MSFS Steam reviews...

[psolk 3,112]

1 hour ago, Fiorentoni said:

I'm under the impression that P3D and XPL are not sold on Steam, so not sure what "other flight sim platforms" you compared that with?

Compared to FSX and XP.  Both available on Steam.  Wouldn't have taken long to verify that.  

 

[Krakin 5,903]

https://steamdb.info/app/269950/graphs/ Wow the highest concurrent players XP11 ever got was 4200. MSFS peaked at about 64000 players at launch

[psolk 3,112]

9 minutes ago, Krakin said:

https://steamdb.info/app/269950/graphs/ Wow the highest concurrent players XP11 ever got was 4200. MSFS peaked at about 64000 players at launch

MSFS has more concurrent users now randomly than XP's peak....    Again, this is all on Steam so people will say it's not fair because a lot of users didn't use Steam for XP but by the same token a large number of MSFS Store users aren't represented there either...  

This also was more of a positive commentary on MSFS than to try and reflect anything negative about XP or FSX...

Edited June 30, 2022 by psolk

[Fiorentoni 4,471]

2 hours ago, psolk said:

Compared to FSX and XP.  Both available on Steam.  Wouldn't have taken long to verify that.  

 

Yeah I was absolutely sure XPL is not on Steam, no idea why. Never mind.

[reignman40 450]

2 million sold on Steam alone? Wow! Jorge was not lying when he said they were doing well. No wonder we are getting some cool planes for cheap & free.

[ha5mvo 262]

7 minutes ago, reignman40 said:

2 million sold on Steam alone? Wow! Jorge was not lying when he said they were doing well. No wonder we are getting some cool planes for cheap & free.

Why does it come as a surprise?

In the first year or so, FSX sold over a million copies in the US alone! When you had to get a hard copy on a CD (two CDs actually).

[psolk 3,112]

2 minutes ago, ha5mvo said:

Why does it come as a surprise?

In the first year or so, FSX sold over a million copies in the US alone! When you had to get a hard copy on a CD (two CDs actually).

At one point the MS Flight Simulator Series held a world record if I remember correctly.  Perhaps it was best selling sim platform.  It was like 20M copies over 20 years I think.  

[icewater5 181]

The other day an internet " blogger " got over 500 new subscibers from just one msfs 2020 video. That is probably a low point on the start of a bell curve.

Also, how many people are watching msfs video streams that dont even have this simulator yet (sitting on the fence )🙂 i guess at least 7 to 1.

Imo this has not even really taken off yet and the next 8 months or so will tell for sure

 

The technology for AR immersion is not a ' dream ' because most of it already exists. No problem for core development as nearly all of this will be outsourced and is currently being coded right now. All good stuff.

Edited June 30, 2022 by icewater5

[Keto Ketchup 240]

I need to update my Steam review, which is actually one of the few negative ones. The sim has improved substantially for me since whichever update broke it (for me) around a year ago.

[MarcG 3,068]

I'll be writing my Steam review (for what it's worth...) after some time with SU10 as that'll be two years since release, if that update is a car crash like SU5 (and others that have wrecked the VR toolbar) then it won't be a pretty review (!) - I am of course hoping it's a good update for once, with two steps forward and none back.

[Krakin 5,903]

On 6/30/2022 at 5:25 PM, ha5mvo said:

Why does it come as a surprise?

In the first year or so, FSX sold over a million copies in the US alone! When you had to get a hard copy on a CD (two CDs actually).

It hit that number in 2008, so about two years.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

On 6/30/2022 at 7:07 AM, psolk said:

Not really a point to my post I just found the overall numbers impressive and 3 out of 4 reviews are positive which I also found surprising/impressive.  Over 2M copies already sold.

I guess it shows there is still a tremendous pent up demand for flight simulators and out of the almost 40,000 people who took the time to leave a review 3 out of 4 think it's good.  Most of the time people aren't shy about saying something negative these days so the majority of those who did review were pleased.  That's all we can really infer from that data.  

It also shows how niche this market still is but at least it's expanding again!!  

 

I have to say the only place I get FS information anymore is here and .to and I would have expected the reviews to be 3 out of 4 to the negative based on the climate here so this was actually pretty eye opening and pleasantly surprising.    

 

 

I always try to argue against the common belief on Avsim that flightsim is somehow niche. FSX was in the top 10 games sold worldwide in 2006 and 2007. MSFS is one of Microsoft’s leading releases in recent times. Flightsim has always been pretty solid in the gaming/sim world, hence the massive ecosystem of addons that surrounds it (I think there’s many more than for any other game out there).

A quick look at Steam shows:

- enthusiasm level is “mostly positive”. That’s a bit below level for the Steam games I play.

- I spend too much time on this sim! 58 hours in the past 2 weeks.

- The majority of users fly the sim in a fairly casual way, based on a review of the % of users who have specific achievements.

 

 

Edited July 6, 2022 by OzWhitey

[ha5mvo 262]

6 minutes ago, OzWhitey said:

I always try to argue against the common belief on Avsim that flightsim is somehow niche.

- The majority of users fly the sim in a fairly casual way, based on a review of the % of users who have specific achievements.

 

 

The platform might not be niche, the addon market on the other hand, most likely is. Depending obviously on what you compare it with and your definition of "niche".....

[OzWhitey 3,353]

On 7/1/2022 at 2:11 AM, JacquesBrel said:

I'm not sure why you'd think X-Plane is not on Steam. It has been on Steam for several years.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/269950/XPlane_11/

Edit: In fact, X-Plane 10 was first sold on Steam back in 2014

 

On 6/30/2022 at 7:46 AM, psolk said:

All Flightsim platforms require at least the global base sim to be installed.

1. I bought XP11 on Steam last week, I think I own xp10 on there as well. Not sure why, probably just cos it was cheap (I own the standard xp11 already)

2. Not true about all flightsim platforms requiring a global base sim.

Yes: FSX/P3D, MSFS

No: X-plane, Aerofly FS2, DCS, IL-2, MS Flight

[OzWhitey 3,353]

4 minutes ago, ha5mvo said:

The platform might not be niche, the addon market on the other hand, most likely is. Depending obviously on what you compare it with and your definition of "niche".....

I think there are more freelancers employed making addons for flightsim than there are for any other game/sim, and I think the margin is huge compared to whatever game/sim is in second place.

Edited July 6, 2022 by OzWhitey