Aerosoft's Mathijs Kok recently made a statement on their upgrade options for products for the new simulator, which can be found here.

They're in the same boat as PMDG, attempting to entice simmers to continue buying merchandise now by offering talk of an upgrade path to MSFS.

Fair play to them for promising not to charge 100%+ for migrating products (unlike some developers have done), but some of their 'professional' range stuff needs dropping for completely new builds. More Cologne/Bonn level quality scenery rather than the Sim-Wings stuff. Even one of my favourites, Frankfurt, is starting to look dated against FSDT KORD, FT KLAS, Orbx EGLC or Pilot's LEAL.

Aeroplanes will need reworking to incorporate the new MSFS flight model. I'm interested to see how the planned, brand-new DHC-6 Twotter and the Airbuses fare

Glad to hear that they've had nothing but a pleasant experience in their discussions with Asobo/Microsoft thus far.

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I can't stress enough what a pleasure it is to 'work' with Microsoft and Asobo on this exciting new platform. It is a total change from our past experiences. They really want to make this a platform for everybody. A new base for the future.

Very encouraging to hear.

I think this "buy now, get credit towards purchase for MSFS later" thing will probably be the way forward for 3PDs, once they know enough about the sim/SDK to commit to it.

I trust Aerosoft to give users a reasonable deal when the new sim comes along.  Their upgrade policy ("you only pay for new code") is eminently fair and it's a shame that some other prominent developers haven't seen fit to follow their example. 

A lot of people stopped buying addons after the announcement. I'm guilty of this also. As a consumer, why would I want to invest in a $30 scenery or a $100 aircraft if I don't know if I can use it a year or less from now in the new sim. I'm just speculating here because I don't have access to the data to back this up but I can assume that addon companies took a pretty substantial reduction in revenue these last few months. I see these upgrade options as a way of reassuring us customers that hey it will be okay, you can buy this stuff now and we have your back. After all, they are businesses just like any other and they need to keep the lights on. Especially if they are having to divert resources to an unreleased platform that is not yet generating revenue for them.

If there are any nooks and crannies in this new sim that can be improved on, you better believe our beloved developers will find a way to do so and get that product to us. Best we keep supporting them for the time being and continue business as usual. We still got some time left on this old gal P3D.

It seems to me that from some hints that Microsoft has been dropping in their videos, it may not be so much of a process to polish up addons to get them into the new sim. If that is in fact the case, I would love to be able to pay an upgrade cost of something I already own over full price again.

23 minutes ago, PWJT8D said:

A lot of people stopped buying addons after the announcement. I'm guilty of this also. As a consumer, why would I want to invest in a $30 scenery or a $100 aircraft if I don't know if I can use it a year or less from now in the new sim. 

Isn’t an year of enjoyment worth 30 bucks to you? I have also reduced the amount of purchases, but I am still buying add-one that are either really cheap or/and that I know I’ll keep using for a long time to come. 

Edited December 1, 20196 yr by GCBraun

3 hours ago, GCBraun said:

Isn’t an year of enjoyment worth 30 bucks to you? I have also reduced the amount of purchases, but I am still buying add-one that are either really cheap or/and that I know I’ll keep using for a long time to come. 

that 30 bucks with another and another might contribute to the quality/power of a PC that can run the new MSFS better, therefor, yes it matters a big deal (at least to me), my priority has changed from how my sim looks right now to how my next sim will require to run (hardware wise because it doesn't need much of a face lift out of the box, and that is what my future saving/spending should go).

11 hours ago, Alan_A said:

I trust Aerosoft to give users a reasonable deal when the new sim comes along.  Their upgrade policy ("you only pay for new code") is eminently fair and it's a shame that some other prominent developers haven't seen fit to follow their example. 

Thank you my friend.  It's one of many reasons I joined Aerosoft instead of another company.

Every developer gets beat up, and we all know that some people live to take on developers as a matter of sport.  But Aerosoft does it right as far as I'm concerned, and each member of our team loves flight sim and flight simmers, and we always do our best to make the largest percentage of people happy.  Doesn't always work though, just recently we got a number of complaints regarding paying $23 for a CRJ upgrade (not update) that provided two new aircraft and a host of other features.  Can't please everyone.

Thanks again for you post!  Keeps us going!

 

 

 

1 hour ago, DaveCT2003 said:

...just recently we got a number of complaints regarding paying $23 for a CRJ upgrade (not update) that provided two new aircraft and a host of other features.  Can't please everyone.

No complaints from me! Just got done running the installer about 15 minutes ago and getting ready to try her out. 👍

43 minutes ago, PWJT8D said:

No complaints from me! Just got done running the installer about 15 minutes ago and getting ready to try her out. 👍

Just so you know, we're working on a big update for her.  I wasn't on the CRJ team (I work the A330) but I hear good things!

 

Aerosoft and PMDG are strategic partners? But PMDG has info that Aerosoft doesn't? 🤔

Anyway, I'm with @GCBraun that a year of enjoyment is still worth it. Life is short people. I'm rooting for this new sim but we aren't even sure it will be released on time. 

Good to know!

I always loved the few add-ons I bought for fs9/fsx and even some for Aerowinx and x-plane, from Aerosoft. They're a very nice group, and I' glad I'll be able to have their services for MFS too...