Reading Ben;s interview this part stuck out:

 

"I can't comment on X-Plane 11; our experience is that talking about the next major release before it is ready to ship prematurely hurts sales of the current release - sales we need to fund the completion of that next major version."

 

Hopefully Steam's Greenlight will push out XP11 that much faster.

 

i hope thats actually not the case. like any other guy i love a new version to be released but i feel like in the past 6 months xplane has finally attracted alot of eyes to it. im hoping developers see this and start making adons and in a year or 2 we will have as many addons as fsx. 

releasing a new version while slowly the 3rd party developers are getting on board would probably not be a good idea. 

Improvements gonna be slow and incremental, and likely gonna take years before it will all features people demand. Short term more airport legos be nice, and improve plane handling, interface should allow knob turning.

Improvements gonna be slow and incremental, and likely gonna take years before it will all features people demand. Short term more airport legos be nice, and improve plane handling, interface should allow knob turning.

 

That's the possible fly in the ointment. People on steam are likely going to expect a very polished and complete product, especially for that price and ginormous download size. The actual perpetual beta (and incomplete) state of the sim might be quite a bit of a shock if expectations are not very carefully managed.

The steam crowd is certainly a different crowd and I hope that it doesn't hurt xplane.

 

    I don't think it will as plane is more for enthusiasts than casual gamers and the real target audience know a little about what they are getting.

 

    I am sure there will be many unhappy customers though, not a reflection on plane, a reflection on the steam users and what they expect when a game pops up on steam.

 

    I have seen it recently on a couple of sims where the target was not so much the gamers but more on the sim side of users and it got a less than stellar reaction from the casuals that got it.

 

    One thing that really doesn't work so well on steam when selling to casuals is the xplane model of selling while in early beta.   It's done on steam with some other titles as well but sims usually take a hammering of bad press on forums when sold like this as it really doesn't meet with the casual gamers expectations.

 

    xplane is past where it was at that stage so lets hope it goes well but certainly expect the moaners from steam to come knocking, hopefully not here.

That's the possible fly in the ointment. People on steam are likely going to expect a very polished and complete product, especially for that price and ginormous download size. The actual perpetual beta (and incomplete) state of the sim might be quite a bit of a shock if expectations are not very carefully managed.

 

   I hand't read your post when I did mine, couldn't agree more.  Steam users are in general a different breed expecting something different.   No matter how you sell it something like xplane will generate a lot of negative comments.   A part of me thinks that this is just easy $$ for LR because they will capture some people with it.   Fair enough, increase your market.  It's up to end users to be a little aware of what they are buying but this beta thing could be a real thorn.

The steam crowd is certainly a different crowd and I hope that it doesn't hurt xplane.

 

    I don't think it will as plane is more for enthusiasts than casual gamers and the real target audience know a little about what they are getting.

 

    I am sure there will be many unhappy customers though, not a reflection on plane, a reflection on the steam users and what they expect when a game pops up on steam.

 

    I have seen it recently on a couple of sims where the target was not so much the gamers but more on the sim side of users and it got a less than stellar reaction from the casuals that got it.

 

    One thing that really doesn't work so well on steam when selling to casuals is the xplane model of selling while in early beta.   It's done on steam with some other titles as well but sims usually take a hammering of bad press on forums when sold like this as it really doesn't meet with the casual gamers expectations.

 

    xplane is past where it was at that stage so lets hope it goes well but certainly expect the moaners from steam to come knocking, hopefully not here.

 

   I hand't read your post when I did mine, couldn't agree more.  Steam users are in general a different breed expecting something different.   No matter how you sell it something like xplane will generate a lot of negative comments.   A part of me thinks that this is just easy $$ for LR because they will capture some people with it.   Fair enough, increase your market.  It's up to end users to be a little aware of what they are buying but this beta thing could be a real thorn.

 

I imagine 10.30,10.40 will be final by the time xpx goes on steam. Hopefully all the major bugs are fixed and we have some new features and better looking autogen ! If sales are good maybe this will attract more 3PDs !?! And maybe Laminar will hire some more programers to speed things up a bit !

Let's hope links to the demo are up front and center, so people are very aware they can try before they buy. As I said, I think being on steam is a great opportunity for the sim.

 

I just hope it's very clear to potential buyers exactly what they are getting, especially those who may have played it on a tablet and expect the same sort of learning curve and ease of use, but with better graphics.