JustFlight provided some updates on their X-Plane 12 plans

[Sims Smith 302]

Martin of JF wrote

Quote

So far we have released free XP12 updates for 6 of our 13 aircraft, so nearly half are already available in XP12 with no charge. Our intentions haven’t changed, we still want to bring the remainder of them to XP12 too, including the more complex aircraft such as the 146. Yes, that does depend on the commercial realities of payware development and seeing a worthwhile ROI, the work to ‘convert’ aircraft from XP11 to XP12 comes at a cost, and in the case of the first 6 aircraft, we’ve attempted to recoup that cost from new sales rather than charging existing owners. It’s fair to say that hasn’t been a success so far.

I appreciate the frustration for XP12 users, but among some of the outcries, it’s worth bearing in mind that the XP12 market has shrunken considerably, something entirely outside of our control. We committed to, and did, support XP11 throughout its life and expressed our intention to do the same for XP12 but couldn't do much more than that. I’ve seen a couple of posts talking about us possibly trying to move users from XP12 to MSFS, but I can assure you that we don’t consider ourselves to have that sort of power and influence, and there’s no intention to do any such thing. We would love to continue working on X-Plane development and have two platforms to work on but we have to also be realistic about the commercial side of things.

Our internal development is of course entirely focused on MSFS, which has a considerably larger market as you’d expect, however that has little to no impact on our XP12 projects, it just means there will be no more P3D development. Our commitments to MSFS and XP12 are not mutually exclusive – if there is a sufficiently large XP12 market then we will continue to serve that as we did P3D and XP11.

As most of you will know, all our X-Plane aircraft projects have been in partnership with the excellent team at Thranda, so it goes without saying that all of our plans involve, and are dependent on them as well. They are currently finishing off work on one of their own products and we will then be getting together again to discuss our strategy for the remaining Just Flight fleet.

What we’re not sure about at this stage is whether to go beyond simply converting our existing aircraft to XP12, bringing new functionality and better visuals, as we’ve done when bringing our P3D aircraft to MSFS. That work comes with a much higher cost but hopefully with greater sales too. That was our intention for aircraft such as the PA28 Arrows and 146, one of the reasons for those updates not yet being available, but to be honest we don’t yet have confidence to make those sorts of investments in the XP12 platform until we’ve seen some more encouraging signs.

That also extends to new aircraft – we were eagerly working on the RJ and planning to bring our other new aircraft from MSFS to XP12, such as the F28, but again that requires us to have confidence in recouping the significant investments those sorts of products involve.

My hope is that, worst case, you will just see XP12 updates/upgrades for our existing XP11 aircraft. The next best case is that you will also see new aircraft, albeit limited to simpler GA types etc, and the best case is that we see enough encouraging signs from XP12 to work on more complex aircraft.

Hopefully that has cleared things up somewhat. We’ll aim to provide more information on specific aircraft within the next month, once we’ve agreed priorities with our partners at Thranda.

Martyn – Just Flight

Source forum post. 

 

[GCBraun 2,392]

Can't blame them. I have been using XP a lot over the years but, with the latest releases on the other sim, this usage has been reduced dramatically.

Frankly, I don't see how this trend can be reverted at this point. I like XP and will keep it installed, but it feels to me that the visual difference between the platforms is dramatic enough for the common user to not even give it a chance.

Edited July 19, 2023 by GCBraun

[blingthinger 649]

1 hour ago, GCBraun said:

Frankly, I don't see how this trend can be reverted at this point.

Trends for 3rd party devs are pointed back towards the before-ortho times, but will still remain better than they were. Worst case scenario in the long term is that Austin will have to fire half his staff because Ben and Sidney didn't cough up bloody graphics engine code fast enough to match the might and occasional plagiarism of the xbox monster. Flight model "elitists" (as I've been called in the past) will still be permitted to smile in public. Many trolls and some past-disgruntled 3rd party devs will rejoice at the fall.

Oh and congratulations. Your optimism is encouraging.

[brinx 276]

Not really surprising as the trend is pretty obvious. Checking the news on FSElite and ThresholdX, I see 90%+ of it is about products being released for other platforms. Can't really blame the developers though as it's a business decision at the end of the day.

The problem for the xplane platform is that it could lead to a snowball effect. Developers lose interest, customers leave, more developers lose interests, and more customers leave and just spiral onward from there. While I don't think it will be to the level of P3D, I don't see the xplane market growing much larger unless Laminar can turn things around.

Quote

 to be honest we don’t yet have confidence to make those sorts of investments in the XP12 platform until we’ve seen some more encouraging signs.

I'm sure the investment to create complex aircraft is substantial. So, when the BIG boys from Laminar don't show up for the biggest Flight Sim Event 6 months after 12.00 is released, I'm sure many developers took note.

[brinx 276]

21 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

Many trolls and some past-disgruntled 3rd party devs will rejoice at the fall.

Sarcasm? I kind of doubt any 3rd party devs would be rejoicing for that. Celebrating the fall of a market where they could have potentially made sales/profit makes no sense.

26 minutes ago, blingthinger said:

xbox monster

Definitely a monster I'd like to be around if I were a 3rd party developer.

[Flightsky 77]

2 hours ago, Sims Smith said:

I appreciate the frustration for XP12 users, but among some of the outcries, it’s worth bearing in mind that the XP12 market has shrunken considerably, something entirely outside of our control. 

I am not surprised by this. And I would even guess that other 3rd party developers for XP 12 are experiencing the same thing that Just Flight is experiencing, but those other 3rd party developers haven't made a public statement about this yet.  

[C2615 319]

Actually it's the first time I heard XP market has shrunken. I remember back then some developer says P3D is shrunken but XP not much effected.

But kinda understandable, even if the absolute value of XP market is not shrunken MSFS is just too big, for some developers it's just good business to put limited resource in MSFS only, and once that starting to happen, with less add-ons to play with, people who fly multiple platform will move and the spiral starts.

[bogdansrb 230]

I'm not surprised either. X-Plane is kept alive by a few developers still loyal to the platform. Laminar has made a huge mistake in cutting almost all contact with the outside world and ignoring serious issues, Austin still has the "I know better" attitude and on top of that anyone complaining or criticizing them has been ostracized, including developers.

We're almost a year since Early Access and there's still little progress. At this point this is either too much for them or they've shifted focus to their commercial products.

[mjrhealth 820]

What you have all missed, is there are a lot of disgruntled XP11 users who simply refuse to upgrade to 12, because they didnt get what they want, even to the point of saying its worse than 11. And it can be difficult to any one to admit they where wrong. When we get some performance improvements in 12 i think some will move, but considering some still use FSX ???

And that we know will affect purchases, I dont mind paying for the upgrades a small amount, doesnt hurt to help the developers.

Edited July 19, 2023 by mjrhealth

[C2615 319]

3 hours ago, bogdansrb said:

I'm not surprised either. X-Plane is kept alive by a few developers still loyal to the platform. Laminar has made a huge mistake in cutting almost all contact with the outside world and ignoring serious issues, Austin still has the "I know better" attitude and on top of that anyone complaining or criticizing them has been ostracized, including developers.

We're almost a year since Early Access and there's still little progress. At this point this is either too much for them or they've shifted focus to their commercial products.

I won't say Austin is perfect, but if he follow the masses then we'll ended up with another MSFS at best, and that probably won't be able to compete against the Micro$oft anyway.

I's nice to have some different characteristic on devs and reflexed on their games, these characteristic may then find their niche audience who is happy about it, rather than a homogeneous market which will ended up with monopolize anyway.

[Krakin 5,774]

4 hours ago, blingthinger said:

plagiarism of the xbox monster.

The delusion of XP fans is always entertaining to watch 

[mjrhealth 820]

2 minutes ago, Krakin said:

The delusion of XP fans is always entertaining to watch 

Just as are some of the random delusional comments we see.

[Krakin 5,774]

9 minutes ago, mjrhealth said:

Just as are some of the random delusional comments we see.

As long as you agree what bling said was delusional lol

[mjrhealth 820]

12 minutes ago, Krakin said:

As long as you agree what bling said was delusional lol

I dont understand half of what people say. Only opinions. But I will say this, XP has gone from a reasonably well GA usage sim to everyone wanting FMS GPS and Jets. So few simply want Naval military or GA planes any more. Its got now to, I set up the plane pushed the AP button, plane landed itself I taxied and enjoyed the flight, that I never actually flew. How many people fly using compass or nav aids any more. JF are in a difficult market. I would love some NAVAL planes ti use on the new carrier, I wild love to see some turboprop airlines, but im not holding my breath, its not what people want anymore.

[Aglos77 170]

The xp12 market will improve when the xp11 masses step up, for that a few things like vram etc. need to be improved.

 

This studio will have had some important sales in MFS but mainly due to lack of competition until yesterday there was no AAA level addon in mfs as there are in Xplane.

Edited July 19, 2023 by tonywob
Removed really large font