MSFS Addons pricing model...

[Moria15 950]

I think there is an easy solution to all this....

Whatever you think an add-on is worth with regards to an airport..  go into any flightsim and try (just try) to put together a replacement airport that is good enough for not only you, but for everyone (accurate and functional) and so it looks like the real thing and operates like the real thing.. taxiways, parking, runways, radio, ils etc etc etc..

Then assume you will sell 1000 copies.  (more is a bonus  but assume 1000 for good measure).

Take your time and assume this is your job and decide how much you need to live on for that period.

Now take that and divide by 1000 and see how much it would actually sell for.

If it takes you 6 months to make (not unrealistic by the time you have gathered all the info, made all the buildings in Blender or similar, laid it all out, got it working in the sim and tested it completely) and you sell it for $5, and you make 2 a year  then congrats, you made $10,000 this year if you sell 10000 copies, you made $100,000 and had a really really good year.

When doing things as a business, it's not the same as doing it for fun in your spare time.

To make mega airports for $5 and earn a living wage and support those sales (remember the type of support you are likely to need by reading these forums), I would have to sell 20,000 units a year to actually have a business and I don't think that is reasonable.

And remember.. if it IS too expensive, you can always do it yourself.. even now in MSFS the airport SDK is pretty much fully workable:)

Graham

Edited September 21, 2020 by Moria15

[MatthewS 761]

7 hours ago, guibru said:

Of the 1 million players at the launch, believe me half are casual players who downloaded MSFS for discovery and who will play for a few months, the simulation does not interest them.

Don't forget also that XBox Game Pass for PC lets anyone play MSFS for "free" on PC, ie it's included along with about 100 other games for a monthly subscription of $5 USD.

I wonder how many of those million players only installed it to give it a try because it's "free" on GamePass?

I'd guess 90% of those million users are on GamePass.

I'd think maybe a maximum of 100,000 users actually paid "real money" for MSFS (ie didn't get it via GamePass).

I for one got it on GamePass.

Edited September 21, 2020 by MatthewS

[MatthewS 761]

26 minutes ago, Moria15 said:

If it takes you 6 months to make (not unrealistic by the time you have gathered all the info, made all the buildings in Blender or similar, laid it all out, got it working in the sim and tested it completely) and you sell it for $5, and you make 2 a year  then congrats, you made $10,000 this year if you sell 10000 copies, you made $100,000 and had a really really good year.

I think at $5 USD he could easily sell 10,000 in a year.

Any dev who turns away the upcoming Xbox users because of $15 USD greedy pricing is daft. Honestly, XBox users have a different mind set, they are mostly kiddie & casual users, they're not paying $15 USD for a single airport, IMO. 🤷‍♂️

MSFS has made it incredibly simple for anyone to make or enhance airports.  Crikey, you can do it from within the sim! 👍

This is the dawn of a new age in scenery add ons.  Third party devs are just dreaming if they think it's business as usual. 🤦‍♂️

Edited September 21, 2020 by MatthewS

[toprob 105]

1 hour ago, MatthewS said:

Any dev who turns away the upcoming Xbox users because of $15 USD greedy pricing is daft.

I think a lot of people are making assumptions about development, which are not really based on reality. I do think that a handful of developers are financially successful, but their success is based on a lot of things, greed not being one of them. I can't really speak for all developers, but I can speak for one -- me. I am old enough to have gone through two careers which simply ceased to be, because of technology. Well, the industries are still there, but are no longer employing the numbers that they needed before tech reshaped them. Since I had always had an interest in making flightsim scenery, it was an easy decision when I was made redundant for the second time, and unlikely to just walk into another job. But I never got into this because it was easy money, and I do think that a lot of developers are in my position. 

Many developers actually have their own niche -- for example, I only produce New Zealand scenery. I've acutely aware of my potential customer base, and believe me, a million Xbox gamepass users are not going to make much of a difference. About half my customers are in New Zealand, and it may be that some local 'kiddies' will get into simming, that's certainly the hope, and some may just have more money that sense, and buy everything they see just because they can. But any real benefit is going to come from more people discovering flightsim as a hobby. And at best that'll be a growing percentage, I'd be very pleased if I could double my customer base in two years. 

Sure, I could change my business/product and aim at those million users, but that's not what keeps me going. This has always been an obsession, and I really believe that most developers would say the same.

By the way, my sales pretty much ceased when MSFS was announced a year ago, so I need to recoup that at some point. Dropping my prices to $5 and hoping that millions will come knocking on my door would be daft.

[MatthewS 761]

1 hour ago, toprob said:

By the way, my sales pretty much ceased when MSFS was announced a year ago, so I need to recoup that at some point. Dropping my prices to $5 and hoping that millions will come knocking on my door would be daft.

I'm suggesting @$5 USD per airport you'd sell 10,000 units (not millions).

Edited September 22, 2020 by MatthewS

[toprob 105]

I wonder what you are basing that on? I must admit I'm not a great businessman, but in my experience if I halve my price, I gain about 40% more sales -- so I end up with less. As I said, I'd love to have more customers through the new sim, and that may happen. If I do manage to double my customer base, then I look to see if I could tweak the price, but in 15 years I've always found the same sort of results.

Edited September 22, 2020 by toprob

[Ricardo41 5,935]

5 hours ago, MatthewS said:

Don't forget also that XBox Game Pass for PC lets anyone play MSFS for "free" on PC

It's not free. It's included with your gamepass subscription, which costs money. 

[MatthewS 761]

17 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

It's not free. It's included with your gamepass subscription, which costs money. 

No... It's essentially "free" for those that are subscribing to game pass for other games. 

Like I said, 90% of those million users did not fork out real money and have only played it because it's available on Gamepass for "free", IMO ofc.

[toprob 105]

19 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

It's not free. It's included with your gamepass subscription, which costs money. 

And as I meant to point out earlier, those who are playing for 'free' are not going to buy addons. A few, I hope, would become as obsessed as the rest of us, but this is kind of the normal flightsim user/hobbyist ratio -- millions may play, but only a few end up hanging out on Avsim and mortgaging their mother-in-law...

[dukeav 46]

One thing MSFS will do (or is doing) is that it will draw out quite a few simmers from P3D/XP into MSFS. This crowd will be a lost market to addon devs. And given that not many in MSFS will pay $15 for an airport, including the folks who moved over, will in net mean that the market has actually shrunk for scenery/airport addons. 

[CJ1045 469]

7 hours ago, MatthewS said:

 Honestly, XBox users have a different mind set, they are mostly kiddie & casual users, 

I don't think so!!! In the drving sim world Gran Turismo Sport for the Playstation has by far the biggest global championship.

[Ricardo41 5,935]

7 hours ago, MatthewS said:

 XBox users have a different mind set, they are mostly kiddie & casual users...

 

How do you come up with this? Boggles the mind....

[MatthewS 761]

18 minutes ago, CJ1045 said:

I don't think so!!! In the drving sim world Gran Turismo Sport for the Playstation has by far the biggest global championship.

Yeah sure, but the serious sim racers are on PC (like iRacing) not consoles. 🤷‍♂️

 

6 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

How do you come up with this? Boggles the mind....

If they weren't kiddies and casual users they'd be spending thousands on PCs not $400 on a Xbox. 🤦‍♂️

[JNS 106]

On 9/21/2020 at 2:20 AM, MatthewS said:

I'm not a casual user but I also think $15+ USD for a "mega airport" is too much.

For me, the interest in a single airport fades quickly, maybe I'll use it once in a blue moon, because the world in MSFS is too compelling to be stuck on the same routes.

Also, you got to compete against the upcoming freeware airports, or even just upcoming freeware mods to existing default airports, which I suspect will vastly improve the defaults to almost payware level.

@$5 USD I'd be happy to buy many "mega" airports... but @$15+ USD no thanks.

 

Well, first off, it really doesn't matter what you intend to do with a product as far as having to do with the pricing established by the developer.  It still takes a certain minimum time to develop the product no matter how many times the end-user uses it.  Second, a developer can NEVER compete against someone who is willing to give their time and effort away for free making an equivalent product.  Just curious, have you ever owned or even managed an ongoing successful business?  If you have, you should understand these basics.  I think too many in this hobby want a lot, but don't really want to pay much for it...not just the add-ons, but the sims themselves, too.

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by JNS

[ErichB 3,638]

Economies of scale is one of the current advantages of the new sim.