There was a time when most flight sim add ons were mainly freeware. These days most of the best fsx add ons are payware. They have kept fsx going even though the program is fairly old now.

 

I was wondering who the people behind them are And how their business works I.e are orbx, coolsky, Rex, aerosoft etc. full time employees and businesses or are they a couple of people working in the evenings from their bedrooms?

 

What kind of profits do they make? The fsx market is fairly niche and if they are full time they would need a good number of sales to pay the salaries.

 

Fsx will live on only if these developers hang around and I was wondering (after so many years) who they were! And how the add on market works with fsx.

Well I don't know about those particular developers but I think most of us developers out there don't do this full time, it's rather difficult to get living from FS market as after all it's not that big. The profits certainly do vary very much between top development groups such as PMDG and for example individual scenery developers. 

 

After I got into developing about two years ago for me it has just become part of the FS hobby, I enjoy creating content for FS & learning new things to always improve... It's a great satisfying feeling when you have finally completed a project such as an airport and get to properly enjoy using it.  

 

Also I find this small scale business a great way to fund this hobby, I often put part of the profits back into the market by purchasing products from other developers. 

 

Now after completing my first airport project I'm definitely looking forward to continue development for a long time to come now as also P3D V2 seems to be doing fine. :smile:  

Yeah, the above post nailed it.  I work with several developers of outstanding products and in each case they are part time to very part time.

 

Additionally, there are some developers out there (and I think some would be surprised) who fund developement but could not write a line of code if they had to (not saying that's a problem, I only care about the end result).

 

The important thing is to stay away from developers who have earned a very bad reputation for bad products and leaving products unfinished.  That someone is part time doesn't affect the quality, or their devotion to their customers.

I am one of the few I know who do work at this full-time. I do this because I'm retired, but my modest Social Security payment will not support me without the supplemental income this work provides.

 

Fortunately for me, I enjoy this work...

I am one of the few I know who do work at this full-time. I do this because I'm retired, but my modest Social Security payment will not support me without the supplemental income this work provides.

 

Fortunately for me, I enjoy this work...

 

No pension from the church/diocese?  Guess that's our gain if it's got you writing code for FS!

I am only aware of two FS businesses with a substantial number of full time employees (10+), ourselves (Just Flight) and Aerosoft. Other businesses have a few full time employees but the vast majority are either working on FS part time or consist of a single person with assistance from others when required.

I ask purely out of a long running curiosity - is Just Flight doing any development, or only marketing?

 

I have always had a lot of respect for Just Flight as a retail marketing company.

We are developers and publishers.

We have a decent sized development team, and also dedicated people to handle marketing, as well as IT people, accounts and a warehouse.

Have a look at our Canberra PR9 that we have in development which myself and Nortmar are working on for an example of what we produce in house - http://www.justflight.com/product/canberra.

Our Facebook page is a good example of the excellent job our marketing guys do. We are about to hit 100,000 users any minute now (hopefully today) which is vastly more than anyone else in flight sim have.