19 hours ago, UrgentSiesta said:

But how much have you paid Asobo for the sim itself…? Can’t be more than $200 or so, including both versions.

MS/Asobo make the majority of their money from the marketplace 30% of 3rd party developer sales ... recurring revenue (50% of the user base) ... ignore the 15M "pilots" claim, that's NOT unit sales ... Steam sales have MSFS 2024 at 650,000 units and I believe PS5 sales were reported by MS at 250,000 units no idea MS Store sales nor XBOX sales (game pass so somewhat skewed).

8 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

How realistic is that live traffic addon in XP12? I have always considered the AI traffic in Microsoft Flight Simulator over the years (and that includes MSFS 2024) to look rubbish. Traffic added in specific airport addons can look very nice, but the overall effect of seeing default AI traffic turn through 90 degrees, shoot through roundabouts at 70mph, jump back and forth when it gets confused by a blocked off street, and not follow the road image beneath it to be an instant immersion killer.

All default AI traffic is disabled in my flight simulator, and will remain that way until it actually starts to look realistic.

It’s adequate for avoiding a static, empty world. But you know my standards in these areas are LOW 😂🤙

I should have made it clear that I was talking about road traffic, not aircraft traffic! I would be seriously concerned if airliners were "shooting through roundabouts" 🤣

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Christopher Low

55 minutes ago, SayAgain said:

MS/Asobo make the majority of their money from the marketplace 30% of 3rd party developer sales ... recurring revenue (50% of the user base) ... ignore the 15M "pilots" claim, that's NOT unit sales ... Steam sales have MSFS 2024 at 650,000 units and I believe PS5 sales were reported by MS at 250,000 units no idea MS Store sales nor XBOX sales (game pass so somewhat skewed).

How do we know MS make the majority of their money from the MP off the backs of Xbox, PS5 and PC guys like me who prefer the convenience of the MP…?

And even if they do, their OpEx is relatively astronomical by flight sim dev standards.

And yes, you’re absolutely correct that the total user numbers aren’t unit sales. But even so, GamePass revenue is allocated to the studios of the games played, so there’s revenue there, as well.

But Marketplace sales can’t be considered recurring revenue any more than a new sim release can. They’re unscheduled and low margin sales vs a sim sale where 100% of the sale goes to MS/A rather than only keeping 30% of a 3rd party sale.

Again, M$ have a long and well established history of regular product releases not only in their business portfolio, but also in the FS franchise. And they’ve already taken the first step with 2024 to re-establish that history - right on schedule.

I obviously have no insider knowledge, but the precedent is firmly set, and therefore the likelihood is, as well.