Anybody seen the prices lately?

[jakob]

Hello, Have been using flight simulator for about 2 years now and still have much, much to learn. I have purchased several addon sceneries and a couple of aircfraft. I'm looking at releases of sceneries and can't believe me eyes! $30.00-45.00 for some. Gees I suppose our hobby is getting a bit Haute! I'm not whining but can't help commenting. Some are worth the price I suppose, but not all. :-/ jakob

[legoalex2000]

i'm with you on that, 45$ is a lot, but mind you these people spend a lot of time

>designing the aircraft
>desiging the cockpit to look realistic
>adding special features not found on default aircraft
>going through real aircraft to figure out how to design the FS aircraft
>throwing in other ammenities
>testing it

they need to make a profit for the hard work they sell

freeware is good, but in freeware, your bound to have a lemon. payware automatically tells you that someone put in the effort to make the best aircraft out there for the FS world.

mabye if they dropped it at least 10$, i'd make wiser choices.

[MattNW]

The prices reflect what simmers are expecting nowdays for payware aircraft and sceneries. Not too many versions ago it was fantastic to have an airplane with dynamic shine and/or working flaps. Now this is expected, not only expected but demanded for simple freeware models. Payware had better have much much more. Full virtual cabins, flaps, landing gear, prop pitch, trim tabs all moving in synch to the proper controls. Heck, the Flight 1 ATR has a flushing virtual toilet.  ;D

People are demanding more and more is being delivered but all that comes with a price. In the past an airplane model, even a very good one took a day or two to create and a couple weeks at most testing and tweaking. Now I doubt any model that's worth anything can be completed in less than six months. The developers have much time invested so they need to get this back or they won't stay in business long. It's that simple really.

[JBaymore]

As big as the "virtual flying" market is........ it is still pretty small.  The "payware" market is really only a smaller subset of those that use the basic simulator.

All that programing time has to be paid for out of relatively few units of sales.  Along with the comments above....... that results in a high price per unit.

best,

..................john

[Gary R.]

Well, consider that FS9 can now be bought at Walmart for $29.98.  I have never seen an FS version go down in price while still current before.  I remember FS2000 commanding a $65 shelf price right up until FS2002 hit the shelves and FS2002 commanded a $54 price until FS9 but a year after release FS9 price has dropped $15 from original release.  Only time I've seen it.  Did you all ever consider that commercial developers have to raise there own bar due to the fact that hobbyist developers are making better and better freeware?  Allow me to elaborate.  FSDzigns Connie, Project Fokker, anything by Milton Shupe.  George Carty's 707, in gauges there's the CIVA, Don Kuhn's Garmins (no, you can't enter a flight plan but otherwise, very realistic and FREE) I could go on and on.  The recent Piaggio Avanti in the download area, will it match FSD's??   If so, sucks to be FSD, being matched by an amatuer for something they want to charge for.  Once a hobbyist starts programing FMC's and other complicated systems,  the last bastions of payware advantages will be down. It WILL happen eventually.

[JBaymore]

GaryR,

Here in NH fs2002 was being discounted in places like CompUSA well before fs2004 came out.

[Gary R.]

I am now informed. I was merely quoting my prices there on retail locations here in Central PA.  Nearest Comp USA though is in King of Prussia.  LOL, I guess Harrisburg isn't a big enough market, we just got a Best Buy only 2 years ago.  Anyway, you are correct about the mixed results regarding add-ons both free and pay.  I have found that Flight 1 and more recently PMDG are about the most reliable.  FSD I trust also.  Wilco, only PIC.  I have things of theirs that are quite buggy and I never heard enough good about their most recent stuff to try it save for maybe the CRJ, I heard thats good if not a liittle too simplified. Of course, equally so there are certain freeware artists that we most always equate with quality.  I will download anything by Milton Shupe, Fred Banting, Yannick Lavigne, Lonny Payne, Mike Stone, etc. George Carty is the 707 panel king.  Some freeware guys definatley stand out.

[krylite]

Too bad Microsoft doesn't yet put out ads for the awesome addons such as PMDG and LDS like the ads for King Schools and Jeppesen maps. Maybe it puts to shame too much the stock FS jet planes which have been about the same since simulator 98. Or the addon developers aren't big enough to deal with MS yet.

Just my opinion, that if a plane like PMDG got bigger exposure there would be at least a doubling of its sales by people who've never heard of it. There would probably be Brady strategy books and whatnot appearing in Borders as well and exposure in the computer gaming world magazines.

Have you tried simmarket.com? There are some lower priced sceneries there. But be careful some of the products may not be more than a step above shareware. There are personal reviews(if posted) on each product displayed too.
I like Simflyers' stuff, but they're only airport sceneries so far but well done.

[Gary R.]

I think what really bites is that most software retailers do not carry a wide range of FS add-ons anymore. Other than the common junk that Abacus cranks out we are pretty much stuck with ordering on-line to buy FS stuff. Apparently EB and Game Spot has a minimum sales figure that software must meet in order to stock it and complex FS stuff is just too nitch for them to make a profit on.  I really noticed the disappearence of FS stuff following 9/11.  I don't if that is a factor also or not.

[Rocket_Bird]

35 - 40 dollars is a lot! Imagine how much these payware developers make when they get customers from across the globe!

Surely there are some payware that are questionable on weather or not they are worth it, if you compare them to some higher quality freeware you can get as well (seen my share  :-/).  Some I have to say are probably worth the money because it really does make the sim as real as it gets.  The hobby gets a big expensive, but some of these developers turn this sim into studysims, and thats what I like to see.  Nowadays, FS prices has dropped to the bargain bin... i guess it balances out.  

In my opinion, this payware market is a bit shady in terms of being trustworthy, ya gotta watch out for customer feed back... and as JBaymore says, value and service.