I love that profitability of scenery development is being based on the the scenerys position on simmarket. I always thought they're "best seller" list was just as much a promotional thing as anything else....

That's the thing: do we know what this "best seller" thing is evaluating exactly ?

- is it the total volume of sales since the start of the product

- or is it instead a kind of ratio, like volume of sales per week ?

In the second case, that doesn't tell much about how many products they actually sold. 

Either way I don't think using SimMarket position is an accurate determination of profitability 

One thing i have noticed is that alot of P3D sceneries remain more expensive that the equivalent MSFS ones. I still buy P3D sceneries (the most recent being yesterday LPPD via ORBX) and would buy alot more if prices were reduced.

 

 

Edited June 19, 20232 yr by Dazkent

17 hours ago, IanHarrison said:

As I have never been to Manchester, I would have no idea if it was up to date, or not. That goes for just about 99.9% of the world also.

Does it matter?  not in the least. 

Some people obsess over 100% accuracy to airports they never been too, even going so far as to do google earth satelitte comparasion, rather puzzling to be honest.  I can understand if that's your home airport but beyond that it gets quite annoying but to each their own no?

Kie Simpson

Edited June 19, 20232 yr by kflight

1 hour ago, KL Oo said:

Either way I don't think using SimMarket position is an accurate determination of profitability 

It's not. It's just targeted advertising, nothing more. It's manipulated to make people buy more stuff, to put it simple. When you are on the product page of, say, a European airport and then switch to that of a US airport the list of "best sellers" completely changes. Instead of a European airport at #1 there's now a US airport at #1 and the former #1 is only like 5th while other addons disappeared from the list and others suddenly appear. Same with P3D vs. MSFS or XP products. It's tailored to show similar items to the one you're interested in suggesting it's selling like hot cakes because you're more likely to buy similar stuff than different stuff.

It may give you a rough idea of what's popular right now but that's it and the picture is skewed.

2 hours ago, Dazkent said:

One thing i have noticed is that alot of P3D sceneries remain more expensive that the equivalent MSFS ones. I still buy P3D sceneries (the most recent being yesterday LPPD via ORBX) and would buy alot more if prices were reduced.

 

 

It can probably be explained by two reasons:

1) More sales on msfs, so the developper can make a better profit even with lower prices

2) More competition between developpers on the msfs market. We even see sometimes 3 renditions of the same airport coming from 3 different developpers. Even if a developper has a monopoly on an airport, he has to face a fierce compétition; with so many releases, weeks after week, a msfs user have many choices when it comes to buy a new scenery. So the price can be a decision factor.

Edited June 19, 20232 yr by sdirand

On 6/18/2023 at 1:21 PM, Joseph29 said:

 Well, I was just over at Simmarket and the newly released Oslo scenery by JustSim is at #4 on the bestsellers list.

Hi,

I would not place too much credence on Simmarket's rankings as an overall market indicator of what's selling well. I don't believe those numbers reflect the true business but merely a personalized offering for you to purchase more product.

The reason why I say that, is I have often observed some scenery products I have purchased on their site instantly show up on their rankings list and I am not one that goes out on Day 1 to purchase a new product, so it make me wonder how the sale of qty 1 will mean the product is showcased in their top rankings.Something does add up for me so I tend to ignore those rankings.

 

Regards,

I agree. The simMarket best seller lists are about as reliable an indicator of sales performance as the tea leaves at the bottom of my cup.

On 6/18/2023 at 6:45 AM, virtuali said:

huge difference when comparing profitability depending on which country the developers is based on so,

I've wondered why there are few if any P3D add-ons from developing countries where presumably wages are lower. Is it because of the language barrier?  I've often wondered if there are Chinese and Japanese versions of P3D.

8 hours ago, bofhlusr said:

I've wondered why there are few if any P3D add-ons from developing countries where presumably wages are lower. Is it because of the language barrier?  I've often wondered if there are Chinese and Japanese versions of P3D.

Japan isn't exactly a "developing country"  , never mind the relative cost of labor. Scenery developers need access to imagery, so don't expect someone from china to publish the scenery of some airfield in north Dakota....

18 minutes ago, ha5mvo said:

Japan isn't exactly a "developing country"  , never mind the relative cost of labor. Scenery developers need access to imagery, so don't expect someone from china to publish the scenery of some airfield in north Dakota....

Maybe that was what those balloons over the USA were doing a couple of months ago!

LOL, or they just buy the airfield. Seems everything over here is for sale if the price is right .😂 Have to laugh to keep from crying.

21 hours ago, bofhlusr said:

I've wondered why there are few if any P3D add-ons from developing countries where presumably wages are lower. Is it because of the language barrier?  I've often wondered if there are Chinese and Japanese versions of P3D.

You are right Chinese incomes are a lot lower than Western countries ... My guess is that X-Plane is probably a better alternative and access to better freeware sceneries through the gateway. There are some great sceneries for China made by WFSceneries but I also cannot imagine these having the universal appeal of other international hubs for western countries.

That being said I think Chinese translation was a priority task for MSFS so they are aware of the potential...

I've wondered if and how flight sims including P3D are played in China and Japan since the Chinese and Japanese have literally thousands of characters.

'Made in China' products are very competitive, so I've wondered why I haven't come across aircraft and other add-ons developed in China.