>The price is determined by many things, what does>the customer think is a 'fair' price isn't part of the>equation. It simply can't be.Actually it has to be. Developers aren't setting prices in a vacuum; what customers are willing to pay has a direct impact on their bottom line. This is an interesting [a href=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html]article on software pricing[/a]. It may not provide any easy answers, but it helps to understand the issues.I'm actually surprised to see a developer here discouraging customers from providing insight into their purchasing decisions. Individual posts might be taken with a grain of salt, but over time a pattern emerges. I've lurked around various flight sim forums long enough to be pretty sure there are some "magic numbers" that developers would be ill-advised to ignore, given that their goal, presumably, is to maximize profit.

Looks very nice indeed!Just wondering, with FS addons that have a regular and a pro version, does the pro version far outstrip sales of the regular version? I mean, if somebody is a FS nutter (like us :D) enough to buy an addon, wouldn't they usually buy the top of the range model?Cheers, Chris

>>The price is determined by many things, what does>>the customer think is a 'fair' price isn't part of the>>equation. It simply can't be.>>Actually it has to be. Developers aren't setting prices in a>vacuum; what customers are willing to pay has a direct impact>on their bottom line. This is an interesting [a>href=http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html]article>on software pricing[/a]. It may not provide any easy answers,>but it helps to understand the issues.>>I'm actually surprised to see a developer here discouraging>customers from providing insight into their purchasing>decisions. Individual posts might be taken with a grain of>salt, but over time a pattern emerges. I've lurked around>various flight sim forums long enough to be pretty sure there>are some "magic numbers" that developers would be ill-advised>to ignore, given that their goal, presumably, is to maximize>profit.In my prior job I wrote software for a company that sold at a base price of $5000 a package. There were plenty of competitors, all of them lower cost. However, people still purchased the $5000 package... because it was the better product. Was it overpriced... maybe, maybe not. However, it was the best.You want the good stuff, it's expensive. Period. You won't be buying a BMW for the price of a Yugo.

The Mustang looks like a very nice aircraft. I haven't purchased or played my flightsim in over a year and half. This might bring me back to flightsim. After FSX came out I lost complete interest in the hobby. I used to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on flightsim. This hobby is getting way to expensive now and customer support is becoming a joke. Everyone talks about it being a small market. If you continue your pricing it will become even smaller.Right now I am hoping fSX comes to the Xbox 360. I think that would open it up to whole new market. With that all being said I still love Flight 1 and the Mustang looks like something that will end up being very nice.

Thanks for the reply Ron:Well said and your point is well taken.I have sent you an email with my address as you requested.For all concerned, I simply meant to make a suggestion which probably to all was already obvious and didn't need to be added. Sometimes, my mouth, (or the keyboard) takes off before the wisest part of the brain finds level flight.Respectfully:RTH

Thanks RTH. Will respond to your email soon:-)

Everything's getting more expensive. Absolutely everything.

>You want the good stuff, it's expensive. Period. You won't>be buying a BMW for the price of a Yugo.You may be misunderstanding my point. I'm not saying developers charge too much (in fact I think most don't), just that they need to pay some attention to the people they're trying to get money from. If you haven't already, I recommend reading the article I linked to. It helps (me anyway) understand the challenges the developers face in marketing their stuff, especially given the limited pool of potential customers in the FS world. Maximizing profits, the ultimate goal, becomes an especially tricky thing to do, and I'm just surprised to hear a developer dismissing the value of consumer opinions. In this market I would think they'd want whatever edge they could get.That said, it's very likely he knows way more than I do about the subject and maybe whiners in forums aren't a valid source of info. :)

There were some here who do disagree with my views, and made some valid arguements. They are most certainly entitled to their opinions as I am most certainly entitled to mine, however popular, or unpopular they may be! Their was only person who couldnt seem to make their point without being insulting, and baiting me into a flame war with him. So my apologizes goes out to the FS community for my part in it. However I'm not gonna be insulted, and then go cowering in the corner either. :-outta Regards,Chris

Oh boy, my little piggie for savings better go hide!I personally welcome a small sleek bizjet like this. I want it to be as close to the real thing as FSX allows me to get. But in the end I hope the developers cut corners and get those fps numbers way up. Sometimes the urge for all the eyecandy-stuff gets in the way of a smooth performance, especially in combination with amounts of gauges and FMC/GPS-code. Someone else in this thread said they'd rather fly the plane - not look at it. I sincerely agree. If a vector supporting baggage compartments, animated coffeecup-holders or deluxe-bumpmaps(!) distorts PC performance, I say drop it.Now, what to do while waiting.... :-)best regardsScandi426Norway

>But in the end I hope the developers cut corners and get those fps>numbers way up.Interesting statement... if you were discussing FS9, I would agree with you that the onus is on the developer to get the frame rates up. However, with FSX the entire render process (drawing to screen) has been rewritten by Aces and it has a significantly larger load on the typical PC. The default G1000 gauge that comes with FSX is a perfect example of how "bad" detail can be impacted by the FSX default performance. On my system it's a frame rate hog, and then some. To fly anything with the G1000 I have to pretty much turn scenery off. Yes, that's right... off.The irony is that they default G1000 is pretty much the bare-bones representation of that system. Not much more you can strip and still call it a G1000.

>You may be misunderstanding my point. I'm not saying>developers charge too much (in fact I think most don't), just>that they need to pay some attention to the people they're>trying to get money from. If you haven't already, I recommend>reading the article I linked to. It helps (me anyway)>understand the challenges the developers face in marketing>their stuff, especially given the limited pool of potential>customers in the FS world. Maximizing profits, the ultimate>goal, becomes an especially tricky thing to do, and I'm just>surprised to hear a developer dismissing the value of consumer>opinions. In this market I would think they'd want whatever>edge they could get.>>That said, it's very likely he knows way more than I do about>the subject and maybe whiners in forums aren't a valid source>of info. :)>I don't really need to read an article on how to set software pricing. Honestly.Customer opinions are one thing... screaming for a BMW at Yugo prices and claiming they're being taken advantage of by developers... that's not of value to anyone.

>Customer opinions are one thing... screaming for a BMW at Yugo>prices and claiming they're being taken advantage of by>developers... that's not of value to anyone.Fair enough.

>>Customer opinions are one thing... screaming for a BMW at>Yugo>>prices and claiming they're being taken advantage of by>>developers... that's not of value to anyone.>>Fair enough.>Oh, and yes... I don't wanna overcharge. That honestly would be silly. :)

Put in my order. I like this concept of customizing, and being involved with the whole process. Pricing, well, i'll pony up for a quality item. I've been burned on some add-ons where I let the screen shots pull me in only to find myself wishing I would have listened to that inner, more skeptical voice. It's a matter of trusting a company and I've had nothing but good experiences with flight1's products.