Survey Results.

[jrw4 623]

57 minutes ago, Noel said:

I'll be happy to bet money with you right now that XP12 use will indeed....surely increase.

Undoubtably, but the real question is by how much XP11 usage will then decrease. In other words, will XP12 bring in new users, or just be adopted by those dedicated to that system? Also, how much leakage will there be in the form of XP11 users switching to MSFS?

Time will tell.

[B777ER 2,474]

Looks like the P3D never use percentage went up about 10% to about 85-86%. Talk about a dead platform. Even Infinite Flight has a greater percentage of users who use it Most of the Time.

[Bobsk8 12,489]

3 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Looks like the P3D never use percentage went up about 10% to about 85-86%. Talk about a dead platform. Even Infinite Flight has a greater percentage of users who use it Most of the Time.

Yeah, I think P3D is done, stick a fork in it. 😉

[lwt1971 7,335]

1 hour ago, Cognita said:

Yes, I noticed this in the main chart too. But what is interesting to me is how little MSFS actually increased. Is it that the number using X-Plane and P3D are now so small that a 10 percent decrease in each of them results only in a 1.5 percent increase in MSFS users? Or are people just leaving flight simulator?

I suspect it's about the percentage and relative #s.  Also keep in mind that there's been a "lateral" movement of sorts between what is likely the same set of survey takers from last year vs this year, that is those who said they use MSFS most of the time were 33% last year compared to 56% this year.

[ryanbatc 12,770]

1 hour ago, Cognita said:

Yes, I noticed this in the main chart too. But what is interesting to me is how little MSFS actually increased. Is it that the number using X-Plane and P3D are now so small that a 10 percent decrease in each of them results only in a 1.5 percent increase in MSFS users? Or are people just leaving flight simulator?

It's not the number it's the frequency of usage that went way up.  It's a solid blue bar now...last year people were only using it some of the time now it's all the time 

[Noel 4,483]

19 minutes ago, jrw4 said:

Undoubtably, but the real question is by how much XP11 usage will then decrease. In other words, will XP12 bring in new users, or just be adopted by those dedicated to that system? Also, how much leakage will there be in the form of XP11 users switching to MSFS?

Time will tell.

XP12 looks like some very nice improvements happened but it will not compete w/ MSFS for attracting virgin users for sure, and only some who are focused on aeronautical fidelity more than anything else.  I think it's biggest attraction for me is less dependency on cloud services.  Outside of that it's a very refined product under the same developer for 26 years now and that brings a lot of detail.  We've been told MSFS is a 10yr project but I don't know if that implies continued development or just server support.  I certainly have zero interest in pursuing XP12 right now MSFS is absolutely fabulous now w/ exquisite performance on modest hardware and w/ integration of AccuSeason, FSLTL and GSX Pro now I can't imagine much improvement over that, save improving ATC.  

[Carts85 1,203]

I think anyone that was going to leave the X-Plane franchise will have already jumped ship by now. Just the flat earther types left there now. All the new younguns will no doubt be attracted by MSFS which is great for us all.

[Cognita 1,046]

15 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

It's not the number it's the frequency of usage that went way up.  It's a solid blue bar now...last year people were only using it some of the time now it's all the time

So, basically, last year people were trying it out - keeping their feet in two simulators - and this year went all in. That may make sense given some of the improvements in the platform and the introduction of higher fidelity aircraft.

[Gazzareth 808]

3 minutes ago, Carts85 said:

I think anyone that was going to leave the X-Plane franchise will have already jumped ship by now. Just the flat earther types left there now. All the new younguns will no doubt be attracted by MSFS which is great for us all.

That's a little unfair, by all accounts there is some great stuff for XP (looking at the Chally in particular) - so can see why some people stay with it.. .. plus with both that and P3D people are going to have a good deal of cash invested in the sim and add-ons. If it serves their purpose then why change....

 

G

[ryanbatc 12,770]

3 minutes ago, Cognita said:

So, basically, last year people were trying it out - keeping their feet in two simulators - and this year went all in. That may make sense given some of the improvements in the platform and the introduction of higher fidelity aircraft.

Most likely.  The WT GNS, beta G3000/5000 plus TDS or PMS GTNs....avionics galore.  Plus we had the introduction of CFD for the flight model.  Honestly the sim has been vastly improved since last year.

The only people not using MSFS are the "hard cooooooar" people haha!  (That's a joke in case it didn't come across in text).

 

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

34 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Looks like the P3D never use percentage went up about 10% to about 85-86%. Talk about a dead platform. Even Infinite Flight has a greater percentage of users who use it Most of the Time.

30 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Yeah, I think P3D is done, stick a fork in it. 😉

Not for this user. It burst into life when I launched it this morning. 😁

I’m more than happy to continue using it. I never pay attention to surveys. I just use what I like. I did participate in the survey as I did in all the previous ones.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,903]

10 minutes ago, Carts85 said:

I think anyone that was going to leave the X-Plane franchise will have already jumped ship by now. Just the flat earther types left there now. All the new younguns will no doubt be attracted by MSFS which is great for us all.

There is absolutely no need to insult people who choose to use a different simulator.

[Cognita 1,046]

47 minutes ago, B777ER said:

Looks like the P3D never use percentage went up about 10% to about 85-86%. Talk about a dead platform. Even Infinite Flight has a greater percentage of users who use it Most of the Time.

MSFS certainly decimated P3D and this is not surprising as it really was the weakest platform for flight simulation. Yes, it has a very extensive SKD that allow developers to do many, many things, but the developers of P3D themselves hardly advanced the native, base platform in relation to flight simulation. Yes, they made it 64-bit - which they absolutely had to do - and introduced some nice features like dynamic lighting and in v5 they updated some of the terrain, airports and brought in true sky so I am not saying they did nothing. But, everything they did was true to their core objective, to have a platform that enables developers to script simulation and training scenarios for corporate/military clients. The core functionality related to actual flight was untouched or undeveloped. Still today the turboprop logic is broken, it has no atmosphere, no weather.  Everything along these lines was left third-party developers. So I had to buy whether, clouds, turbulence, and a program to make the textures look realistic in the context of flight and on and on. 

I mention this because the two platforms have a strikingly different development philosophy, and the analysis of strengths and weaknesses and how it played out is interesting to me, even for my work.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Cognita

[Espana Pete 357]

2 hours ago, David Mills said:

Did you notice there's one question of fundamental demographics conspicuously absent from this year's survey: What is your gender?

The number of options is growing too fast to count, male, female, non-binary, binary, digital, they, their, this, that & the other, oh and a don't know just in case. 

[Mike S KPDX 597]

$1,700 US spent on sim software addons in the last 12 month?? - 1%??

I am not even sure there is that much available to purchase?