Spare a thought

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

9 minutes ago, domkle said:

If LM has taken simmers to "come along for the ride" I doubt that it is out of the goodness of heart. That would be rather unusual to see a large corporation entertaining (pun non intended)  for 9 years a minor activity to serve a market out of their customer base core  if  it was not highly profitable, money-wise or part of a larger strategy. 

Sure, it will hurt when sales drop. They question is if it matters. I don't think that it is necessarily correct to regard P3D as a product that has to be profitable. That depends on where the project budget is coming from. If for example LM provides that as a part of marketing or R&D budgeting, the actual sales don't matter anyway. Then it is pure strategy. 

I guess we will never really know.

Best regards

[Dominique_K 10,149]

I see that we are on the same wavelength. We are maybe not vastly important to LM but still non negligible  😉. I rest my case.

 

 

 

[Cruachan 705]

Regarding the SDK for MSFS2020, I have been reading the XO19 interview with ASOBO studio’s lead developer and co-founder, Martial Bossard which is documented over at FlightSim.com:

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?19990-X019-Interview-with-Asobo-Studio

The following is an extract from the interview....

“The only thing I can say is that we have made some partnerships have been announced, so we are talking to third-parties so we can develop an easier way to create content. So the fact is, the same tool used to create the experience is the same SDK we use today. It is not like we have super high quality tools then we will deliver the light version of this. We are doing the experience with the tools that will be delivered in the SDK and everybody will have an access to that. The fact that you are able to trigger the simulator to the developer mode and on this developer mode you will have access to everything that allows you to create planes, sceneries and missions, everything that was done by the person on FSX in what I would say the tooled way, now it's coming with a proper SDK embedded into the simulation.”

I am not a developer but it looks to me that this response could be answering some of the questions surrounding the SDK and it’s availability. Am I correct?

Mike

 

 

[MatthewS 761]

21 minutes ago, Cruachan said:

you are able to trigger the simulator to the developer mode and on this developer mode you will have access to everything that allows you to create planes, sceneries and missions

Great!

Sounds like everyone can easily tweak default airports, adding some ground clutter, maybe replacing textures etc.

Probably you can also easily package up your changes for distribution to other users?

I'm thinking something like a "Steam Workshop" for FS2020.  Imagine that? Thousands of free community created add-ons available for download.

[Alan_A 1,650]

From the new (11/21) development update:

Quote

 

SDK UPDATE

The team is making good progress on the SDK development. While still in the early stages, the plan is to provide an initial version of the SDK to the 3rd party developer community before the end of the year. Our goal has been to involve 3rd parties early in the development process, and to give them the ability to influence our priorities and how we author the SDK. After the first wave of initial 3rd party developer visits onsite with the team, we’ve been incredibly excited by the optimism and feedback we’ve received thus far. These same tools will be provided to the community in effort to ensure the tools we use to create content, tools that undergo constant testing in our production environment, are shared with all our creators. Initially, the SDK will offer the ability to author planes, sceneries and custom missions. For those with a preference for using FSX tools, SimConnect will be supported. We will also support additional modern standards like HTML for UI and glTF for 3D models.

 

Sounds pretty encouraging to me - I hope it lays some of the fears and concerns to rest.

[HarryVoyager 21]

On 11/16/2019 at 5:33 PM, simtom said:

I meant ‘gamers’ more in the sense of people who normally don’t play simulators.

I do know that DLC’s exist outside of flight simulation. And expansions are no longer a thing in Battlefield, it’s all free now.

Micro transactions is the better word, those things are hated right now.

Well, the games you give as example are more or less simulation games, where it is considered ‘normal’ to buy add-ons (don’t forget that a game like Skylines has a ton of free mods). 
 

So what I meant is that the regular Battlefield player won’t really buy add-ons for a simulation game. But it’s all speculation as of now 🙂

The thing that rankles about typical micro transactions is they either are essential to operate in the game, while being mostly code-bits that would normally be part of the base game, or otherwise not require significant effort, and have a maddening tendency to be randomized. 

For example, imagine if VOR stations were provided in packs of three random stations. If it happens to roll a station you've already got you get a lockbox containing a random aircraft specific livery instead. Keys cost $1.50, and the VOR pack you get for either 8 forum up votes, or after 32h of flight without crashing or ten Flight! tokens, available from the store for 50c each. 

By contrast, a new study aircraft is more along the lines of Hey, the god of madness just opened a door to his realm off Niban Bay, Could you, like, do something about it? It keeps spitting out monsters and crazy people... 

Most Xbox gamers will pick up pretty quick on which one of these vendors' products are like.