Buying Add-Ones for MSFS

[G-YMML1 582]

 

...slowly moving from P3D to MSFS.

Market Place or other stores? 

Market Store looks like a convenient choice, but I have heard that people are complaining about timing of updates.

 

Thanks 

[177B 730]

Like anything these days you will get conflicting views.

I personally really like the Marketplace, it is very convenient and easy to manage.

The downside is that yes sometimes it takes another week or morello get an update, but to me this is worth the convenience of not having a lot of different passwords and sites to visit to stay up to date.

Some additions don't ever show up on the Marketplace, so you have no choice.

ORBX is a good place and very easy to deal with as well, I use ORBX about as much as the marketplace.

Stand by for more opinions...

[orchestra_nl 925]

In my opinion, the marketplace is not too bad but a there's one major thing that is holding me back from purchasing a lot of addons there:

All addons purchased on the marketplace are completely encrypted which keeps addons like little navmap from importing third party airports. The same airports, when purchased directly from the developer are not encrypted so it is certainly not a requirement of them.  That encryption also keeps us from fixing or improving addons. We are totally reliant on the developer for that.

So unless there is no alternative I won't buy from the marketplace. Too bad because it has many good things: keeping track of your purchases and updates is very convenient. It's still true that updates take a bit longer to arrive via the marketplace but it is not as bad as it was before.
If Microsoft would make it possible for Little navmap to read the addon airports and allow us to modify some of the files (mainly afcad's for airports and xml/cfg files for aircraft) that would take away most of my issues with the marketplace. 

Another issue with the marketplace is that all purchasees are tied to your Microsoft account. If anything happens to account all your purchases will be gone as well.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

26 minutes ago, orchestra_nl said:

Another issue with the marketplace is that all purchasees are tied to your Microsoft account. If anything happens to account all your purchases will be gone as well.

And Microsoft is incapable of documenting what you bought.. they only tell you the price, not the name of the addon.

[Cognita 1,054]

Much of this comes down to your own personal preference as to what is important to you and your preoccupations. For me, the convenience of keeping track of my addons and ease of purchase and downloading means I use the Marketplace for pretty much all of my scenery addons. I do not really care that these are encrypted, and I am not worried at all about my account being lost, that is the least of risks I take online other. I also do not feel a need to configure my sceneries -- something else that is not possible if purchased on the Marketplace. But these are valid considerations, so you need to decide what is important to you. Because I am not bothered by these limitations the Marketplace is really convenient and I use it. But if these things are important to you then there are other online stores you can use.  

I will say that I do not purchase aircraft on the Marketplace, because these usually go through so many updates and I want to get them when they are available, not a week or a month later. But scenery is rarely updated so I used the Marketplace for scenery and purchase aircraft through other stores.

[decker89 110]

Marketplace for everything available through marketplace, and 3rd party direct for those that are not.

Marketplace is very convenient. Marketplace allows Asobo/Microsoft to collect part of the sale which in turn keeps them motivated to continue to develop this beautiful sim. Although you may not get an update for an item on day 1, who really cares... you will get the update soon enough and, in many cases, you probably didn't even know there was an update to be had unless you're constantly reading the forums instead of flying.

[micstatic 4,316]

I would love to give Microsoft a cut of the sales. But the limitations of marketplace are not acceptable to me. Had to buy dca twice so I could turn off static aircraft. Anybody who uses an external ai program will likely need this also. 

[bvdboomen 256]

Be sure not to buy from sites where your purchases are not accessible anymore after a year.
ORBX has a good environment with ORBX Central and I also find Just Flight a good place.
MS Market place is nicely integrated with MSFS but it needs your CC to be stored which I do not like at all.
 

Edited November 26, 2022 by bvdboomen

[regis9 4,005]

I would buy from elsewhere as my first choice.  ORBX, Just Flight, Simmarket, Contrail are all reputable stores among others.

My issues with the marketplace are frequent failed purchases which require me to jump through some hoops with support to  get my purchase completed and the fact that updates are slow to arrive at the marketplace.  

[G-YMML1 582]

Thanks for the hint about inability to edit sceneries under MarketPlace. This is very important to me. As ADE for MSFS becomes more functional, editing would become a new norm.

[PilotPete99 915]

I purchased one item (FT EKCH) on the MP because it was 40% off last year on the Marketplace. That will likely be my last MP purchase, and as was mentioned earlier, there is literally no record of what you purchase. This is a terrible system, and I’ve found deals just as good at several other sites.

Cheers, Pete

[johnbow72 2,722]

Simmarket , Contrail , Orbx all have easy to use desktop application's . Also don't forget about all the freeware at TO : https://flightsim.to/

 

[177B 730]

22 minutes ago, PilotPete99 said:

I purchased one item (FT EKCH) on the MP because it was 40% off last year on the Marketplace. That will likely be my last MP purchase, and as was mentioned earlier, there is literally no record of what you purchase. This is a terrible system, and I’ve found deals just as good at several other sites.

Cheers, Pete

There is a record of all purchases in your account and, every time I purchase from the MarketPlace, I get an email with confirmation order # after purchase purchase, like this for my records:

 

Thank you for shopping with us on November 21, 2022. Any downloads you bought, except preorders, are available now.

If you need help, we're here for you. In addition to free shipping and returns, our Microsoft Store Promise includes free virtual workshops, video tutorials, expert help, and more. We also offer one-on-one help with Surface devices and accessories, gaming devices, Microsoft 365, or Windows. If you’ve purchased a product for personal use, book a free product expert appointment for setup assistance or personal training. For business customers interested in personal training, book a free appointment with one of our business product experts.

 

 

Order Number: 5XXXXXXXXXX Date purchased: November 21, 2022

Order details Item description Quantity Price Microsoft Flight Simulator - 100 FlightSim Credits 1 USD 24.99

Order Subtotal USD 24.99 Order Total USD 24.99

There is also a link at the bottom to see all past purchases. I think this works very well.

 

 

[PilotPete99 915]

1 minute ago, 177B said:

There is a record of all purchases in your account and, every time I purchase from the MarketPlace, I get an email with confirmation order # after purchase purchase, like this for my records:

 

Thank you for shopping with us on November 21, 2022. Any downloads you bought, except preorders, are available now.

If you need help, we're here for you. In addition to free shipping and returns, our Microsoft Store Promise includes free virtual workshops, video tutorials, expert help, and more. We also offer one-on-one help with Surface devices and accessories, gaming devices, Microsoft 365, or Windows. If you’ve purchased a product for personal use, book a free product expert appointment for setup assistance or personal training. For business customers interested in personal training, book a free appointment with one of our business product experts.

 

 

Order Number: 5XXXXXXXXXX Date purchased: November 21, 2022

Order details Item description Quantity Price Microsoft Flight Simulator - 100 FlightSim Credits 1 USD 24.99

Order Subtotal USD 24.99 Order Total USD 24.99

There is also a link at the bottom to see all past purchases. I think this works very well.

 

 

There’s only a record that you bought credits, but no record of what addon you bought with them. Unless this has changed, it unfortunately doesn’t help.

Cheers, Pete

[richjb2 195]

5 hours ago, 177B said:

Like anything these days you will get conflicting views.

I personally really like the Marketplace, it is very convenient and easy to manage.

The downside is that yes sometimes it takes another week or morello get an update, but to me this is worth the convenience of not having a lot of different passwords and sites to visit to stay up to date.

Some additions don't ever show up on the Marketplace, so you have no choice.

ORBX is a good place and very easy to deal with as well, I use ORBX about as much as the marketplace.

Stand by for more opinions...

Hi 177B,

I use both the marketplace and ORBX's Direct app for MSFS scenery.  The problem I find is that my ORBX Direct purchases do not show up in on the Marketplace map.  I have be careful that I don't buy the same scenery twice.  Do you have ideas on how to fix this so that my ORBX Direct purchases show up in the Marketplace? 

Thanks!

Rich Boll