MSFS Marketplace Confirmed (Kind of)

[Mengy 814]

6 minutes ago, simbol said:

This advert could be for anything and any product.

Uh, no, the posting clearly states it is a job opening for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

 

Quote

Marketplace Producer, Microsoft Flight Simulator

https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/job/672404/Marketplace-Producer?jobsource=indeed&utm_source=indeed&utm_medium=indeed&utm_campaign=indeed-feed

Edited August 22, 2019 by Mengy

[nickhod 425]

Just now, simbol said:

This advert could be for anything and any product.

Seriously? Does the title "Marketplace Producer, Microsoft Flight Simulator" not offer any hints at all?

I don't think anyone needs to guess anything here.

[Superdelphinus 718]

1 minute ago, simbol said:

????

I’m just wondering if you read the advert posted above - there’s a lot in there about what product it is for. 

[bonchie 2,305]

Not surprising at all. The only way we will ever seen continued future development and versions is if MS can make money past the initial purchase.

We are too niche to rely on just selling 5M copies to pay the bills and keep development going. 

This is a good thing if done right. No more scattered installers, invasive install processes, and a central place to do reinstalls. 

The key is making it fair for everyone. MS taking 10-15% to host all transactions and open developers to a larger market is fair. The big thing to remember is that without some kind of arrangement like this, there won’t be a MSFS 2.0. 

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

7 minutes ago, bonchie said:

Not surprising at all. The only way we will ever seen continued future development and versions is if MS can make money past the initial purchase.

We are too niche to rely on just selling 5M copies to pay the bills and keep development going. 

This is a good thing if done right. No more scattered installers, invasive install processes, and a central place to do reinstalls. 

The key is making it fair for everyone. MS taking 10-15% to host all transactions and open developers to a larger market is fair. The big thing to remember is that without some kind of arrangement like this, there won’t be a MSFS 2.0. 

Agree, we don't need a million different installers going to a million different directories to keep track of when updates come out.  3rd party or not ONE central place to have ALL your products bought, installed, and updated would really be welcomed.  I would think, if done right, would cut down on 3rd party dev time and costs.  It can take at least 30 days or more to make an installer do what you need it to do.  MS has already publicly stated they are aware of the current ecosystem.  Let's hope this is what they're talking about and it's amicable to all parties involved.

[shivers9 1,174]

42 minutes ago, cepact said:

My only hope is that the marketplace would be optional and developers would be allowed to sell their product from their own website.

 

I think that option will just not happen. MS at least to this point in not known for giving options and why would a Dev who has their own Web store choose to pay MS a fee for space  the MS store? Could be a good deal for smaller lesser known Devs but it is going to be hard to set up quality control for both in house sales and outside developers. That is just a street fight waiting to happen first time a private Dev is not allowed to sell a product that is not in the MS store.

[Paraffin 2,197]

I think it's a good idea, especially the automatic updates if it can be done as seamlessly as Steam does, with both the primary game and Workshop mod updates.

One of the current hassles with X-Plane is that while the file structure is drag 'n drop easy to back up or move to another computer, you still have to track updates by getting emails from developers and then manually download. The way Steam does it automatically is easier. 

But (there's always a "but).... I hope it's possible for free user-made content to be included with a bare minimum of curation beyond "does it work at all," and not "does this look sexy enough for our brand?"

Some of us will want to use a janky, free user-made aircraft model if it's the only one available for that particular aircraft, until something better comes along. Same thing for scenery (airports). If MS is too heavy-handed on the curation, the sim won't enjoy the variety of add-ons we've had in the past. Not everything has to be a Carenado/PMDG or Orbx level product.

My other concern is that I don't think the MIcrosoft store has ever handled the huge number of add-ons that could be developed. Just look at the DLC for DTG's Train Sim on the Steam store as a worst-case example. Steam isn't really set up for that large a list of DLC, along with concerns about who gets to be at the top of the list.

With the funding and programming talent behind Microsoft, they should be able to do better. Let's hope so anyway. 

[pracines 823]

Talking about behind schedule - shouldn't MS already have somebody in place??? 😧

All this planning, and talking about plans, and they still need to hire a person who would be extremely important this very day, NOT tomorrow … right now!😕

How can there be a 3rd party progress update today? Maybe the update will be;... 'we have an ad for a position'.🙄

But anyway to have an "executive producer" for an add-on market place, for flight simulator, indicates to me that there is like 50+ people in that department alone. If that exec is for the whole xbox game thing, that's another matter. But "high horse" titles like that also indicate to me, a bureaucracy that slows a process down.🤢 If we flight simmers have to wait for add-ons because Minecraft (or whatever games/add-ons) takes precedence, then MSFS will die fast.

To me its (the 3rd party bit) not looking attractive at this juncture.👎 

YES YES we will wait and see, this is just my feedback on the matter as I currently understand it. 

[Jeff Nielsen 1,386]

3 minutes ago, pracines said:

Talking about behind schedule - shouldn't MS already have somebody in place??? 😧

All this planning, and talking about plans, and they still need to hire a person who would be extremely important this very day, NOT tomorrow … right now!😕

How can there be a 3rd party progress update today? Maybe the update will be;... 'we have an ad for a position'.🙄

But anyway to have an "executive producer" for an add-on market place, for flight simulator, indicates to me that there is like 50+ people in that department alone. If that exec is for the whole xbox game thing, that's another matter. But "high horse" titles like that also indicate to me, a bureaucracy that slows a process down.🤢 If we flight simmers have to wait for add-ons because Minecraft (or whatever games/add-ons) takes precedence, then MSFS will die fast.

To me its (the 3rd party bit) not looking attractive at this juncture.👎 

YES YES we will wait and see, this is just my feedback on the matter as I currently understand it. 

They may have wanted to wait and make sure the title was going to viable before launching the marketplace development.  Make sense in a way, but in hindsight, looks kinda strange.  Probably doesn't take to long to get it in place...hopefully 🙂 

[Dominique_K 10,149]

7 hours ago, 188AHC said:

Come on Nick. I said very clearly that that is what Microsoft STARTED in Flight.  It didn't last long enough to flesh out with a distributable SDK or to expand the marketplace.

Please quit trying to make more out of something than is stated.

Flight was the biggest failure of the game industry in 20  years. If anything,  we should hope that MS will not =start= (your word) on the same foot.

No time to expand the market place or nobody to expand it ? All the major dev declined to participate due to outrageous conditions. 

We all see that you have fond memories of Flight, good for you, but the MS team said that they learned their lessons from past mistakes. Filght is the model of what shouldn’t be repeated.

[simbol 5,821]

9 hours ago, nickhod said:

Seriously? Does the title "Marketplace Producer, Microsoft Flight Simulator" not offer any hints at all?

I don't think anyone needs to guess anything here.

 

8 hours ago, Superdelphinus said:

I’m just wondering if you read the advert posted above - there’s a lot in there about what product it is for. 

Yes  I did.. You guys miss understood me, let me try to "rephrase"

Quote

 

"In this role you will be directly responsible for tracking the quality and timely execution of deliverables from our external partners"

 

External partners can be anything, not necessarily including or excluding 3rd party content DLC providers. For example they might hire external resources to accomplish certain tasks.

Quote

"including setting up proper workflow and communication processes for managing the inventory/pricing/strategies/presence of our internal/external Marketplace store."

Again this could be as I said "for anything", it could be for MS own DLC or it could be for 3rd Party DLC (in hence my reference to any product), hell this could be just regarding MS2020 "only" in order to be sure the Marketing of it is done correctly, and handle its presence inside the MS Gamin marketplace store.

So as I stated, I don't see the point on trying to guess these things, it is better to wait until MS actually contact 3rd party content providers with the "Final" plans and guidelines.

Regards,
S.

[Wobbie 938]

Obviously the marketplace refers to the Xbox store.. Old news regarding the establishment thereof, & the advert was posted in the 19 July 2019.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Wobbie

[nickhod 425]

46 minutes ago, simbol said:

External partners can be anything, not necessarily including or excluding 3rd party content DLC providers. For example they might hire external resources to accomplish certain tasks.

Again this could be as I said "for anything", it could be for MS own DLC or it could be for 3rd Party DLC (in hence my reference to any product), hell this could be just regarding MS2020 "only" in order to be sure the Marketing of it is done correctly, and handle its presence inside the MS Gamin marketplace store.

Maybe. But given that MS Flight had a marketplace, and given that the MSFS team has expressed their intention to work with 3rd parties from the start, and given this job posting, I'd be willing to take a bet.

If it's better for you to wait until MS announces anything, cool. I'd rather start thinking right now what I could develop for the (highly probable) MSFS marketplace store as I think it'll be a great opportunity.

Edited August 23, 2019 by nickhod

[rocketlaunch 614]

9 hours ago, simbol said:

I don't see the point on trying to guess these things

Ahh come on, that is what we are best at in this forum!

[nickhod 425]

7 minutes ago, Wobbie said:

Obviously the marketplace refers to the Xbox store.. Old news regarding the establishment thereof, & the advert was posted in the 19 July 2019.

Maybe so. Even then it suggests that there will be some kind of central place to buy 3rd party content.

It was an interesting job ad that I thought I'd share. Open to interpretation, I agree.