it doesn't really work and is not feasible. Both companies however offer products at a much reduced rate.

 

Spend a year or more on a project and then try to sell it for $10. Most developers will be out of the market in less than a few months after release with that business plan. It's not as simple as you might think. I can think of one particular company who tried this approach and only sold 10 units for what was an excellent plane.

X-Plane mainly but still go back to FS 9. Have FSX and P3d but they do not enthrall me at all. So XP X and 9 for me.

FSX - have never tried anything else but the MS sims. Would like to give Prepar3d a try, though I seem to get the consensus that it isn't all that different that FSX. And now, with the thousands of add-ons available for FSX, it seems I spend my time 50% flying, 30% troubleshooting and 20% tweaking.

FSX

 

MS Flight had a great potential (looks better, runs faster, improved UI, improved 3d cockpits, lots of nice features) ... but it was missing all the rest of the things ... big shame

 

I hope that someone will get a chance to pickup where MSFlight left of, and after that I can see it becoming the new flight sim replacing FSX.

The DX10 "unofficial" updates have breathed new life into FSX and that's what I fly. My simming interests are clearly where Flight was targeted, yet I never found it compelling beyond being anything but a demo for something that could have been really great. Rise of Flight and IL-2 also gets flight time for online action with my friends. Every prop-head should at least try the free version of RoF just to appreciate its fantasic flight (and combat) modelling of WWI warbirds.

I am now in the FSX + DX10 camp. The folks at the DX10 forum have really made some great improvements to make DX10 finally work in FSX.

Hello Tom,

 

This poll has been up for us to participate in for a few days now. I find the results to date very interresting. However, for these and the final results to have true significance, the numbers need to be compared to the percentage of members participating. When I wrote this note, 764 members had voted. What percentage of AVSIM's membership does this number represent?

 

Thanks

 

JJ

Hello Tom,

 

This poll has been up for us to participate in for a few days now. I find the results to date very interresting. However, for these and the final results to have true significance, the numbers need to be compared to the percentage of members participating. When I wrote this note, 764 members had voted. What percentage of AVSIM's membership does this number represent?

 

Thanks

 

JJ

There are over 94,000 members. I will let you do the math.