I wonder if someone might answer a question for me:  What is the purpose of announcing  products that are in development months and even years before they are ready?  This has happened literally hundreds of times with several announcements and "pre-announcements" being made every day.  They are invariably followed by dozens of posts applauding the announcement as if it were, in itself, an accomplishment.

It seems to me that the effect is to create expectations and raise anticipation to such a fever pitch that the developers then feel pressured to release many products long before they are ready.  At that point the conversation shifts to what is wrong with the release and how to "work around it" until the recently announced patch is released that may or may not deliver what was promised.  We don't have to look far for a recent example of this, but Microsoft is just an extreme example of a pattern that has been repeated over and over in this industry.

How, for example, are we being promised solid new addons for MSFS when even their SDK is unfinished and without any firm date for its completion.  This is the distinct impression I get from those sites where the developers talk among themselves about the problems they are facing.  It is far different from the glowing reports they make as to what is coming in sites such as this that are read by end users.

It sometimes seems to me that the only real effect of these "announcements" is the creation of thread after thread about what is hoped for in the future and predictions of how great it surely will be when (and far too often)  if  it arrives.  [There is, as another example, a product apparently still in development that was first announced three years ago---its website continues to this day to promise that release can be expected in the Summer of 2018]

There are hundreds of excellent products that exist in the here and now--what exactly is the advantage--the payoff-- for living so far in a speculative future?

I mean no offense to those who seem to enjoy these announcements and to engage in these  hopeful predictions.  I am merely trying to understand them.  Perhaps, as we often say, I am missing something.

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by TASCHMANN

Sometimes, not always, it's market positioning to stave off competition.

If I'm developing a brand new DHC-2 Beaver for the new MSFS (I'm not), then if I announce it a year in advance, maybe it motivates a competitor to work on something else.

Doesn't always work, especially if someone with a more solid reputation announces the same thing. And of course you have to deliver... eventually. 🙂

Edit to add: With the MSFS sim itself, there are probably many factors at play, including the tie-in with the new XBox being released soon. MSFS is a flagship product for that console, and they don't have many exclusives for launch day.

Edited September 2, 20205 yr by Paraffin

I don't see a problem with it.  If it didn't happen, people would say 'this simulator doesn't look like it will be very well supported by 3rd party devs!'.

No customers were harmed in the process!  😁

It's not a bad idea to announce stuff. Recently I think there were a total of three different Aerospatiale Concorde developments announced, all of which were comparatively 'light' treatments of the subject material. Some will be pleased to see a light treatment of the aeroplane which is easy to fly, but this is not what a lot of other people want out of a simulated Concorde.

And so now those three developers know their potential market share of people interested in a 'light' Concorde, might be diminished by 66 percent since there are three players in the game. But they also know that teaming up with a competitor could potentially make a better or more complex product, or even one with selectable complexity modes which could serve both markets, whilst also reducing the competition they faced. A win-win for all concerned.

The list of well-intentioned and enthusiastically commenced software projects which never see the light of day, would doubtless be a very much longer one had not scenarios such as the one above occurred, which lead to people pooling their efforts to make a much more capable development team. But you can't team up with someone else if you don't know of their existence, let alone that they're working toward the same goal as yourself.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Chock

I remember distinctly PMDG announcing a BBJ version of their 737 - this must have been somewhere around 2002 - 2003. Still waiting....

17 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

I remember distinctly PMDG announcing a BBJ version of their 737 - this must have been somewhere around 2002 - 2003. Still waiting....

It's number two on finals behind that Level-D Sims Boeing. 🤣

They don't know when it will be ready, but they do know that whenever it is, it will be 139.99, with a discount of tuppence available if you bought one of their other 737s.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Chock

Just do not pre-order.  "vapor-ware" still exists.  First and last time I got burned was 1984 for a word processing program for the original IBM PC.  Ordered, paid, and it never made it to market.  No refund.

Blackbox simulation.....just throwing it out there.

Their Airbus Widebody is still in a "Prologue" state and is fully compatible with FSX, P3D 2 and 3, and, hold on to your seats, fellas, "Now Supports 64bit Prepar3D v4 !

 

8 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Blackbox simulation.....just throwing it out there.

In fairness, the BBS Airbuses do offer some nice features - they have a really great load manager and livery manager with an excellent GUI, they have better nose-wheel steering commands than either the FSL or Aerosoft Airbus and they were the only developer who could be @rsed to make an A340 as well as being the first one to have a stab at an A330 - but I really think they need to look up the meaning of the word 'prologue'; their's is the longest prologue in the history of mankind. 🤣

Prologue: an introductory event or act that leads to another.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Chock

But, let's be honest, these are some of the guys behind PSS; how could they fall so far behind the curve and pretty much - rightly or wrongly - become the laughing stock of the flightsim world?

27 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

the laughing stock of the flightsim world?

Nah, that's Ariane. They had a really good product which actually at the time rivaled PMDG's 737 NG in quite a few ways, but they a really bad attitude and they shot themselves up the @rse with it.

Shame really, their products, while overpriced and with draconian copy-protection methods, were actually quite good, but since everyone hated them as a developer, most people were never in a position to discover that their 737 NG was very cool. But let's be honest, you'd know you were in bad shape as a developer when people liked Abacus more than you. 🤣

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Chock

This seems the best place to announce this my project. 

I am building a halographic add on for 2020, 

You will be able to sit in the middle of you sim room and a complete cockpit of the plane you choose will appear around you in 3D solidfication graphics (means you can touch and operate all dials and switches by touch).  I am hoping to have it ready by 2129 and will be freeware.

To the op, off the top of my head.

1.  Territorial urination: some developers post announcements hoping to dissuade other developers from tackling the same subject matter.

2. site traffic:  an announcement of an anticipated product will drive regular check up visits by people interested in the software, and if the company has ancillary products or site based advertising active, will increase those efforts.

3. crowdfunding:  not used in flight sim software much. (But why not? They might get some esoteric aircraft built this way) but obviously if you need a project to be kickstarted, you can’t be shy on promoting it.

4. gauging interest:  they might be using the announcement to see whether anyone gives a word not allowed or not.  Also might be the reason some of these “vaporware” products never got done...

5.  Simple ego: developers are people, and people are proud of their work, and like to show it off to receive the adulation of the masses.

I’m sure there are more

3 hours ago, Chock said:

 

 

37 minutes ago, Chock said:

Nah, that's Ariane. They had a really good product which actually at the time rivaled PMDG's 737 NG in quite a few ways, but they a really bad attitude and they shot themselves up the @rse with it.

Shame really, their products, while overpriced and with draconian copy-protection methods, were actually quite good, but since everyone hated them as a developer, most people were never in a position to discover that their 737 NG was very cool. But let's be honest, you'd know you were in bad shape as a developer when people liked Abacus more than you. 🤣

Peter Tishma and Ariane, now these ARE fighting words. I bought Ariane's 737 BBJ for FS9, which only had a 3D panel and was heads and shoulders above what PMDG made. Loved the integrated pushback module. I had many extremely unpleasant exchanges with their customer support and wrote a couple of posts about this here on avsim 15 years ago or so. 

I bought Peter Tishma's CRJ boxed package, it came with a pen and an endorsement from a female first officer for Austrian Airlines, or something like that. Memories......

You might recall that I got in the middle of that battle here on Avsim when I bought their FSX 737 NG so I could review it for Avsim when I was on the review staff here many years ago, since they would not provide a review copy. That was an entertaining time. 🤣

I did give it a fair review though and in fact it prompted me to buy their FS9 version as well.

Edited September 3, 20205 yr by Chock