Whenever I get frustrated with FSX due to a few CTD's I switch over to European Truck Simulator on Steam to relax, it is a great stress reliever when you loose a flight due to a CTD.

 

I just use my Saitek yoke to drive the trucks and it works ok....would be better with a proper steering wheel

Feel free to observe the X-Plane on Steam usage statistics here on this page. It's not the sales stats, but the worldwide usage statistics.

 

Wow...106 peak number of players, compared to Divinity Original Sin (another niche game)...nearly 22,000, even the indie title Spintires had over 7,000.  Brings home just how small this community is.  The forum isn't really overflowing with compliments either.

 

It's not just X-Plane, Aerofly was even worse, even DCS only manages 219.

Whenever I get frustrated with FSX due to a few CTD's I switch over to European Truck Simulator on Steam to relax, it is a great stress reliever when you loose a flight due to a CTD.

 

I just use my Saitek yoke to drive the trucks and it works ok....would be better with a proper steering wheel

Same here. In fact I use my CH Yoke and Pedals (brake & accelerator). I am a beta tester and infrequent modeler for ProMods' mapping project as well. :Big Grin:

Wow...106 peak number of players, compared to Divinity Original Sin (another niche game)...nearly 22,000, even the indie title Spintires had over 7,000.  Brings home just how small this community is.  The forum isn't really overflowing with compliments either.

 

It's not just X-Plane, Aerofly was even worse, even DCS only manages 219.

 

Xplane's cost on Steam is over what most Steam users are willing to pay so that would really hamper sales. Divinity is priced at a sweet spot which honestly Xplane should be priced way lower on Steam to entice more sales, but Xplane has never seemed that interested in mass sales.  Sometimes I wish LR would put a "Suit" on staff.

Xplane's cost on Steam is over what most Steam users are willing to pay so that would really hamper sales. Divinity is priced at a sweet spot which honestly Xplane should be priced way lower on Steam to entice more sales, but Xplane has never seemed that interested in mass sales.  Sometimes I wish LR would put a "Suit" on staff.

 

I'm not sure about that to be honest.  Sniper Elite 3 is nearly £40 most AAA games are close to that now on Steam (it's normally cheaper to buy the hard copies on Amazon).

 

I entirely agree X-Plane is over priced, particularly as that price doesn't include all the Areas, given as DLC below the cost.

 

I tried the demo of X-Plane the other day, after another 3 hour flight on FSX ended with an OOM.  X-Plane is  still not were FSX was 7 years ago, sorry to say.

 

I only wish DCS would up their development rate from the current Geological timescales for additional areas, perhaps people (i'm thinking PMDG / A2A / Majestic) could move over.  We could have the best of both worlds military and civilian.

 

 

Wow...106 peak number of players, compared to Divinity Original Sin (another niche game)...nearly 22,000

 

I'd only temper any enthusiasm (*or lack thereof) about this with the fact that X-Plane (on Steam) is only a few days old...  As time goes on and the user base grows, we'll be able to see some more appropriate comparisons. It will be interesting to compare the Steam number against the number of pilots online with VATSIM, for example...

I'd only temper any enthusiasm (*or lack thereof) about this with the fact that X-Plane (on Steam) is only a few days old...  As time goes on and the user base grows, we'll be able to see some more appropriate comparisons. It will be interesting to compare the Steam number against the number of pilots online with VATSIM, for example...

 

Of course.  I don't actually want to see it fail, my apologies if my post came across like that.

 

The VATSIM figure is irrelevant to the discussion, people flying on VATSIM have had the sim for some time, that will not bring new blood into the serious simming hobby.  We are talking about popularity on the Steam platform as a method for getting people interested in flight simming.

 

By means of comparison, a game called "Magic 2015 - Meaningless collection of words" released today has over 22,000 active players, it looks like a card game, like 'Top Trumps'.  

 

My vote for 'future sim'; for what it's worth remains DCS.

I don't care for steam myself, but I hope it does well. I just had a look and my problem is, if I sign up again, i won't get anything done, too many games i would want to try since I last had an account, LOL.

 

 

Xplane has never seemed that interested in mass sales.

 

Not sure I agree, if they didn't want mass sales, they wouldn't have made a mobile version of Xplane for very cheap.

 

I don't see how having Xplane on Steam is a negative ... it'll bring cash.  The uninformed comments are the same uninformed comments you find on any forum ... including AVSIM.  Fortunately AVSIM is well moderated to minimize the jibber jabber.

 

I don't think LR are under any obligation to moderate their steam forum and I also don't think it'll impact their product sales if they didn't ... what "might" impact their sales are the uninformed users that post a review with a rating ... but one hopes people don't entirely decide a purchase based on someone else's reviews - hopefully people do a little more fact finding and/or get a demo.

 

But I also think Steam is a great way for a developer to protect their content from theft.

 

And I know this isn't going to be popular with Tom, but having a single source such as Steam for all FSX, P3D, XP10 3rd party content would be a big plus for me ... one stop shop of everything flight simulation related and not to mention always available for download (no backups needed).

 

Cheers, Rob.

I think the issue is some in the Old Skool don't like Steam but the next generation of kids growing up with it don't care what you think. At the end of the day it is just another form of distribution so I don't see what the big deal is.

 

Like a 13 year old cares about customer service, they just want their games and can figure it out for themselves... 

Whenever I get frustrated with FSX due to a few CTD's I switch over to European Truck Simulator on Steam to relax, it is a great stress reliever when you loose a flight due to a CTD.

 

I just use my Saitek yoke to drive the trucks and it works ok....would be better with a proper steering wheel

Exactly, stream music and drive semi it's great way unwind and drive all over.

But I also think Steam is a great way for a developer to protect their content from theft.

Alas, if only that were true. Sadly, many "Steam" delivered titles are 'cracked' within 24 hours or less. Sound familiar?

 

I am surprised at the number of people who look to SCS for support, not realizing that by posting their error log, their use of a 'cracked' .exe is blatantly exposed to the public...

 

I mean we're talking about a game that is frequently on sale from Steam for ~$4 that non-Steam folks such as myself paid full retail price of $39...

 

A quick Google search will quickly reveal just how easy it is... :angry2:

Call me crazy if you like. I accept it, but shouldn't us....the invested, and interested party here take a stake in this? Maybe we all should go over to steam and try and help and direct as many as possible to our forums, sites, addons, mods, knowledge centers and help areas?

Steam will bring a lot of focus to Xplane and anything else on it. Regardess. I can say I know this from experience as well.

 

The only thing is the cost, but XPlane will find themselves selling it for 30-50% in the summer or winter.

A quick Google search will quickly reveal just how easy it is...

 

 

I often think that in this instance software piracy is a balance between ease of theft and ease of purchase. X-plane is hard to steal. anyone who downloads the zillion gigabytes  on the X-plane Dvds as a pirate has my sympathy for the dire things his/her isp will probably do to them. And after all that, they might still end up with an incomplete download that makes it all for naught.

 

The only thing that might make it worth the effort is if you simply can't afford the asking price or are just curious. In either case, you would probably never have purchased it anyway, and Laminar has lost very little.

 

On the other hand, the ease of picking up X-plane on a Steam sale might very nicely balance the uncertainty of a cracked version, and if the price is, right,  I believe most people will choose the convenience and security of a legitimate buy.

 

If the price is right!

 

So here's the warning. The current incomplete state and more than AAA price tag for the complete X-plane package on steam looks very.... unwise.