MSFS Payware aiports price creeping up?

[jason74 163]

Ive noticed since the release of MSFS that payware airports have slowly been creeping up in price to what we where paying in P3D. I know you have rising  API and some off the payware airports are more detailed then ever before,  but it seems they where cheaper in the early days of MSFS

[Wise87 1,360]

I've noticed the trend also. Some lower detailed developers are charging the same price as the higher quality airport developers. 

Higher Details
KLAX - $24.78
KDTW - $23.78

Middle Details
KAUS - $20.54

Lower Details
KMEM - $22.90 

There is no way KMEM comes close to KLAX/KDTW. Pricing was great in the beginning but are now starting to creep up in the $20+ range. 

In the beginning you got scenery like FlyTampa, Fligthbeam, FSDreamteam for mid teen prices or lower.  

Edited January 21, 2023 by Wise87

[RichieFly 766]

I've noticed this too. I was about to buy another airport from the iniBuilds site and stopped short after I saw the price for a minor regional airfield.

[mrbill38119 16]

Yes, I bought KMEM because it is my Home site. That said, I had been using decent freeware but it was important to me to get something a little nicer. I rarely purchase airports, aircraft or scenery unless they really seem worth it to me now. I had bought a lot of packages early on that I tried them once or twice and mothballed them. Listened to too much hype from users giving a great review. The only hype I haven't regretted is the HYPE H145! 

[kerosene31 374]

I always keep my eye open for sales.  Higher prices up front usually mean there will be a big markdown down the road.  The MS Store wishlist feature is nice to keep an eye on things.  There's a lot of great deals out there as long as you avoid the new launches. 

[ryanbatc 13,233]

Guys everything costs more nowadays.  It takes a lot of work to make these things.  Heck it takes me days or sometimes weeks to make a nice repaint (and it's for free!)

I guess you can always vote with your wallet.  For me though any scenery under 30 USD that's of reasonable quality is pretty much an easy buy hehe.  

[Sky_Pilot071 667]

Even city night lighting prices are pretty steep.

sp

[Snuffleupagus 354]

53 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

Guys everything costs more nowadays.  It takes a lot of work to make these things.  Heck it takes me days or sometimes weeks to make a nice repaint (and it's for free!)

I guess you can always vote with your wallet.  For me though any scenery under 30 USD that's of reasonable quality is pretty much an easy buy hehe.  

Everything might cost more but income certainly is not increasing at the same rate, or even close to. So the spread is widening from what used to be considered fair/affordable. $10-$20 is what I’d expect for the majority of sceneries for MSFS and is what my personal cut off limit is. But that’s obviously just my personal limit. 

[honanhal 1,427]

2 hours ago, Hatch76 said:

Everything might cost more but income certainly is not increasing at the same rate, or even close to. 

Which is why this trend is so self-defeating. If your customers have roughly the same amount of income as previously while everything they buy (including non-optional stuff like housing and food!) costs more, what do you think happens to the number of them who buy your addon airports when you raise the prices by 50%?

I was already mostly a “wait for the 40% sale” guy, but I suspect this price trend is going to bring me a lot of fresh company in that boat. 🙂

[Mace 2,014]

6 minutes ago, honanhal said:

Which is why this trend is so self-defeating. If your customers have roughly the same amount of income as previously while everything they buy (including non-optional stuff like housing and food!) costs more, what do you think happens to the number of them who buy your addon airports when you raise the prices by 50%?

I was already mostly a “wait for the 40% sale” guy, but I suspect this price trend is going to bring me a lot of fresh company in that boat. 🙂

Right on.  I am usually a "buy on sale" type of person anyway.  There are a few I would consider buying if not-on-sale, like FlyTampa, FlightBeam, maybe Pyreegue, or anything by Jo Erlend Sund.

I think the scenery-buying user base is smaller than some devs initially thought it might be.  For example I'd bet lots of $$$$ that the airplane-buying market is a lot larger.  Why do we think LatinVFR made that A321?  Things that make you go "hmm...".   Sure a lot of us would buy scenery (except for Bob) but anyone reading this is only like 5% of the user base if that.  You'd think with few buyers the price would decrease (supply increases...) but I'm not sure that works with our niche-of-a-niche hobby.  I'm no economist though.  I hated Econ101 in college, and it hated me too.

Another thing. I just flew into SBGL (Rio-Galeao) and it's one of the MS/Asobo enhanced airports in my version...and it's all right.  It would make me think twice about buying an aftermarket SBGL unless it was Paolo Ricardo or something like that.

[F737MAX 6,040]

5 hours ago, Hatch76 said:

but income certainly is not increasing at the same rate, or even close to.

 

3 hours ago, honanhal said:

Which is why this trend is so self-defeating. If your customers have roughly the same amount of income as previously while everything they buy (including non-optional stuff like housing and food!) costs more, what do you think happens to the number of them who buy your addon airports when you raise the prices by 50%?

Who said that all flight sim developers have any business acumen?

When Double T charge nearly 20% more for their OMAA scenery than Aerosoft does for EBBR (or any Flightbeam or FlyTampa scenery), you know they haven't factored in market dynamics, nor that flight simming is discretionary spending.

The only issue is that despite inflation hitting our pockets, people seem to keep buying bang average or even lower quality products at these increased prices.

Think it will take a few more months for significantly reduced sales volumes to show up for developers. However, those developers charging higher prices will just keep them there because they only know the cost+ pricing model.

Edited January 21, 2023 by F737MAX

[Ricardo41 6,029]

9 hours ago, kerosene31 said:

I always keep my eye open for sales.  Higher prices up front usually mean there will be a big markdown down the road.  The MS Store wishlist feature is nice to keep an eye on things.  There's a lot of great deals out there as long as you avoid the new launches. 

This. 

There used to be this advertising in the 90s: "If you paid full price, you paid too much.!

That's the credo a miser like me lives by. 

Another motto: "A fool and his money are soon parted."

My purchase of sceneries, including payware addons, has decreased dramatically since MSFS was launched. 

1. Check to see how the default looks
2. Is it a handcrafted airport (for example, ORBX is selling OMDB for the ridiculous price of 30 bucks --> the handcrafted version in the Premium version of MSFS works just fine for me)
3. Do you actually fly there often? No point spending double digits on an airport you fly to once in a blue moon.
4. Is the airport available on flightsim.to?
5. Don't buy full price, wait for sales
6. Take advantage of the frequent sales on the in-game Marketplace
7. Check to see whether the same airport is available from another developer
Example: Captain 7's EDDN (Nürnberg) costs around 17 bucks, the same airport is available from Fred's Airports for about a fiver --> the difference in quality is not significant enought to warrant paying 3 times as much. 

Remember: A fool and his money are soon parted.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Ricardo41

[g-liner 415]

The flightsim world seems to be having a big of a shake up after FS2020 and all the new players appearing and flightsim is opening up to a far larger audience especially with game pass and marketplace and availability on consoles rather than needing high end PCs and all sorts of desk bound peripherals. The marketplace has massively increased the reach of these dlc airports/scenery I think devs would be better to sell their products for less and get more sales than the constant fortnightly sales in the marketplace. I expect many of us just wait for the sales now 
 

I expect there’s loads of airports someone would buy for 5 or 10 units of money but are currently more like 15 - 20 and only getting the people who buy lots or really want that item. 
 

What the marketplace needs though is a proper review system rather than just stars so buyers can be a bit more aware of what’s going on. 

[Bobsk8 13,201]

I am happy with default airports and will probably save $1,000s of dollars. 

[JYW 2,994]

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

I am happy with default airports and will probably save $1,000s of dollars. 

Same.

I was a serial airport buyer back in the FSX days; bought almost everything that came out.  Now, two years into MSFS ownership, I have bought two addon airports.   EGNT from Orbx as it's my local international airport, and Fishburn (non icao) from Taburet as it's my local GA / Microlight field.  Bought these because I know them well and wanted the added realism of buildings and layout that I recognise. 

I only use Orbx EGNT part time too, as it's fine for GA flying but in the more complex aircraft, I see a FPS loss of 8-10 FPS, which - with a modest system - I'm not prepared to sacrifice.

For everything else, the defaults or freeware offerings from flightsim.to (I have about 20 of those) do me just fine.   After all, for me personally, it's all about being in the air, over the beautiful scenery. 

I think I'd only ever consider buying airports that I know IRL personally.