Why scenery developers focus on MSFS instead of P3D?

[shivers9 1,174]

4 hours ago, HiFlyer said:

Considering how popular various scenery enhancements are, and that Orbx base, true-Earth and airports are pretty much acknowledged requirements, not to mention cloud beautification and tree and water and weather products, it seems fairly well established that pretty pictures are pretty much everyone's thing.

Then please go for MS2020. There is an entire forum for you guys under MS2020. That is a good place to giggle and go ohhhh...AHHHH!!!

[HiFlyer 9,358]

11 minutes ago, shivers9 said:

That is a good place to giggle and go ohhhh...AHHHH!!!

I was under the impression that people could go ohhh, and AHHH!!! in any sub forum, if they were so inclined.

I do avoid giggling, however, as I prefer to go "tee-hee". 🤨

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by HiFlyer

[G-RFRY 1,710]

FlyTampa  have just released SYDNEY V2 P3D4-5, RFscenery are rolling out P3DV5 airports.

[Boeingnut 72]

So, I'll just add this to our discussion; I don't know what this means for the future from ORBX re P3d v5, but there was an update planned back in May to replace and enhance the missing bridges in the Vancouver area, with more accurate models in the PNW scenery. With the release of MSFS, it (as of yet) hasn't materialized. I have inquired a couple of times and, at length have finally received this response : "

Nothing has changed from our statement back in April regarding v5 updates:

”We will work on the remaining products to get them up to v5 compatibility. This is not a commitment or guarantee that all products will be made available for v5. Regardless, we will endeavour to make all of them compatible but there may be instances where this may not be possible. ”  So take of that what you will. I hope they're not done with P3d...

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

It seems to me that with lack of high quality MSFS aircraft from 3rd party developers, that 3rd party airport designers are now having second thoughts about ditching p3d5.

[Boeingnut 72]

14 minutes ago, jabloomf1230 said:

It seems to me that with lack of high quality MSFS aircraft from 3rd party developers, that 3rd party airport designers are now having second thoughts about ditching p3d5.

I hope you're right

[Scottoest 1,561]

On 10/5/2020 at 6:04 PM, shivers9 said:

Then please go for MS2020. There is an entire forum for you guys under MS2020. That is a good place to giggle and go ohhhh...AHHHH!!!

You know your post history is visible right?  That people can see you've posted in the MSFS subforum, mostly to throw tomatoes from the sidelines?  Kinda makes pleas for people to go to "their forum" ring more than a little hollow.

As to the OP's title question, it's not really hard to understand at all.  If you believe the estimate of Mathijs Kok at Aerosoft, there's about 20,000 "recreational" users of P3D.  Let's even assume that estimate is too conservative, and double it to 40,000.

MSFS crossed the million user mark weeks ago, gets far more mainstream attention, is still growing (and will get another spike in interest when the console port releases), and has a built-in marketplace that gives third-party creations a lot of prominent attention in fromt of users' eyes.  When a data error caused a weird sinkhole to the center of the planet to open up in Brazil, CNN covered it.  That's mainstream attention you just don't have with P3D or XP11.

Regardless of the buggy state of MSFS right now (and boy is it buggy), I suspect you'll also find that a lot of people still consider it to be the longer-term future platform for the hobby, and are reluctant to spend more on payware for P3D or XP11 while they wait for that future to fully take shape.  Throw in that 3PDs have a POTENTIAL audience for their products that is over 25x bigger (and that's if we assume that larger 40,000 number for P3D), and the business case isn't difficult to figure out here.

I don't think either platform is in any danger of being abandoned by third parties, so long as there's evidence of a meaningfully large userbase.  But I'm not at all surprised that a lot of third parties are shifting to focus their business more on MSFS, even if stuff like the SDK isn't quite ready for them.

[Christopher Low 5,353]

Developing for MSFS may be the financially sensible option at the moment, but third party developers need to think very carefully before they completely abandon P3D and XPlane. Microsoft have walked away from flight simulation before, and they could do it again.

[GSalden 4,656]

Sure fast money can be made now when releasing MSFS airports. 
But before buying larger airports I first want the AP to work correctly and unfortunately that is scheduled for update 9 ( December )....

I won’t fly with the TBM or a Cessna ou/to larger airports...

[Christopher Low 5,353]

I have recently switched from my PMDG airliners to the A2A Piper Cherokee 180, but I still intend to visit large airports like London Heathrow and Amsterdam Schiphol. If the ATC controllers don't like it, I have a few choice words specially prepar3d for the occasion

[d.tsakiris 418]

3 hours ago, Scottoest said:

MSFS crossed the million user mark

I would take that with a grain of salt, because - at least that's what I heard - the number didn't represent regular users, but rather people that "have tried it", or something along those lines. I do believe MSFS has higher sales numbers than P3D, but most likely not 1 mio vs. 40k.

[Scottoest 1,561]

4 minutes ago, d.tsakiris said:

I would take that with a grain of salt, because - at least that's what I heard - the number didn't represent regular users, but rather people that "have tried it", or something along those lines. I do believe MSFS has higher sales numbers than P3D, but most likely not 1 mio vs. 40k.

Over a million people have downloaded and used MSFS for some period of time.  Microsoft use this number instead of normal retail sales numbers, because all of their games also come to Game Pass now.

The "active" or "frequent" users number would be lower, but that would also be the case for P3D.

1 hour ago, GSalden said:

Sure fast money can be made now when releasing MSFS airports. 
But before buying larger airports I first want the AP to work correctly and unfortunately that is scheduled for update 9 ( December )....

I won’t fly with the TBM or a Cessna ou/to larger airports...

I'm sure there are lots of people waiting for reliably simulated tubeliners to come to MSFS before they consider buying airports and stuff, and that's completely reasonable.

[pmb 5,137]

2 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Microsoft have walked away from flight simulation before, and they could do it again.

You are right, MS could do that. And LM could enforce the licensing restrictions. Austin could be killed in a car accident.

It's all in the cards.

Kind regards, Michael

[GSalden 4,656]

It is good to see that we are seeing P3Dv5 compatible addons appear :

- FT Sydney

- Adelaide Intl

- Ultimate Terrain

- Dayton Ohio

- Helsinki Vanta

- Tenerife Vol 1 + Vol 2

- Barcelona El Prat

And multiple others

 

[micstatic 4,319]

@GSaldenI think I missed the Dayton OH one.  Who makes it?