I've complained a few times about, what I think, are too high prices for many add-ons. (My catch-phrase being "super-premium prices on medium quality software." Many people who posted did not simply disagree with me, but were downright angry that I even brought it up. The general feeling was "Use your wallet or don't, that will dictate add-on prices, but don't talk about it even in a civil manner. The developers are smarter than you."Okey-dokey.

I was going to buy it regardless. I am happy to see Microsoft doing add-ons again, it has been a while.

>It's actually 4 scenery areas - Edwards Airforce Base is in>there too. :)>>We probably did end up doing more than was necessary. We>wanted to make sure there was something that would appeal to>everyone in the package.>>As others have mentioned, we are targetting a much larger>market than a traditional FS add-on, so the expectation is we>can sell enough copies to cover the investment. Honestly I>think we should have charged more, though. ;)Well Brian,Think of the goodwill you're spreading with this "deal."

Radiohead stands to make more money than normal with their new stragegy, but you are not making an apples to apples comparison.The high-end add-on market has been conducted mostly online for quite a while now and the number of middle-men are low. Even in you use simmarket, the Flight1 store or wrapper, or places like Just flight that is just one middle man.The record industry, which I worked in for most of the 1990s at several levels of the "game," is so thick with middle men and profit siphons that bands like Radiohead earned pennies on the dollar.You can get a sense of the madness in the music business by reading this: http://www.arancidamoeba.com/mrr/problemwithmusic.htmlIn any case, although people WILL pirate the new Radiohead album, any conscienecious person will give them something reasonable (I plan to) and they pocket just about ALL of that sans cost. In fact, the price of advanced recording technology is so low now, that bands can record themselves and market themselves with ease. In the past, the real problem was that you needed record stores, radio, videos to generate popularity and the record-label apparatus had the clout and bucks to influence/control that market. So, although it is easy to record your music and offer it online, who's gonna know about you? Social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace help to a degree, but critical mass profit-taking on record releases may be a thing of the past. This may be a small issue if more of the money gets back to the artist. The flightsim add-on market is wee small in comparison to the record industry: a spec on the backside of a gnat resting on an elephant. Piracy is a cheapening of values and a destabilizer of markets and it is going to be tough to deal with as commerce continues to become Internet oriented. However, the degree to which we can put money straight into the pocket of the developer/artist and avoid the middle-man muck, the better chance we have to encourage and patronize further development.

>Bryan,>>Now I'm not saying the action and trend itself is a bad one,>it's very good, but here's what I think about Radiohead's>latest move:>>It makes the most pretentious band on the planet with the>lamest concert experience I can possibly imagine tied with>Phish even more pretentious and lame. We clearly went to different concerts...

>In any case, although people WILL pirate the new Radiohead>album, any conscienecious person will give them something>reasonable (I plan to and they pocket just about ALL of that>sans cost. I did. Downloaded this morning. Album's not too bad actually.

>With comments like these from the original poster just goes>to prove now that ACES is launching their own products it can>.......>>potentially hurt 3rd party developers.>>Now begins the end of a rich add on world ... potentially.From where I stand the addon world for fsx is not so rich. Fsx has been out for just about a year now and still you can count the number of complex addons for fsx on one hand. (graphicsx, utx, fex, etc)There are only a handful of scenery addons and very little in the way of standard to complex aircraft for sale. I don't think that MS releasing an addon will hurt 3rd party devs because from what I can see so far, 90% of them are choosing not to support fsx anyway.________________________________________________________________________________________________Intel D975XBX2 'Bad Axe 2' | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.20Ghz | 2 GB Super Talent DDR2 800 | Big Typhoon VX | eVGA 8800GTS @ 565/900 | Seagate 2x320GB SATA RAID-0 | OCZ GameXStream 700W | Creative X-Fi | Silverstone TJ-09BW | Matrox Triplehead Setup

Yes, I would agree that 90% of developers right now are not developing for FSX.And that's to some extent what I mean when I said "now begins the end of a rich add on world." By Rich I don't mean high prices I mean lacking in choices of add ons.Therefore it's up to us to support 3rd party developers and not knock the fact they can't compete with ACES on prices to market.

>There's 3 aircraft included but honestly, you really can't>compare MS default aircraft to high end addons. They're>designed for casual simmers - you're not getting FMCs,>advanced ND displays etc...Um, Ryan...Have you any idea at all just who developed the three add on aircraft for FSX Acceleration?Some of the best known third-party individuals were contracted by ACES to model the a/c and program the gauge systems. In fact, the F18 has the first fully GDI+ HUD in the VC, something that no one has been able to accomplish to date!Also, some of the new scenery (notably Edwards AFB) was created under contract.http://blogs.technet.com/p-12c_pilot/archi...n-partners.aspx

what is a gdi+ hud?________________________________________________________________________________________________Intel D975XBX2 'Bad Axe 2' | Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.20Ghz | 2 GB Super Talent DDR2 800 | Big Typhoon VX | eVGA 8800GTS @ 565/900 | Seagate 2x320GB SATA RAID-0 | OCZ GameXStream 700W | Creative X-Fi | Silverstone TJ-09BW | Matrox Triplehead Setup

Your post is filled with the presumption that something happened and therefore more somthings will happen. Its called "slippery slope fallacy". Its clearly Bad logic.This is the only microsoft addon that will be provided. There is no trend here. It was provided thru contracts to 3rd party developers. Those developers felt good about their contracts, and you should feel good about enjoying the update.Everyone is happy.Its time to relax and enjoy flying over new scenery with new aircraft.Bob

There are changes in the air regarding the business of 3rd party work. I don't know too much about those changes yet, just that things are likely to be different going forward. Most likely impact will be the ACEs decision to end backward compatibility. Many folks have requested this shift in thinking, and it could make things easier for ACEs to provide the basic product that folks expect out of the box. There will likely be some impact on developers, however, as it shortens the perceived life span of the addons. I say perceived, because in many cases, we are already in the situation that addons did not survive the transition between fs9 and fsx, but that was not predicted. So, one must assess what impact that will be on the market for addons if you know up front that your purchase only will used for two years, and then discarded.Bob

I just went thru my add in library...Since fsx has come out I have:Complex:Upgraded the flight one AtrBought the Level d 767-300Bought fs2 crew for the 767Bought the Super 80GA:Upgraded the F1 Cessna 172Bought the Real Air 260Bought the Eaglesoft Cirrus Sr-22Bought the Fsd Piper Seneca VScenery/improvements:Bought all 3 landclasses (cloud 9, fsgenesis, scenery tech)Bought Fsgenesis meshBought Ultimate terrain USABought Ultimate terrain CanadaBought Megascenery HawaiiBought Dillingham airport for HawaiiBought Megascenery Southern CaliforniaBought Cloud 9 BerganUtilities:Bought Flight environment XBought Hifi Active sky xBought Hi fi graphics xBought Friendly panels gps/radio stacksBought Abacus easy gps for fsxBought Fs panel studioOther than the Dreamfleet Baron/A36 I am pretty much up to having exceeded what I ever bought for fs9-and I am probably forgetting a few more upgraded aircraft/stuff.So when I hear a year later that the addon world for fsx is deficient-I wish my pocket book felt that way....;-)I also wish someone made an add in that would automatically install all the add in stuff, and check for updates so when I get an activation error (haven't for many months now knock on wood) I wouldn't have to go above-find every serial number, credit number and spend a week to reinstall! :-)http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/

>http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg>Forum Moderator>http://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/Great collection you have there :-)Cheers,http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y156/awf1/sign1.jpg

Hi Andre-I could use a few more.. :-)http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpgForum Moderatorhttp://geofageofa.spaces.live.com/