FSX-MS is the airport scenery market really that lucrative?

[flyforever 267]

So, everyday a new airport is added to the list of available airports. What does this mean? That , in theory, the entire list of the sim's airports is being  made over. To what end? Are airport designers appealing to those users who live near them? I just don't see where all of this leads. Regions perhaps, but discreet airports? How many airports  can one individual realistically buy before realizing the tremendous cost that these represent?

I'm just wondering whether one of these days all of these airports will run out of buyers.

[Zatoichi 45]

7 billion people.

It'll take awhile before they saturate any market.

[ubersu 78]

In FSX alone I have about 500 unique airports and I've been simming for over 20 years... there are a lot more airports that I don't have simply because I don't fly to those areas. There are over 24,000 unique airports in FS counting VFR and IFR airports. The current AIRAC lists over 13500 airports. Does that give you some idea?

DJ

[Cat3b2013 22]

I guess while people want to buy the scenery's then people will keep making and charging for them.

Demand and Supply?  Long may it last - I guess that people may pay lots if they buy lots of airports but that's their choice.  There's still a lot of amazing freeware or trial versions of payware ones out there that we can all get by on :)

[RichieFly 714]

Once you buy one and see what it's like to depart/land at a fleshed-out premium airfield, you're hooked. At least, I was.

It goes with the hobby; like a railroader who has nice liveries and wants some nice track and scenery to enhance their enjoyment.

[Zatoichi 45]

We have differing focus in the sim.

I have a lot of GA aircraft and not much else.
Others have airliners.
 

 

[ckyliu 1,749]

I don't think airport scenery is very profitable compared to other types of addons, beyond major international hubs and holiday destinations the appeal of any particular airport is fairly localised.

If I make a good rendition of a popular aircraft, most simmers globally would be interested (e.g. 737 or PA-28). If I make a good but smaller airport for that aircraft to visit (e.g. Leeds Bradford with 3.6m passengers per year) my market is going to be 75%+ people that live within 400 miles. If I do an airport in a less wealthy country with fewer simmers (e.g. parts of Africa) that doesn't leave many potential purchasers within that scope.  If I make a GA only grass field (e.g. Beverley) then the market shrinks even more since the heavy metal folks can't use it.

The effort and cost involved in doing a detailed airport is less than most aircraft, which somewhat offsets the smaller potential market. But, for example, I could make a replacement texture addon that has global appeal (e.g. something to update default airport buildings) and that'd only be the same effort as making a few airports but I'd sell a lot more. Same goes for a lot of utility tools.

[pmb 5,137]

Besides those living in the region there's another group willing to buy even smaller airpoirts, and that's the collectors. There's a not so limited group of people who buy anything or nearly anything from a certain make. That's definitely the case with ORBX followers (count me in) who even buy small grass strips out in nowhere land by ORBX to complete their collection. Usually ORBX airports just have that "certain something" atmosphere wherever they are situated. 

On the other side of the scale there are big hub collectors who buy anything from, say, FlightBeam as they know it's been always first class.

Kind regards, Michael

[Patco Lch 1,459]

12 hours ago, RichieFly said:

Once you buy one and see what it's like to depart/land at a fleshed-out premium airfield, you're hooked. At least, I was.

It goes with the hobby; like a railroader who has nice liveries and wants some nice track and scenery to enhance their enjoyment.

Very true. Often at an FPS cost. One of life's trade offs I guess. Hard to find that balance some time.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

The flightsim addon market is often overrated. A small developer can expect to make around $3000 - 5000 a year if his addons are reasonably popular. It helps when he manages to sell them through ORBX, Aerosoft or the likes. An unknown dev trying to sell on his own may be looking at less than that. Then again, some are very lucky and land the big hit right with their first product- and vanish again after a few years. Only very few developers can make a sustained living based on this market alone, and even the most well known companies are actually very small (10 people is already a large outfit).

Don't be fooled by all those lists of best sold addons in the shops. In some categories it is enough to sell 2 (two) licenses per week to stay at the top of the list.

Best regards

[ckyliu 1,749]

An airport scenery developer doesn't need a huge team though; a one man band or a couple of peeps is usually enough and it needn't be a full time thing unless you're wanting to release big airports fairly regularly. I don't disagree there are collectors and the "brand loyal" but I don't think they make up much of the sales volume with the odd exception.

Developments which require more coding (e.g. airliners) I can understand the need for a team with individual specialisms and the costs that brings.

Your figures could be accurate for most flight sim addon developers but there are a few (who I shan't name because I got in trouble before) that seem to be doing very well. There's certainly no shame in having fewer than 10 staff, much of the economy is built on those small business!

Oh and as a side note thank you for your addon manager @Lorby_SI, it's really made my migration to P3D much easier

[ms2 184]

To fly AG, I have all orbx airports for the fun.

For liners have a lot of sceneries of big airports...

So I'm a real compulsive addict of addons... is half of mine pleasure in sim because is a good reason to fly unknown countries.

Perhaps a lot, as me, hate the old basic airports of the fsx or p3d. Potential for creators who do great jobs.

 

[Zatoichi 45]

By the same logic, why redo any aircraft that was done in the past?

Because you as a dev think you can do it better?

[harrry 322]

17 hours ago, ckyliu said:

An airport scenery developer doesn't need a huge team though; a one man band or a couple of peeps is usually enough and it needn't be a full time thing unless you're wanting to release big airports fairly regularly. I don't disagree there are collectors and the "brand loyal" but I don't think they make up much of the sales volume with the odd exception.

Developments which require more coding (e.g. airliners) I can understand the need for a team with individual specialisms and the costs that brings.

Your figures could be accurate for most flight sim addon developers but there are a few (who I shan't name because I got in trouble before) that seem to be doing very well. There's certainly no shame in having fewer than 10 staff, much of the economy is built on those small business!

Oh and as a side note thank you for your addon manager @Lorby_SI, it's really made my migration to P3D much easier

 

18 hours ago, Lorby_SI said:

The flightsim addon market is often overrated. A small developer can expect to make around $3000 - 5000 a year if his addons are reasonably popular. It helps when he manages to sell them through ORBX, Aerosoft or the likes. An unknown dev trying to sell on his own may be looking at less than that. Then again, some are very lucky and land the big hit right with their first product- and vanish again after a few years. Only very few developers can make a sustained living based on this market alone, and even the most well known companies are actually very small (10 people is already a large outfit).

Don't be fooled by all those lists of best sold addons in the shops. In some categories it is enough to sell 2 (two) licenses per week to stay at the top of the list.

Best regards

If that developer has only spent 10 hours on developing the product and from that makes $9000 (say 3 years life) he has been well rewarded.  I know the time figure is more..especially for hobyist developers who do not always work at a proffessional time rate but it is the effective time for the product that counts, not I took 5 years developing this.

[Lorby_SI 2,036]

19 minutes ago, harrry said:

 

If that developer has only spent 10 hours on developing the product and from that makes $9000 (say 3 years life) he has been well rewarded.  I know the time figure is more..especially for hobyist developers who do not always work at a proffessional time rate but it is the effective time for the product that counts, not I took 5 years developing this.

There is not much that can be done in 10 hours. A halfway decent payware scenery or aircraft that people will actually want to buy will require an effort of several hundred hours. Thousands for a really good one. 

As a frame of reference: creating the FireFighter X was an effort of 1600 hours to date by a professional programmer with 35 years of experience.

It is what it is - your chance to become one of the successful "few" as a developer is very very low. All that you can hope for is a little compensation for your efforts. Anyone who is investing large amounts of money into the addon market is taking an awful risk. Just look around you, this very webseite. Look past the total number of threads or posts and check out the actual number of views = clicks that those threads are getting. Cut those numbers down significantly to account for people returning to the same thread a couple of times. Now cut them down again to about 5-10% and you have a good estimate of the potential paying customer base. Compared to the numbers that we used to have 10 years ago, I find this depressing.

Best regards