Antonov team close to receiving $1 million check from MSFS

[abrams_tank 7,397]

I was rewatching the last Twitch Q&A, and I finally found the part where Jorg talks about the Antonov team close to receiving the first check for $1 million: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQzeTwdJzTQ&t=131s. As Jorg mentions in that video, the proceeds from the sale of the AN 225 in MSFS will go towards Antonov. It is also posted at the official flightsimulator.com website:

 

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Try your hand at flying the An-225, available in the Microsoft Flight Simulator in-game marketplace on PC today for $19.99. All proceeds will go to the Antonov Corporation to re-build the An-225. It will be available for Xbox Series X|S and on Xbox Cloud Gaming starting in late March.

So I am going to assume Jorg is referring to USD when he states $1 million.  If the MSFS team is close to cutting a check for Antonov, it's reasonable to assume the sales are also close to $1 million USD.  That article above also mentions "all proceeds will go to the Antonov Corporation."  So this could mean the Antonov sold close to ($1 million / $19.99), or roughly 50K copies. Since the Antonov was released on the XBox as well, I assume the $1 million figure must include XBox sales as well as PC.  I am also going to assume that the MSFS team is not adding in any additional funding for this check, since the MSFS team is already subsidizing the AN 225 sales, because their support team has to handle user support issues for the AN 225, and there are also costs associated with marketing the AN 225, and costs associated with the the actual sales of the AN 225 (ie. Visa and PayPal will take a small cut), etc. Anyways, these are my assumptions, but I understand that some people will disagree with these assumptions, which is fair.

Granted, the Antonov is quite reasonable in price, at $19.99 USD, but still, that's a pretty impressive sales number, if it sold close to 50K copies. 

Now the most PC users that used MSFS was on the release of MSFS, and I don't think MSFS has currently has as many PC users now, compared to when it was released back in August of 2020. This is normal for most games though - almost all games have peak users when the game is released, or shortly afterwards.  Thus, I can't imagine PC users alone could lead to 50K sales of the Antonov.  This must mean there was a lot of XBox sales of the Antonov.  I'm thinking the XBox market is much bigger for MSFS than I originally thought, especially for lower priced add-ons.  I would love to know the breakdown of the Antonov sales, like what % was sold for PC, and what % was sold on XBox, but unfortunately, Jorg doesn't mention this.  Anyways, Jorg presenting this information was very interesting. I was surprised at this figure when it was first reported.

Edited May 30, 2023 by abrams_tank

[Falconfly 61]

It just goes to show how big our community is! If a rather niche product like the An225 can generate so much in sales. I can only imagine how well the Fenix and pmdg 737 did in lifetime sales!

[jcomm 5,918]

MFS, with these numbers and "just" for an add-on aircraft is surely here to stay for LONG !

[abrams_tank 7,397]

24 minutes ago, Falconfly said:

It just goes to show how big our community is! If a rather niche product like the An225 can generate so much in sales. I can only imagine how well the Fenix and pmdg 737 did in lifetime sales!

To be fair, the AN 225 is priced at $19.99 USD. That could be the sweet spot for XBox pricing. I think PMDG is charging the regular price of $69.99 USD for the PMDG 737 on XBox. That's a bit more pricy, so I don't know if the number of units of the 737 PMDG sold on the XBox is close to what the AN 225 sold on XBox.

[Glenn Fitzpatrick 3,798]

Bought it, never loaded even once, and probably never will.

I have the impression a lot of people were like me and bought it as a donation with no intention of ever actually flying it.

[GSalden 4,656]

2 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

I was rewatching the last Twitch Q&A, and I finally found the part where Jorg talks about the Antonov team close to receiving the first check for $1 million: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQzeTwdJzTQ&t=131s. As Jorg mentions in that video, the proceeds from the sale of the AN 225 in MSFS will go towards Antonov. It is also posted at the official flightsimulator.com website:

 

So I am going to assume Jorg is referring to USD when he states $1 million.  If the MSFS team is close to cutting a check for Antonov, it's reasonable to assume the sales are also close to $1 million USD.  That article above also mentions "all proceeds will go to the Antonov Corporation."  So this could mean the Antonov sold close to ($1 million / $19.99), or roughly 50K copies. Since the Antonov was released on the XBox as well, I assume the $1 million figure must include XBox sales as well as PC.  I am also going to assume that the MSFS team is not adding in any additional funding for this check, since the MSFS team is already subsidizing the AN 225 sales, because their support team has to handle user support issues for the AN 225, and there are also costs associated with marketing the AN 225, and costs associated with the the actual sales of the AN 225 (ie. Visa and PayPal will take a small cut), etc. Anyways, these are my assumptions, but I understand that some people will disagree with these assumptions, which is fair.

Granted, the Antonov is quite reasonable in price, at $19.99 USD, but still, that's a pretty impressive sales number, if it sold close to 50K copies. 

Now the most PC users that used MSFS was on the release of MSFS, and I don't think MSFS has currently has as many PC users now, compared to when it was released back in August of 2020. This is normal for most games though - almost all games have peak users when the game is released, or shortly afterwards.  Thus, I can't imagine PC users alone could lead to 50K sales of the Antonov.  This must mean there was a lot of XBox sales of the Antonov.  I'm thinking the XBox market is much bigger for MSFS than I originally thought, especially for lower priced add-ons.  I would love to know the breakdown of the Antonov sales, like what % was sold for PC, and what % was sold on XBox, but unfortunately, Jorg doesn't mention this.  Anyways, Jorg presenting this information was very interesting. I was surprised at this figure when it was first reported.

Wow… what a long epistle. I now have square eyes 🤓

Summary : a 1 milj dollar check will be given to Antonov very soon …

Back to my cockpit as I am flying to Chios…✈️

[Paul K 1,327]

If the money had gone to something more urgent and rational, I would have bought the AN 225. In the current circumstances, the idea of funding a new Mriya, which could be as much as 10 to 15 years away, is patently absurd. Even if it does happen, a million dollars is a tiny drop in the ocean when compared with the overall costs of a new aircraft. What happens until then  - does the money just sit in a bank account somewhere, untouched for years ?

In the real world, a million dollars would be far better spent on much-needed emergency rescue equipment and medical supplies. My money has already gone to the DEC in London and hopefully provides practical help right now.

https://www.dec.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-humanitarian-appeal

As much as I like Asobo, they need to rethink this nonsense.

[omarsmak30 4,068]

Honestly that 1Mil$ better spent on charity projects and hunger crises in this world, not for building a plane 😕 . 

And I didn't buy it because I find the idea 1mil$ goes "for building plane" is nonsense, the 19.9$ is better spent on a UNSEF donation.

Edited May 30, 2023 by omarsmak30

[GoranM 3,764]

1 hour ago, Paul K said:

Even if it does happen, a million dollars is a tiny drop in the ocean when compared with the overall costs of a new aircraft. What happens until then  - does the money just sit in a bank account somewhere, untouched for years ?

They only need another $499 million after the Asobo donation.   😉

1 hour ago, Paul K said:

In the real world, a million dollars would be far better spent on much-needed emergency rescue equipment and medical supplies.

 

1 hour ago, Paul K said:

As much as I like Asobo, they need to rethink this nonsense.

I was starting to think I was alone in this line of thinking.  A new 225 shouldn't even enter the equation at this point in time.

[lwt1971 7,348]

I don't think anyone here actually thinks proceeds from the MSFS AN-225 sales are going to constitute a significant portion of a potential IRL 255 new build cost 🙂 ... but it's pretty darn cool how a civilian flight simulator for home use is enabling MS/Asobo to send close to a million bucks based purely on the sales of an add-on after being on sale for just under 3 months.

Interesting details from the various press this received:
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2023/03/21/microsoft-flight-simulator-keeping-ukrainian-dream-alive/
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/antonov-an-225-microsoft-flight-simulator/index.html
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/microsoft-flight-simulator-releases-dlc-to-help-rebuild-antonov-an-225-mriya
https://aircosmosinternational.com/article/microsoft-flight-simulator-helps-build-the-second-an-225-3654

I've bolded the parts of excerpts from above articles which say how the proceeds from MS/Asobo are likely to be used:

“It was delightful news for us, considering the high professional level of the Microsoft team and their high international reputation,” described Deputy General Director for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines Viktor Avdieiev, upon hearing the news that Microsoft was trying to bring the An-225 back in a flight simulator. “This aircraft occupied a special place in global aviation history; no such other plane exists… Thanks to this product, many people get to know this powerful bird and will love it as we do.”

“We decided to give 100% of the gross receipts from the sale of the digital An-225 for one year after launch directly to Antonov Company so the money could be used to rebuild the An-225.” Jorg said. “If Antonov determines that rebuilding isn’t feasible, then the funds can alternatively be used to create a memorial to the plane.”

Proceeds from the in-game DLC will go toward rebuilding the An-225 and currently this is the only method through which the sim and gaming community can contribute to this effort. Still, it’s a lofty goal and if it doesn’t come to fruition, there are plans to find other ways to honor the aircraft’s legacy.

“We did not set a minimum donation but instead opted to give Antonov all the money we receive. We feel strongly that we want to help restore a national treasure to its former glory and highlight the resilience of Ukraine. So far, we’re thrilled with the reaction from the simmer community.”

Profits go straight to Antonov to fund the reconstruction, as well as the rehousing of Antonov employees whose homes have been destroyed by the Russian invasion, and training for new Ukrainian pilots and aviation engineers.
 

Edited May 30, 2023 by lwt1971

[Gilandred 690]

1 hour ago, omarsmak30 said:

Honestly that 1Mil$ better spent on charity projects and hunger crises in this world, not for building a plane 😕 . 

And I didn't buy it because I find the idea 1mil$ goes "for building plane" is nonsense, the 19.9$ is better spent on a UNSEF donation.

You are free to donate $20 to the charity or worthy cause of your choice, just as 50k other people were free to contribute to “building a plane.”  No one should feel bad about making a voluntary decision.

[Ricardo41 5,949]

1 hour ago, lwt1971 said:

 highlight the resilience of Ukraine. 

This. 

[jarmstro 2,402]

I wonder what the top selling payware plane for MSFS is and how much the developer made? My guess is that it would be an early release like the CRJ or even the Bredok 737? Has anyone any better guesses? The Mooney?

Edited May 30, 2023 by jarmstro

[St Mawgan 1,359]

Makes me wish I had shares in Carenado!

[abrams_tank 7,397]

4 minutes ago, jarmstro said:

I wonder what the top selling payware plane for MSFS is and how much the developer made? My guess is that it would be an early release like the CRJ or even the Bredok 737? Has anyone any better guesses?

Randazzo commented on the PMDG 737 sales last year. Here is a summary of what I wrote from this post:

Quote

So this is interesting.  Randazzo has a model to predict the sales numbers of a specific new product from PMDG, and it had worked really well for P3D, to within even 2% of a margin of error of the actual sales.  When Randazzo plugged the MSFS PMDG 737-700 numbers into his sales model, he thought it was broken because the sales model was off the scale.  Turns out, despite how optimistic the sales model was in forecasting for unit sales of the PMDG 737-700 in MSFS and despite the fact that the sales model was off the scale, the actual sales of the PMDG 737-700 in MSFS was even higher than that.

Anyways, this was said in the Sky Blue Radio interview with Randazzo back in July.  You can listen to what Randazzo said, around the 1:21:25 mark in the interview: https://pod.co/sky-blue-radio/jt-welcomes-robert-randazzo-from-pmdg-7-8

And for the PMDG DC6 sales, here is a summary of what I wrote from this post:

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In a nutshell, Randazzo said the sales of DC6 in MSFS outsold all the DC6 sales in FSX, P3D, and XP, within hours: https://youtu.be/qKadQrREujM?t=557