Hype Performance Group Announce Payware Airbus H145

[styckx 1,871]

4 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

How is that arrogant?  They have created something no one else has done….yet.  How is this different from any other payware developer?

Asking $43 up front for some screenshots and a pinky swear they're going to produce something better than the freeware they released is arrogant.

Then..

Quote

 "With being only 1 of 2 helicopters available for the sim some of our development tricks are obviously valuable and for that reason we can’t make our project open source."

 

They saw dollar signs and couldn't wait to once again exploit the community for the all mighty dollar. This isn't FSX, this isn't 2004.  This type of attitude is frowned upon. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by styckx

[Gilandred 690]

4 minutes ago, styckx said:

Asking $43 up front for some screenshots and a pinky swear they're going to produce something better than the freeware they released isn't arrogant.

Then..

 

They saw dollar signs and couldn't wait to once again exploit the community for the all mighty dollar. This isn't FSX, this isn't 2004.  This type of attitude is frowned upon. 

Unless I’m misunderstanding, they don’t require $43 “up front” in order to get their product.  Just wait until it releases, check out some reviews, and then decide if the price is worth it.

It could be worse.  It doesn’t say it’s an H145 using default 747 systems.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Gilandred

[Simple B 141]

Have the legal department got the Airbus license in place ... ?

[styckx 1,871]

14 minutes ago, Gilandred said:

Unless I’m misunderstanding, they don’t require $43 “up front” in order to get their product.  Just wait until it releases, check out some reviews, and then decide if the price is worth it.

It could be worse.  It doesn’t say it’s an H145 using default 747 systems.

You are misunderstanding.

They baited the community with a `good for what it was'' freeware helicopter. Then, in a development  time frame of like a day decided to have the balls to ask the community for $43 upfront for a product that isn't even so much in the alpha stage. Right now. You are literally paying $43 upfront for screenshots and vague promises..

No thanks.  Let the exploitation of flight sim addons please end. Enough is enough. This is worse than the Captain Sim fiasco. At least with him if you go do some basic research and know you're being ripped off.

With this. They are straight up asking for cash up front, and providing nothing in return except a website selling propaganda. 

Edited May 28, 2021 by styckx

[Gilandred 690]

3 minutes ago, styckx said:

You are misunderstanding.

They baited the community with a `good for what it was'' freeware helicopter. Then, in a development  time frame decided to have the balls to ask the community for $43 upfront for a product that isn't even so much in the alpha stage. Right now. You are literally paying $43 upfront for screenshots and vague promises..

No thanks.  Let the exploitation of flight sim addons please end. Enough is enough. This is worse than the Captain Sim fiasco. At least with him if you go do some basic research and know you're being ripped off.

With this. They are straight up asking for cash up front, and providing nothing in return except a website selling propaganda. 

Think of it more akin to a kickstarter.  Fund it up front if you want, or don’t.  This isn’t the first developer, nor the last, that cut their teeth on freeware before going payware.  But hey, I don’t think we’ll see eye-to-eye on this one, nor do we have to.  Best regards.

[styckx 1,871]

Just now, Gilandred said:

Think of it more akin to a kickstarter.  Fund it up front if you want, or don’t.  This isn’t the first developer, nor the last, that cut their teeth on freeware before going payware.  But hey, I don’t think we’ll see eye-to-eye on this one, nor do we have to.  Best regards.

No issues brother. Best of life to you. Much love.

I just hate the flight sim market. No other game, simulation is so exploited.  It's an easy cash cow.  This has been known and exploited for decades now. And what they are doing right now is a poster child of it.  Again.. Put up. Or shut up. $43 for vaporware is insanity. 

[jimcarrel 688]

I think this thread has gone to pot. Why don't you shoot Just Flight down for selling Warriors and Arrows, and while your at it, yell at PMDG for trying to get you to fork over for new stuff. Sometimes, I guess people smell blood and jump on the bandwagon. I don't understand why some of you buy anything. All publishers are like the venerable "lawyer" I guess. Poor old Orbyx, selling all that scenery to gullible simmers.

[FlyBaby 659]

I would pay 43 for the released version.

The DEV has been making frequent updates to the freeware version with over 220k downloads on Flightsim. So, to the extent they they are serious / sincere with following through, their approach to secure funding seems logical given the exposure / support.

I think they did a good job of getting their project out there, getting the buzz going, and now looking to turn a profit.

[Penz 45]

I get a lot of enjoyment from flying the 135, so for me buying the 145 is more like late payment for that.

[Pastaiolo 1,688]

I would gladly pay for such a helicopter IF they showed examples of being able to produce such a product with the quality standards we want for helicopters.

The 135 is a workaround so far and the most important thing, flight dynamics, is nowhere near what it should be in a helicopter. Therefore i am (for now) very skeptical about this.

 

There is nothing wrong for them to go from freeware to payware. What is wrong /currently/ is that payware requires an entirely different level of quality, and i don't see it happening from now based on the freeware effort.

[jozeff 93]

I don't think rhe developer is arrogant in any way. We are all spoiled a lot with freeware stuff. I can only imagine how much time went into creating the h135. Thinking that this heli was just click bait for an upcoming payware is not very respectful. 43$ is quite some money but you can buy it after  reading some reviews and decide if it's worth it.

Agreed, copy pasting some default 747 stuff and then  selling it is a cash grab.  Developing a heli from scratch is not but that is just my 0.02...

 

I you really have a good model the price could be worth it. People complain about pmdg stuff costing more than 100 euros but have flown it for hundreds or even thousands of hours.

 

[The Moose 1,177]

Be aware that  the $42.99 price is just for early access.. it's going to cost even more on release.

"During our early access period we are offering a bundle including the base H145 package and the luxury and military variants for only $42.99 USD.

Following our early access period the H145 bundle package will increase in cost"

[Moria15 950]

I have 2 comments on this....

1)  Irrespective of real software, vapourware or anything else,  I will NOT pay for a Helicopter when we know that ASOBO is going to release rotorcraft later in the cycles and that may destroy any work done to date on any helicopters, freeware or payware, especially when they have said at least twice now that rotorcraft will likely be a paid for DLS add-on..

2)  I don't see them hiding what they are doing here and frankly, I see no difference between this and buying a pre-alpha release on steam, and frankly most "gamers" will be aware of what can happen (sometimes..  not always) if you invest early, So I don't think theres a "duty" to be served by having a go at this 🙂

Regards

Graham

Edited May 29, 2021 by Moria15

[dogmanbird 269]

I hope they'll be able to have fairly accurate physics for the 145 and maybe feed their own into MSFS as the FLyInside chopper has done (or so I've read), but if they are still stuck with a modified plane as it's model it may feel a bit rigid in it's response as the 135 does - lacking some floaty fluidity?? - for lack of a better description

- but the guys involved are super responsive and accomplished a huge amount in a short time 🙂 gives me a lot of faith they'd quickly fix most things within the limits set for them by the sim.

[HPG 403]

Hi everyone! Steve here from Hype Performance Group here 😀

 

For perspective everyone should know that our team spent 12+ weeks of non-stop development on the H135 & anyone who is on our Discord server can confirm our lead developer barely slept at all during that time. I myself have been awake almost everyday from 7AM-2AM during this period. Everyone on this team has neglected some aspect of their life due to their dedication to this project.

 

We when decided to tackle the H13 project we agreed early on that it would be freeware, we did this despite knowing that being the first helicopter on the market meant we could have thrown this up on any number of storefronts and could have completely taken advantage of the fact that being first meant that many would simply buy the H135 and bring us guaranteed financial success like I've unfortunately seen happen with other addons.

 

Instead we made a commitment for freeware and that we would develop the H135 based off the feedback from the community of users who engage with us on Discord and forums. In addition to the MFS community users providing feedback to our team, we've also received guidance from actual Airbus H135 pilots who have applauded our flight model and avionics for paying reasonable respect to realism. Don't take my word for it, ask someone who is on our Discord how many pilots have come through with stories of how good it feels to fly.

 

I understand that there may be be some mechanics that aren't implemented that hardcore heli simmers want, but I disagree that these things mean our H135 is vaporware. Every aircraft in MFS stock, deluxe, freeware or payware is missing some feature - the goal of our team is to provide an enjoyable experience and we hear much more positive feedback than we do negative. Does Asobo's opinion not matter? 

 

The H135 is a community success story, we were the first addon to reach 100K downloads on Flightsim.to with us currently at over 220K downloads and a current rating of 4.7 out of 5. Again, the H135 is not vaporware - I hope most of you have flown it yourself instead of just trusting the opinions of online personalities such as bloggers and YouTubers who profit off creating controversy and spectacle. 

 

 

With that out the way I'll address the concerns about the H145 and our decision to go payware. You should know that we turned down offers from publishers and other devs to make the H135 payware exclusive at the time of its 1.0 release and that throughout development we've been approached by many household name developers that wanted us to hand over our flight model to them for their own commercial purposes. 

Despite over 220K downloads of the H135 we have not to date received even 2% of that number in donations and a Patreon we setup with a small $5 monthly tier in hopes of funding future development of freeware projects never exceeded 3 subscriptions. We would have loved for the Patreon to have been successful and for our team to just continue delivering freeware projects. 

 

Regarding the early access pledge I will be the first to tell you don't do it unless you are comfortable with the idea of having to put your trust in us while you wait for a flyable build. We feel we've built up our reputation with the H135 to show we're one of the most transparent, responsive and approachable development teams that there is, but if you disagree that is fine and you can wait until a build is available for you to try out for yourself or wait even longer until the official 1.0 release. The early access period was designed to allow for H145 buyers to still have an active part of development as they did with with the freeware H135 and not as some scheme to collect funds and disappear into the night. 

 

Regarding the pricing, consider that we've already released the H135 for free and that we will continue to support that aircraft with compatibility patches so it will always exist as a free option for MFS fans interested in helicopter flight. For $42 users are getting 3 unique model variants that will also have unique functionality. We've also made changes to our team since the H135 release that have resulted in a huge leap in quality beyond anything I've seen from any other payware developer, so with all things considered the cost may be "high" but so will be the value. I believe in free speech hence why I respect the opinions voiced in the thread, but I also respect a free market and letting the community vote on our fate with their wallets.

 

I'm going to show off our team and some current photos from production so you can see for yourself how good the modeling is looking, again, if you've flown the H135 you know we can deliver a fun flight model and good avionics so the modeling should really be the only thing that's uncertain but hopefully these help. Our Discord is the best place to get to know us as developers and people, we aren't a mega million dollar corporation churning out shovelware.

 

Edited May 29, 2021 by MediaHypeTrain