Gone are the days where we pay over $100 USD for a study level airliner.  Now we pay $60 to $70 USD for a study level airliner in MSFS!  The one outlier was Leonardo, but even for Leonardo, their Maddog for MSFS is about $78 USD (75 Euro) versus the P3D version which is about $99 USD (95 Euro), excluding VAT.  MSFS has made study level airliners all cheaper for us!

Not to mention, the scenery add-ons are also cheaper in MSFS.  And as a bonus, I don't have to buy an extra hard drive just to store ortho, which saves me more money.  Not a bad deal, for what I consider to be, the best home market flight simulator at the moment.

I do hope all the future study level airliners that appear in MSFS can keep the price down. But I like what I'm seeing so far on the prices for MSFS!

Edited May 15, 20224 yr by abrams_tank

Yes @abrams , curiously I was just thinking about posting on that very same subject !

 

 

Economies of scale. If you can sell more it should be cheaper. Better for all, customers and developers. And the weak (FSLabs) they drop off, because they cannot compete on quality or price.

MSFS is an entertainment license. With P3D we had to purchase a Professional license.

Plus, more users = more savings. It's a win, win for all of us.

From an economics standpoint, we're making out like pirates (I hate bandits) for sure!

Check this out. Due to my uh... retentiveness... I happen to know how much it REALLY cost me (in 2015/16) to get the "bargain" priced FSX:SE up and running to my standards at the time. The sim cost $4.99. Getting it ready to use cost me another $323 (airports and airplanes not included - P3Dv4 & v5 with many repeat purchases also not included - so I don't start crying)

FSX:SE	$    4.99
Orbx Global Base	$    51.37
FTX: Global VECTOR	$    33.96
FTX: Southern California	$    22.13
FTX: Northern California and Pacific Northwest	$    46.57
ORBX NALC	$    27.58
FTX: HD Trees	$    11.11
Steve's DX10 fixer	$    29.99
Rex4 Texture Direct w/Soft Clouds	$    20.65
Rex Essentials w/Overdrive	$    20.23
A2A SIMULATIONS - 3D Lights Redux	$    13.34
Active Sky Next	$    28.81
A2A Accu-Feel & Rex HD Airports	$    16.48
	$  327.21

 

4 minutes ago, MDFlier said:

From an economics standpoint, we're making out like pirates (I hate bandits) for sure!

Check this out. Due to my uh... retentiveness... I happen to know how much it REALLY cost me (in 2015/16) to get the "bargain" priced FSX:SE up and running to my standards at the time. The sim cost $4.99. Getting it ready to use cost me another $323 (airports and airplanes not included - P3Dv4 & v5 with many repeat purchases also not included - so I don't start crying)

FSX:SE	$    4.99
Orbx Global Base	$    51.37
FTX: Global VECTOR	$    33.96
FTX: Southern California	$    22.13
FTX: Northern California and Pacific Northwest	$    46.57
ORBX NALC	$    27.58
FTX: HD Trees	$    11.11
Steve's DX10 fixer	$    29.99
Rex4 Texture Direct w/Soft Clouds	$    20.65
Rex Essentials w/Overdrive	$    20.23
A2A SIMULATIONS - 3D Lights Redux	$    13.34
Active Sky Next	$    28.81
A2A Accu-Feel & Rex HD Airports	$    16.48
	$  327.21

 

Now we don't have to buy any of this for MSFS!  So much money is saved!

Forgot GSX & GSX L2 - $39.00 & $29.00 respectively.

$395.21 total

$390.22 not including FSX:SE

Don't forget that many of us bought most of the ORBX regions + airports that went with the regions.

Some users did this for two sims. It was an addiction that I'm glad is over!

1 hour ago, MDFlier said:

airports and airplanes not included

This is the most shocking part of your post for me... so much money just for the sake of making the sim look somewhat like modern graphics.

4 minutes ago, threegreen said:

This is the most shocking part of your post for me... so much money just for the sake of making the sim look somewhat like modern graphics.

Your comment reminded me of this Youtube video:

 

56 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Your comment reminded me of this Youtube video:

Well, trying to make that comparison at nighttime is a bit disingenuous... 🤣

What I really miss is paying the $323, being in the middle of a flight through the San Juan Islands then “BONG!” - the chime that indicates you’re out of memory!

Seems like yesterday 🙂

44 minutes ago, Republic DC9 said:

What I really miss is paying the $323, being in the middle of a flight through the San Juan Islands then “BONG!” - the chime that indicates you’re out of memory!

Seems like yesterday 🙂

Yeah, or having to pay for Orbx So Cal, and then not being able to fly there because of OOMs and 10 FPS. 

I guess you are not very good at math.

 

Let's take a look at PMDG's supposedly cheaper pricing model. 
It give the customer more options to decide what they really want, that is true. But if they just want to have the same amount of variants as they got before they are in for a very rude awakening.

The base package of the 737 in P3D which included the 800 and 900 Variants came at a price of $90. That is $45 per variant. The 700 and 600 came in an expansion pack that came at $25. 

So $12.5 per variant. (To make it a little easier I lumped the BBJ and Freighter Variants together with the body type).

Now you pay $75 per Variant with the 600 coming in a bit cheaper.

So how did MSFS bring prices down again? In case of PMDG they haver raise ludicrously. At least when you expect the same bang for the buck as before.

If you think about which variants you really used you can save some money by just picking what you really, really need. But not really that much.

Edited May 15, 20224 yr by Farlis

7 minutes ago, Farlis said:

I guess you are not very good at math.

 

Let's take a look at PMDG's supposedly cheaper pricing model. 
It give the customer more options to decide what they really want, that is true. But if they just want to have the same amount of variants as they got before they are in for a very rude awakening.

The base package of the 737 in P3D which included the 800 and 900 Variants came at a price of $90. That is $45 per variant. The 700 and 600 came in an expansion pack that came at $25. 

So $12.5 per variant. (To make it a little easier I lumped the BBJ and Freighter Variants together with the body type).

Now you pay $75 per Variant with the 600 coming in a bit cheaper.

So how did MSFS bring prices down again? 😉

In theory you have a point, somewhat.  But in reality, you had to buy the higher cost bundle which likely included things you didn’t want, just to get what you did want.  You didn’t have any option to spend only $45, or $25, or $12.50.  Those pricing tiers didn’t exist.

Edited May 15, 20224 yr by Gilandred