So I am in a bit of a dilemma.  FlyTampa just released Athens for MSFS.  $17.99  That is great but I also wanted to give it a whirl with the PMDG 777 and QW 787 neither available for MSFS yet so figured "hey, I'll pick it up for MSFS and P3D together"  -Best of both worlds right.

Then I went to the FT site.  While MSFS add-ons are $18 new most of the older P3D sceneries are $24-$31     Athens is 1/3 more for P3d, Sydney is nearly double the price at $32 vs $17.99 for MSFS.

It's sort of disheartening that even if I want to support P3D and purchase some add-ons I may have missed over the years they are pricing themselves out of the competitive market.  Why would I pay more for an older scenery with less bells and whistles than a brand new release 😞

Seems something is off here, P3D add-on prices should be coming down no?   That's sort of what I was hoping to justify purchasing some P3D add-ons but I'm certainly not going to pay more for the same scenery in P3D when it was just released for less money in another sim... That just seems off but I am hoping I am missing something obvious someone can point out to me...  I'm actually a bit saddened, was planning on KEWR-LGAV in the 777 today but seeing the pricing actually dissuaded me.  

 

Have a read of this. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/585183-msfs-addons-pricing-model/

Out of interest, is the MSFS and P3D product like for like or does the MSFS scenery really have more "bells and whistles"?

27 minutes ago, psolk said:

 even if I want to support P3D and purchase some add-ons I may have missed over the years they are pricing themselves out of the competitive market.  Why would I pay more for an older scenery with less bells and whistles than a brand new release 😞

 

You  do realise P3D doesn't set the prices for 3rd party addons?

This thread is going to go the same way as the recent FSLabs pricing debate one from a couple of weeks ago. I won't re-hash the same arguments about pricing from that one.

$24 for the old v1 scenery is a lot in my book. And I agree with your reasoning regarding pricing.
 

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by F737NG

22 minutes ago, psolk said:

they are pricing themselves out of the competitive market

There's no competition at all. Some devs just have destinations you can't buy from others. But it's sales season. Just got a few bargains during the Halloween sale. Next will be Black Friday. I have hopes, that some of my wishlist items will be discounted soon. It's also worth comparing shops. Just recently bought the Virtavia T34C at PCAviator for half price, whereas at Simmarket they sell this 11 year old product at full price. 

Dan

8 minutes ago, Ian S said:

Have a read of this. https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/585183-msfs-addons-pricing-model/

Out of interest, is the MSFS and P3D product like for like or does the MSFS scenery really have more "bells and whistles"?

You  do realise P3D doesn't set the prices for 3rd party addons?

Yes, I misspoke, should have been some developers are pricing, not P3D is pricing, you are correct.  The MSFS version really does have more bells and whistles as well.  So paying more for an older inferior version... 

5 minutes ago, blaunarwal said:

There's no competition at all. Some devs just have destinations you can't buy from others. But it's sales season. Just got a few bargains during the Halloween sale. Next will be Black Friday. I have hopes, that some of my wishlist items will be discounted soon. It's also worth comparing shops. Just recently bought the Virtavia T34C at PCAviator for half price, whereas at Simmarket they sell this 11 year old product at full price. 

Dan

Great advice Dan!  Sales and shop around...  I didn't even consider that (Duh) just went straight to FT's site and was a bit surprised.  

@F737NG I know and debated even posting because I don't want an X vs Y thread but at the same time Dan already gave me a great suggestion and while pricing conversations are a bit taboo when you can compare the same product on 2 sims and one is 1/3 or almost half the price as the other (and older and less feature rich) it leads to questions...   Thank you for being patient with me! 

FlyTampa was always a bit on the expensive side, no? Some sceneries are in the common US$20-25 range, but some, like EHAM or KLAS, are US$30 or more. Sure, these are popular airports and especially KLAS has a lot modeled with the city, but it's a tad much for me. That didn't stop me from buying KLAS and I don't regret that in any way, but it's still on the expensive side.

As demand has arguably one down for P3D addons, I too would have expected price drops as in developers trying to sell what they still can for P3D as many have apparently stopped buying P3D addons. I have made one or two purchases for P3D but I've reduced my spending on P3D considerably as I plan to move to MSFS as soon as my aircraft are available and some of these rather steep prices stopped me from buying one or two things that I probably would've picked up if they had been on sale.

I'm surprised no one has asked on the FT forums why thers's such a price disparity for the same airport in two different sims. It seems a legitimate question.

20 minutes ago, threegreen said:

 

As demand has arguably one down for P3D addons, I too would have expected price drops as in developers trying to sell what they still can for P3D as many have apparently stopped buying P3D addons. I have made one or two purchases for P3D but I've reduced my spending on P3D considerably as I plan to move to MSFS as soon as my aircraft are available and some of these rather steep prices stopped me from buying one or two things that I probably would've picked up if they had been on sale.

Spot on and where my mindset was as well.  This isn't an X vs Y thing or one sim vs another this is about pricing that is preventing me from picking up add-ons to support P3D because I am still enjoying it but can't justify the pricing when I see the same add-on for another sim at 1/3 or almost 1/2 the price.  

I'd love to support the P3D dev's still but not at a price premium, I can't justify that or make sense of it...  

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by psolk

15 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I'm surprised no one has asked on the FT forums why thers's such a price disparity for the same airport in two different sims. It seems a legitimate question.

FT aren't exactly masters of communication. Maybe that's why. I certainly stopped bothering with their forums trying to get answers for some things. As an example, after the dot on their map for KATL appeared there was complete silence for several years and no one knew if it was still being developed or not. There were loads of threads on their forums but for years there was not a single word from the devs. Then the dot disappeared from the map and it again took ages and tons of people asking for one of the devs to finally drop a short comment that this airport didn't fit in their plans anymore and had been canceled. I'd wish luck to anyone trying to get an answer to a question about pricing.

Prices for MSFS airports are generally lower as more demand is expected (or perhaps already evident) so you can sell a lot more units than for P3D, allowing the prices to be lower. My guess as to why P3D prices didn't go down is that many devs are probably just not thinking about the possibility of increasing the number of units sold for P3D somewhat by discounting these so that people might be persuaded to buy some more things for P3D even if they plan to move to MSFS at some point. Incidentally, that's what typically happens to video games in general. I just picked one up that would have been double the price 3 years ago when it was new.

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by threegreen

4 minutes ago, threegreen said:

I'd wish luck to anyone trying to get an answer to a question about pricing.

I couldn't resist. Let's see if they answer... https://www.flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14660

8 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I couldn't resist. Let's see if they answer... https://www.flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14660

Doubt it. Their communication policy is atrocious. They had announced lots of updated airports for P3D (Athens, Vienna, Amsterdam,...) but so far haven't delivered on any of them, without any further comment.

4 minutes ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I couldn't resist. Let's see if they answer... https://www.flytampa.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=14660

I'll keep an eye on that one. Regarding your question in the post, according to @psolk, the MSFS version actually offers more than the P3D version, hence it's a bit of a double whammy to see that the P3D version is more expensive.

Just now, threegreen said:

I'll keep an eye on that one. Regarding your question in the post, according to @psolk, the MSFS version actually offers more than the P3D version, hence it's a bit of a double whammy to see that the P3D version is more expensive.

In that case it should be more expensive, not cheaper. I'm expecting the standard "we don't comment on our pricing policy" response assuming they do reply.

I don't have MSFS but I'm aware if you buy through their market place around 25%+ goes to MS so the price there will be very interesting.

Just a big thank you to everyone for the genuine banter and discussion.  I appreciate this conversation could go south quickly and appreciate the genuine discussion on this topic as it does intrigue me.  I'd be much more privy to loading up P3D with some add-ons I may not have invested in over the years if the pricing was adjusting to the market but nothing seems to have changed in P3D add on pricing at all... 

Edited November 2, 20214 yr by psolk

5 minutes ago, threegreen said:

I'll keep an eye on that one. Regarding your question in the post, according to @psolk, the MSFS version actually offers more than the P3D version, hence it's a bit of a double whammy to see that the P3D version is more expensive.

Yep, not to digress but the MSFS version is pretty impressive in terms of what they have apparently delivered.

These are the features in the less expensive version not available in the version that costs more money. Makes no sense. 

Sloped airport terrain with 3d drainage between taxiways
PBR Textures and Dynamic Lighting (X-Plane and MSFS only)
Animated apron Vehicles, Trains and highway Traffic
3d animated characters inside and ouside terminals (MSFS only)
2021-22 version of Athens Airport (MSFS only)