MSFS Addons pricing model...

[Akila 39]

Does any one know why there is the trend of a new pricing model for MSFS addons generally being significantly cheaper than previous Sim platforms, such as P3D/XP?
and no, those are not upgrade pricing. you can buy them without having previous product at those published prices. just add to cart and buy..
i have notices Airports for MSFS generally ranging between 15EU to 19EU , while in FSX/P3D/XP it range anywhere between 23EU to 32EU

e.g. you can grab KDEN from Flightbeam for 15USD without having the previous product (i never owned KDEN before and that is the final price before punching my CC details).
same Orbx Berlin Tegel or Vienna, grab it for 17 EU. those are examples , but i noticed all the Addons airports for MSFS range around the same pricing model..
any idea why?

the 1st thing that crossed my mind was that the Developers only converting their existing products from older sim platforms and not actually creating a new one, that is why. but i see two main issues with this theory.

1. what about all those who never owned any of the previous addons? would they enjoy the low pricing of the initial hard work of creating the scenery? 
you would see a lot more upgrade pricing published and it's not that common to see in MSFS addons (at least not on all the airports i purchased, they were initial fixed price - i never owned previous versions of them)

2.  if that is the case that they charge very low because of conversion fees only (not so much of an effort for the developer compared to creating a new scenery), it is only a matter of time that the conversions would finish and all the developers would complete converting their existing previous scenery(s).
which than the developers would shift their effort on creating new scenery (e.g. new airports) that never existed before, it could be in a year , 2 years or whatever, but it will eventually happen.once they come out with new Airport (that never existed on previous platforms before/ no conversion), it would be extremely hard on the developer/publisher to request a higher price, as the public got so used to the current pricing model which would bring a lot of criticism on the higher pricing. 

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Akila

[G-RFRY 1,708]

Don`t worry once they have ported the FSX and P3D scenery into MSFS and start on from scratch on new airports you may see addon prices change, in time you will have enough addons to spend a grand or on.

[Greazer 1,320]

I think 15 dollars is a fair price for the large airports, and 7-10 dollars for smaller airports.   The tools make it easier to develop new airports and the developers have excellent ground mesh, ground textures and procedural grass to begin with. This saves a tonne of time and many of the objects can be reused from libraries or previous sim addon's.  These days the prices should come down but there will be much more in total sales volume. 

Greazer.

[dobee51 346]

I think just the laws of economics at work.

Lower prices = more buyers.

$15.00 x 1 million >> $40.00 x 10,000

[carlito777 712]

 

4 minutes ago, dobee51 said:

I think just the laws of economics at work.

Lower prices = more buyers.

$15.00 x 1 million >> $40.00 x 10,000

This.

They would never sell airports for 30 dollars to the average MSFS player. And you rather sell a ton of copies then only to the enthusiast simmers.  

Edited September 20, 2020 by carlito777

[pjs37 319]

I think its just because its a much broader market.  They said they had 1m pilots at launch that audience is far greater then P3D ever was.  And having it in the sim means its going to see more eyes people who may not even realize an add-on market exists for flight simulator.

[109Sqn 1,554]

Who cares? I'm not going to complain if I can make the sim look nicer and perform better for less that it took with previous sims!

 

But yes, there is a broader market and not everyone using their first flight sim will be used to the concept of all these add-ons (though gamers certainly are used to expansion packs), so it's probably a case of price cheap(er), sell more.

[Akila 39]

5 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

Don`t worry once they have ported the FSX and P3D scenery into MSFS and start on from scratch on new airports you may see addon prices change, in time you will have enough addons to spend a grand or on.

i don't think so, read point No 2 in my original post

[Mir // Flightbeam 541]

The vast majority of MSFS users are casual players, and not AVSIM members. Most of them have no skills in piloting or knowing anything about aviation. That particular market thinks $15 for a mega airport, which takes around 1 year to develop, is too much to pay. 

 

[fppilot 4,354]

How much does one hour of seat time cost in your area for a 172?  This is such a realistic but inexpensive activity.  Why even question the cost, high?  Or low? In relative comparison.....

[MatthewS 761]

10 hours ago, dobee51 said:

I think just the laws of economics at work.

Lower prices = more buyers.

$15.00 x 1 million >> $40.00 x 10,000

1 million sales at $15 USD for an airport, I really don't think so 🤷‍♂️  But maybe at $4.99 USD.

[Ricardo41 5,936]

1 hour ago, Mir // Flightbeam said:

The vast majority of MSFS users are casual players, and not AVSIM members. Most of them have no skills in piloting or knowing anything about aviation. That particular market thinks $15 for a mega airport, which takes around 1 year to develop, is too much to pay. 

 

Nice way of insulting your (potential) customer base. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by Ricardo41

[shipdriver 20]

The recent trend in older sims for many scenery developers (including FlyTampa, LatinVFR, PacSim and Drzewiecki) was to model larger and larger areas around the airports, which is pretty unnecessary in MSFS. They can just focus on the airport itself now as well.

Edited September 21, 2020 by shipdriver

[Mir // Flightbeam 541]

24 minutes ago, Ricardo41 said:

Nice way of insulting your (potential) customer base. 

There's nothing wrong with not being familiar with aviation. Everyone started somewhere, it's a great thing to have so many newcomers in this hobby. However, they expect lower prices since they're not "hardcore" simmers yet. 

Of course, why should I ever expect a positive reply from you. Your cynical and anti-airport dev posts are quite old. Keep them coming though, they're entertaining. 

[Ricardo41 5,936]

1 hour ago, Mir // Flightbeam said:

There's nothing wrong with not being familiar with aviation....

....Of course, why should I ever expect a positive reply from you. Your cynical and anti-airport dev posts are quite old. Keep them coming though, they're entertaining. 

Yeah, but that's not what you said.

Cynical? I got over 10 pages of purchases on simmarket.