Navigraph Survey Results

[micstatic 4,385]

14 hours ago, tonywob said:

I can't really argue with this one. However, MFS also has a problem of being very oversaturated developer wise. MFS is way more forgiving in terms of making poorly made content look good due to the environment it renders it in and lighting (AO etc), X-Plane and P3D not so much and it stands out. Developers really wanting to stand out on MFS really need to work extremely hard to stand out (modelling interiors of airports, animated passengers) but yet still charge cheap prices to out-price everyone else. Good for consumers, but I'm somewhat concerned on where things are heading long-term as it's not sustainable

The reason they charge cheap prices is because they believe that the demand curve will permit them to sell even more of their scenery at lower prices hence maximizing the profit.  Even so MSFS scenery prices are slowly starting to creep back up. 

[flying_carpet 678]

31 minutes ago, GoranM said:

And the polo shirts.

And the coffee mugs. I'm still waiting for "MSFS, the flamethrower" - the kids love it.

[GoranM 3,815]

3 hours ago, flying_carpet said:

And the coffee mugs. I'm still waiting for "MSFS, the flamethrower" - the kids love it.

I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.  As soon as that door rolled up, I instantly visualized everything with an MSFS logo on it!  

In all seriousness, unless I get a bomber jacket, underwear and baseball cap, with my polo shirt, all with MSFS logo's on them, I'm staying with X-Plane.  One can't call oneself a cultist unless one has merchandise.

😁

(Just a joke, folks and mods.  We're all laughing at each others expense.  All in good fun.)

Edited December 24, 2022 by GoranM

[Murmur 3,978]

Honestly, I'm personally not that worried by sales numbers.

Of course I'm glad if X-Plane is selling well, and I would be happy if its numbers keep on growing.

But I prefer X-Plane because it has a more capable flight model, a more realistic ground handling, and because it devotes a lot of attention to realistic details that most other sims are lacking, and to which most simmers are oblivious to. Those are the things that give or destroy immersion for me. It's a subjective matter, and I still can't understand why many MSFS fan---s are driven crazy by these things... 🤷‍♂️

So the only thing that counts for me is that XP sales numbers are enough for its financial sustainability, and I don't think there's anything to worry about at the moment.

I almost only use default aircraft, so I'm not that bothered for the viability of 3rd parties, although I understand that many simmers aren't like me, and I'd therefore be glad that sales numbers will be good enough to keep the widespread addon ecosystem of X-Plane alive and thriving.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Murmur

[Murmur 3,978]

8 hours ago, Gulfstream said:

Given the budget and team thrown at FS2020, do you really forsee MS just rug-pulling the whole thing one day, shutting down the servers and saying "sorry, no more Flight Simulator anymore".

I don't know if MS will abandon FS again, maybe not.

However, in the past FS4 (PC only version) + FS5 + FS5.1 + FS95 + FS98 sold 21M units in a 7 years timespan, that'd be around 3M/year on average. So it's reasonable to say that the vastly more popular FSX sold more than that in its first few years. Those numbers are comparable to those of MSFS today, and yet MS pulled the rug on FSX. And I'd think any reasonable person would agree that the budget of FSX was much smaller than that of MSFS.

[SierraDelta 1,370]

17 hours ago, Dermot McClusky said:

I've literally bought over a dozen add-ons accidentally while clicking in the world map

How on earth did you achieve that ???

[mSparks 2,125]

27 minutes ago, Murmur said:

So it's reasonable to say that the vastly more popular FSX sold more than that in its first few years. Those numbers are comparable to those of MSFS today

My biggest concern there is the FSX numbers were mostly full price sales, whereas the MSFS numbers would seem to be significantly "propped up" by the gamepass userbase that don't seem to be sticking around.

30 minutes ago, Murmur said:

And I'd think any reasonable person would agree that the budget of FSX was much smaller than that of MSFS.

AAA games these days are a very similar business model to big budget movies, to me MSFS seems more like a Wonder Woman 1984 than a Topgun:maverick. 

At least at the moment, there is still time for that to turn around, even though I don't see any signs of it, and this Navigraph survey basically implies the exact opposite.

[Greazer 1,373]

Pretty much proves my point. XP 12 is not ready for prime time.

[Murmur 3,978]

21 minutes ago, Greazer said:

Pretty much proves my point. XP 12 is not ready for prime time.

I 100% agree. Given how unrefined XP12 is in the present state, those sales numbers are actually even better than people think!

That is very promising for the future, when XP12 will be further developed and much more refined than it is now.

[Franz007 609]

2 hours ago, GoranM said:

One can't call oneself a cultist unless one has merchandise.

There is one of the most spectacular exemplar around. Just take a look at the youtube-video about navigraph-results (What Is the Most Popular Flight Simulator Software?) in the comments...

[Franz007 609]

30 minutes ago, Murmur said:

I 100% agree. Given how unrefined XP12 is in the present state, those sales numbers are actually even better than people think!

I was also quite positively surprised given the fact that it was during a beta-phase. I think these numbers will increase in future and XP will saty a solid second under the most used civilian flightsims. The most important being that there are still enough third-party devs.

Edited December 24, 2022 by Franz007

[Bjoern 1,183]

10 hours ago, Gulfstream said:

Given the budget and team thrown at FS2020, do you really forsee MS just rug-pulling the whole thing one day, shutting down the servers and saying "sorry, no more Flight Simulator anymore".

FSX practically had a market monopoly wheen MS cut the cord and the developers weren't even allowed to finish the third service pack. It was all "turn off your computer, get your things and get out". (Let's forget about Flight! which didn't even come close to its ancestors.)

Yes, we could argue that Ballmer wasn't the best CEO and that corporate culture did change between 2008 and 2020, but still: Once bitten, twice shy.

 

[mSparks 2,125]

41 minutes ago, Franz007 said:

Just take a look at the youtube-video about navigraph-results (What Is the Most Popular Flight Simulator Software?) in the comments...

ROFL, thanks for that.

Sooo, to answer the question, what happens next when the most popular flight simulator isn't the best flight simulator.

I think you can just look to Navigraph survey 2016 to 2019 for the answer.

[Gulfstream 416]

8 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

How is this different to when they abandoned it in the past?

Because now it is much more depedant on internet infrastructucture / servers being up and in place, login systems working.  Sure you can turn off ortho scenery but that only scratches the surface of how "server dependant" this product is now.

The old ones they can just say "we're not developing them anymore" and you can carry on using it as if nothing happened.

[Gulfstream 416]

1 hour ago, Franz007 said:

I was also quite positively surprised given the fact that it was during a beta-phase. I think these numbers will increase in future and XP will saty a solid second under the most used civilian flightsims. The most important being that there are still enough third-party devs.

That is the kicker, really.  It will remain in second place, which is fine .... but if the big developers jump ship and you start seeing the best DC-10 ever made show up only in MSFS, that's a problem.