Justsim charging for v4 updates

[bernd1151 5,981]

9 minutes ago, evaamo said:

and then Andrei Bakanov himself "Liked" the comment. Talk about customer service

They are Russians

[Raven9000 272]

It's a shame.. I was about to buy LOWI buth the ORBX happened. but I was considering it for X-Plane as well as Barcelona for P3D...

[signmanbob 592]

29 minutes ago, Raven9000 said:

It's a shame.. I was about to buy LOWI buth the ORBX happened. but I was considering it for X-Plane as well as Barcelona for P3D...

I have both LOWI and Barcelona and got notice of free updates within my account, that make the airports compatible with P3Dv.4.

I don't know where they are seeing that Justsim is charging for the update. 

 

"Dear simMarket Customer,
at simMarket you can now find a new version of your product for Prepar3D version 4:

JUSTSIM -  INNSBRUCK AIRPORT AUSTRIA - LOWI FSX P3D"

 

Ooops!  Now I see that I'm "entitled" to the upgrade price of $5.99.....Lucky me.

[evaamo 549]

Quote

Dear simMarket Customer,
at simMarket you can now find a new version of your product for Prepar3D version 4:

JUSTSIM - LUXEMBOURG FINDEL AIRPORT ELLX FSX P3D

https://secure.simmarket.com/justsim-luxembourg-findel-airport-ellx-fsx-p3d-(en_10957).phtml

You are entitled to the special upgrade price of EUR 5.00 (+ VAT where applicable).

Should you have any questions please contact us via http://support.simmarket.com

For technical support please contact the support addresses listed in the documentation for the respective product.
The support addresses are also listed in the respective product description pages in our shop.

Best Regards,
The simMarket Team

The quote above comes directly from the e-mail I got from SimMarket.

I even wrote to SimMarket directly and they acknowledged the fee was related to the service they provide to companies such as JustSim.

 

[signmanbob 592]

 

3 minutes ago, evaamo said:

The quote above comes directly from the e-mail I got from SimMarket.

I even wrote to SimMarket directly and they acknowledged the fee was related to the service they provide to companies such as JustSim.

 

Well, I don't mind.  Considering that Simmarket will keep your downloads active and available forever, it's a very good deal.

 

Bob

[vgbaron 3,714]

It's really simple business and all this JustSim bashing is unfair. A large company can afford their own distribution setup and price accordingly. A small company like JustSim develops the product but has to hire someone like SImmarket to distribute it. Hire as in PAY for. We've all been reading about the flap between some developers and FSW/Steam over the percentages for distribution. This is no different.

Simmarket is charging JustSim the amount for handling the transactions, etc and it is simply being passed on down the line to the consumer.

It's really not that big of a deal.

Vic

[whoispankaj 51]

Exactly..This is the cost of running a business..Else all we will see down the road is 2-3 developers left for flight Sims..To me logically, when a product is developed it's developed for one version of simulator..And any fixes are free for that version of simulator...That's the only implicit commitment from developer.And for any sim major version upgrade ,they can and should charge a fee. it will not be just porting your stuff to new version but also fixing bugs for it.And then another version comes along..Do we really expect them to keep porting airports, fixing minor stuffs for free all the while.When they made an airport it was for p3d v3...That's it..Don't expect free upgrades for v5/6/7 etc ..I don't expect them to charge full price.but a fair price for the amount of work needed to port and fix any issues for the life of new version of p3d..

Even if there are no changes needed to port ,I would imagine the below tasks that they need to be doing:

1. change the installer script to support new version.

2. make sure the installer works on a couple of systems atlas.

3. spend a few man hours to verify the airport in the sim.

4. Fix any minor issues, implement the dynamic lighting and test.

In the best case, even if it takes them 8-10 hours to test they need to pay the developer/tester/distributor for it.A one man business cannot absorb all these costs unless they have sold a lot many copies.

.....

[evaamo 549]

I don't think this has anything to do with the price, whether it's EUR 5.99 or 59.99! It's not about the money.

It's not about JustSim being a big or small company either. After all, I've gotten all kinds of product updates through SimMarket (even from individual developers) free of charge... and they've been using the same SimMarket installer-creation tool and distribution platform as JustSim (which I understand from a business point of view).

This is about communicating the truth to your customers and keeping or honoring your words. They want to charge for the update? then fine! go ahead. That's not what I'm complaining about (at least not me). No one is forcing me to update.

However, if you tell your customers this is a free update, and then you charge a fee and go about saying it's because you are using SimMarket's tools/platforms, then it's not a free update at all. They have a forum, why not upload the files there?.

You know the story about Caesar's wife: she was innocent but that wasn't good enough: "Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion".

They may have had a good intention, but those never materialized. Then they made all kinds of silly comments and then outright adopted an aggressive behavior towards their customers. Good luck with that. 

Maybe it's just me ... but this has nothing to do with them being a small company nor their choice of charging for their products.

[Boeing or not going 578]

They could have a patch as a zip file, but I guess the reason they are updating the full installer is to combat piracy?

[joemiller 269]

1 hour ago, bernd1151 said:

They are Russians

Huh ???  You must me watching too much CNN or similar  media TV.  lol

[Boeing or not going 578]

6 minutes ago, joemiller said:

Huh ???  You must me watching too much CNN or similar  media TV.  lol

The developer is Russian. And like the Ezdok developer English is not their first language, so they might come across differently like being hostile even if they are not. I think you should take your own advice.

[edpatino 1,976]

Seems to me that this thread is going south.

Cheers, Ed

[Raven9000 272]

3 hours ago, vgbaron said:

It's really simple business and all this JustSim bashing is unfair. A large company can afford their own distribution setup and price accordingly. A small company like JustSim develops the product but has to hire someone like SImmarket to distribute it. Hire as in PAY for. We've all been reading about the flap between some developers and FSW/Steam over the percentages for distribution. This is no different.

Simmarket is charging JustSim the amount for handling the transactions, etc and it is simply being passed on down the line to the consumer.

It's really not that big of a deal.

Vic

So how is this any different than any regular update...? If this is an update, thet the dev is not charging for, then it seems to me like this is a case then where SimMarket is trying to cash in on the v4 bandwagon, nickel and diming us...

[vgbaron 3,714]

1 minute ago, Raven9000 said:

So how is this any different than any regular update...? If this is an update, thet the dev is not charging for, then it seems to me like this is a case then where SimMarket is trying to cash in on the v4 bandwagon, nickel and diming us...

So you're saying that Simmarket should work for free? As I said, larger companies can absorb some of the cost but smaller ones with much smaller margins cannot. $5 is a nominal charge, if it were much higher, then it would become a different story.

It's one thing for a dev to "eat" their labor, which is a paper cost, but a hard liability like the SImmarket bill can't be ignored. At the prices they sell product, that $5 is probably very close to their net profit on the original sale.

Vic

[Raven9000 272]

1 hour ago, vgbaron said:

So you're saying that Simmarket should work for free? As I said, larger companies can absorb some of the cost but smaller ones with much smaller margins cannot. $5 is a nominal charge, if it were much higher, then it would become a different story.

It's one thing for a dev to "eat" their labor, which is a paper cost, but a hard liability like the SImmarket bill can't be ignored. At the prices they sell product, that $5 is probably very close to their net profit on the original sale.

Vic

 No, I'm not saying that at all, and really wondering where you got that from..

 

I think I was pretty clear... devs put put many updates through the life cycle of their products. How is it that those updates have no charge, and yet this one, one more update, does, when the dev themselves are not charging for it?