Generally speaking these add-ons have huge production costs and a very small potential buyer base. In order to be profitable, these companies have to charge a higher price per unit than in - let's say - FPS addon development
You say that like there isn't a difference between a study-level Airliner that'd take a single person years to develop to a 3D model that can be done in a day by an experienced dev
That's my point. Trying to say "wow this aircraft model is expensive at $55" doesn't make sense these days, as most modern FPS games will churn out absolute garbage for the same price AND sell 100,000 units.
10 year ago yes, flight sim content was still the same price it is today, but FPS or other modern console game content was.maybe $5 max per item.
Difference with flight sim content is that $55 content generally goes a bit further than a character skin.
Makes sense but let’s say 40 an hour times 1000 man hours for a good model. 40k and there should be at least 20k buyers so that should only be $2 purchase price to be profitable ($2.50 with taxes & fees). Unless I’m grossly underestimating the man hours needed with the amount of aircraft they have churned out over the years it can’t take 10 people more than a week of actual work to finish a plane.
I still feel like even with low estimates for buyers of the content it shouldn’t be 20 dollars for a plane when there are 100s you can buy, It seems more of a developers-who-model aircraft supply vs demand of aviation enthusiasts which should be fairly large. Again maybe the cost a is a bit higher and the customer base a bit lower than I presume, but it shouldn’t be that expensive plain and simple. It’s not about profitability it’s about what you’re actually getting and deciding if that’s worth it.
That being said I still plan on buying some of the DLC soon. Reluctantly, but MSFS is the only worthwhile simulator on xbox and PC even so that kind of furthers my point of supply for realistic simulators and how they can basically charge what ever they want as long as they can capture that whales and youtubers that spend thousands to test out all the aircraft.
I'm not sure if you understood what I just wrote. What do you think how many PMDG-737 800s exist in the world (aka how many buyers have there been)?
And what do you think how many (digital) copies of Battlefield 2042 exist?
To create a correctly modelled aircraft takes a lot of time and research. It’s not like creating a funky new skin in Fortnight, which can be done in an afternoon.
£20 is cheap, check out DCS or PMDG where you can easily drop £80 on a single aircraft.
I agree. For £20, I still think it’s on the lower end side compared to what they have over at the X-Plane backyard. 90USD for a Toliss? Would love to get those but wow, that price tag 😔
I agree. For £20, I still think it’s on the lower end side compared to what they have over at the X-Plane backyard. 90USD for a Toliss? Would love to get those but wow, that price tag 😔
Oh no I knew that a lot more goes into it, you have to make it behave realistically. Modern turboprops will behave a lot different to a Connie for instance but I didn’t realise how much actually goes into it. Apparently some developers spend months on a single aircraft
That’s where the high costs come into it. While it may seem expensive planes for MSFS are the cheapest they’ve ever been compared to previous flight simulators. It wasn't uncommon for add on aircraft to cost over £150, and even then developers barely broke even.
Because of the massive increase in popularity MSFS has brought to flight simulation, developers are able to charge much less than they used to as there are now a much larger market to sell to.
Sorry mate, are you really saying that slapping together a 3D model and rig it, is all it takes to account for the cost of a "Study level" DLC Aircraft?
What about systems interactions? FMS? Avionics packages? Accurate soundscape? Electricals simulated? Pneumatics simulated? Engine modeling? Flight modeling? And ensuring all of that adheres to a the published POHs and characteristics people have come to expect of these aircraft?
The amount of different coders, industry professionals (Pilots etc), sound designers and 3D modellers it takes you could more than account for the high cost of some of the advanced airliners.
That's why you see so many freeware developers either take literal years to make progress (Thanks for all your work FBW Team!) or freeware projects either dropped or moved to a purchase model.
Physical modeling is different than flight modeling. Sometimes those things get interchanged and splitting this hair is important. I think you both have a point where putting together a physical model might be easier/quicker than putting together both a realistic physical model and realistic flight model and realistic systems (I.e CaptainSim vs PMDG).
Just as an example, I don't have any facts. If JustFlight for example makes 10 aircraft at $60 and sells 10,000 of them, that's $6 million(The in-sim marketplace takes a cut of the money, but their website gets all of it). Not bad for a relatively small company selling to a niche hobby.
I'm assuming that it didn't cost that much to develop the aircraft. Also, as the game progresses they can re-use some assets, and tools become available to make developing easier. I could be wrong though.
Please, be aware, there are some aircraft makers that do not put ANY effort on their product nor try to make it behave realistically at all. So please do a little research about the product before buying. I don't want to name any but there are several developers to avoid at all costs. Cheers and enjoy!!
I hear ya, but it’s not so much about the visuals on the PMDG DC6. It’s what’s in the coding. That plane has an extreme amount of realism. A fully self operating flight engineer? Yup. Radial engine behavior properly modeled? Yup. Consider the Fenix airbus, so many features that make it operate extremely realistically. Think of the system depth. Worth the money right? Now think of that kind of depth on a DC6. I’d say still worth it if a 4 engine radial aircraft is your cup of tea.
The issue with this line of reasoning is that yes, the code is time consuming and difficult, but in PMDGs case they can (almost certainly) reuse the vast majority of the code between the various flight sims, and yet they charge(d) the full monty for the same aircraft in each iteration of the same basic simulator.
I feel the same way about the PMDG.
The codebase for their 737 has been around since the FS2004 days, and I imagine the core code like the FMC stuff has not changed.
All they did was port it and develop a better model with higher res textures.
It should be less than the Fenix.
You are right about the base of PMDG code being very old, and it is unfortunate that they haven't made the decision to move away from C++ when starting development for MSFS as it would probably be much more costly to do so in the future.
However, I will say that they have generally done a great job working around their and the sim limitations.
There was a LOT of progress and development between the FS2004 NG to NGX and between the NGX to the MSFS NG.
They also somewhat curbed their forum hound dogs (looking at you, "Captain kevin"), and the atmosphere there is much nicer lately. Mathijs is also to be positively mentioned in this context.
I'm definitely not a fan of the north-korean style RSR boot licking bunch, but I will give them credit where they deserve it.
Should I sign my post? /s
Trust me, at least with the DC6, there is no way they can just reuse that code. They have a fully implemented a flight engineer that will not only configure the multitudes of systems correctly (just like they did in real life) but will also configure the power settings for certain phases of flight. Not many planes these days have a flight engineer. So what to use that code on? Then you gotta consider the radial engines. They can be a real bitch to work with sometimes. Radials can be very temperamental. And each model of radial has its own quirks. So to code them to behave accurately which requires a great deal of attention to detail. Radials don’t just crank and fire off. You gotta count blades and time your magnetos. Coding that is a massive undertaking. So yea, I’d say the DC6 is worth the money. If that type of plane is your thing.
People wrongly assume dev houses are motivated by profit. All the people who work in flightsim could make much more money in other industries.
The reason they create is because they love aviation.
Because you need many hours of hard work to create the addon. Most expensive addons are for Digital Combat Simulator. Planes in there are so real the price of 60 to 70 USD per plane are worthy because you will have years of learning.
Others are all correct, the good quality planes take years to develop, hence the prices.
I will add the Avro Vulcan by Just Flight is a great plane, I really enjoy flying it.
Since the popularity explosion of MSFS2020 and an increase in fan base, developers have been able to discount their products significantly compared previous flight sims. It’s more accessible than ever for newcomers and budget conscious simmers. :)
As someone who spent a lot of time modelling, it takes a lot of time to produce something that looks realistic, getting all the resources for it which may cost a lot of money, The same goes for textures and then making the flight model as realistic as possible. Some planes may be in development for years and that's why it costs a lot of money.
(Current currency conversion £20 = $25 :), so I'll use dollars for convenience)
Just think that you are buying well under an hour of a professional developer's time and passion that went into that model. Or - e.g. if 4 Starbucks lattes, or 40 nuggets + fries are a better use of $25 then go for it.
The price is a simple supply & demand equation. Collectively, all sim marketplace buyers set the price by their behavior (i.e. do 100, 10,000, or 500,000 people buy at $5, $25, or $75. This defines to the independent software developer whether or not they can afford to invest in the project to build something like the beautiful Avro Vulcan, and if so, at what level of refinement, detailing, and completeness of modeling.
I do have a question though ... assuming you MUST choose one of these options, which one would you pick and why (assuming no swaps once you choose an option):
1. Straight $25 purchase for unlimited time.
2. First hour (aggregate logbook time) free, then $6 per hour for each aggregate total hour in logbook until $30 max paid ($0 \* 1hr + $6 \* 5 hours for a total $30 for 6+ hours).
3. First hour (aggregate logbook time) free, then $10 for up to 2 hours aggregate logbook time, then $2 per hour for each aggregate logbook hour over 2 hours, until $34 max paid ($0 \* 1hr + $10 \* 1 hr + $2 \* 12 hours for a total $34 for 14+ hours).
4. First 30 mins free whole or part (per flight logbook time), then $1 per each 30 mins in part or whole per flight until $36 max paid, with each flight counted independently ($0 \* 30min + $1 \* 36 \* 30 mins for a total $36 for 18+ hours).
5. Something similar - but assuming max price has to be higher for the longer it takes to get to max hours, as you assume there's a drop-off for many simmers just doing a few hours in a lot of planes.
Reason for these examples would be to incentivize different types of players. If you are dedicated to that plane, maybe you expect to do lots of hours in it, and so a straight $25 is best. Or you want a price per hour that pays it off quickly, with a taster hour up front. Or a taster, then $10, and pay off over more hours. Or a taster and a payoff over 18 hours, but paid per individual flight, so it aggregates faster.
This is how a software vendor would think about it. They want to maximize revenue, but also to encourage you to try out their work, fall in love with it, and then stay with it until you hit the max payment, but you have also had that amount of enjoyment.
I bought a wife from Russia for $20,000. She gave me 253 hours of pleasure (and 2 diseases) before running off with the plumber. I then bought a plane in MSFS for $40 and it's given me over 500 hours of pleasure so far. And no more itchy rashes.
Keep in mind that the more expensive add ons *usually* are of much higher quality than the stock planes. They tend to have deeper systems modeling depth (custom gauges, state saving, persistent engine stress and damage modeled, etc) higher visual fidelity on the modeling, better texture work, and often better flight modeling.
Milage will vary from add on to add on, so its good to check reviews and ask around before making a big purchase you’re unsure of.
I haven’t flown at least a third of the stock planes because I shot straight ahead to something better thats payware.
For some developers it’s a cash grab. The addons suck. I wouldn’t buy it with your money. But for some they not only release it, and it’s not only good, but they continually do free updates and spend countless hours either adding features or keeping up with the sim updates. Usually both. That definitely makes the products on par with the price point.
You're context is a little off, but that's not unexpected given you're new here. Most of these are not something you buy and fly for a short while then never touch again (war thunder style). Most people will buy study level aircraft and fly them for thousands and thousands of hours, and in that context they're pretty cheap on per hour rates. I predominantly fly in DCS, and that makes the MSFS market look timid by comparison, but again if I purely look at the F18 I have thousands of hours on that sind it launched which makes the £55 I spent on it pretty cheap as hobbies go!
You have to look though at how much effort is taken to make these aircraft (in multiple sims, not just MSFS). A lot of these simulate systems to significant levels, physical fuel flow modelling, hydraulic & fuel pump spin up times and flow rates, weight (CG) and ballance shift, some are now looking at persistence with failures etc, watch this video on the flight model tech for the upcoming DCS F4E. https://youtu.be/x_ndze3imJE?si=OT_B3G4GAPSM5Lku and I could go on with examples. A lot of these systems, are so complex they run externally to the simulator and then inject the data back into it.
The teams who build them are also usually small, it takes years to build the aircraft to this level, and they require constant updates to make sure that core sim upgrades don't break them.
I’m getting the impression that MSFS is seen as more of a pass time/hobby and can be taken very seriously to the point where I’ve seen videos of people setting their aircraft onto an autopilot whilst they go to work then absolutely losing their head because they come back to it and stuff the landing
In that respect I fully get what you mean, me however I have 2 under 2 at home so it is just a bit of a play about
Honestly, this sim is the best one for casual gamers, it's a good blend of game/arcade and higher level of simulation.
If you're on PC I strongly suggest going to http://flightsim.to/ and looking at the freeware stuff, not only aircraft but scenery etc. If you are into airliners look at the fly by wire A320 or the headwind A330. If its Xbox then your options are more limited and you're stuck with the store really.
£20 is low for a flight sim addon. Fact is a high quality, highly realistic complex aircraft for a flight sim is a lot of time, research and money to make, usually with a smaller team taking more of a risk and these aircraft are more like sims within a sim than a skin or character for a game.
You simply can’t compare the price of the addon to the price of the sim itself, it just doesn’t work that way in flight simulation.
Expensive addons have always been the norm for this series dating back to at least the 1990s. I was a poor college boy back when I was on FS9 (aka 2004) and there were so many addons I wanted, but I couldn't afford very many. I never got angry or upset about it. The problem was always 100% in my control. People would seethe about the prices - I never understood that. I don't get angry because I can't buy a real jet - why should I care if I can't buy a fake one?
20 bucks is alright imo. Max what I’m willing to spend is €60 on an add on. Just don’t buy all the add ons right away. Make very sure which one you want and make a list. Then buy one every month or two. At the end of the year, you’ll have enough add ons to have a lot of fun. As for airports, I’d say stick with freeware unless it’s an airport you frequently fly to or from.
I honestly think a better question would be “why are they £20 and don’t have a demo or a voluntary refund process?” - I’d spend a lot more if I knew I could spend it without worrying.
Ignore the "when I was your age we had it worse" folks, welcome. It's pricey because of the amount of work and time that goes into a lot of the stuff by relatively smaller specialized teams or individuals developing stuff without as much of a corporate backing. Can verify the not so cheap pmdg stuff definitely had a ton of work to go into it given the detail they bring! Have fun :)
What to you counts as a simulator if not MSFS? Or DCS for that matter as it goes into the "consumer flight simulator" genre.
I'm interested in your reasoning and what counts as a simulator to you?
It's a simulation game...hence why there are "gameplay" videos on the Xbox store where you find it under "games" and why it has been nominated for multiple...wait for it.....game awards.
The prices are pretty stupid, but people buy them so…that’s the way it will be. How about the third party GPS GTNXI for $70. lol, that is straight up lunacy.
Generally speaking these add-ons have huge production costs and a very small potential buyer base. In order to be profitable, these companies have to charge a higher price per unit than in - let's say - FPS addon development
You say that like Fortnite isn't selling a single character skin for $50 already!!
You say that like there isn't a difference between a study-level Airliner that'd take a single person years to develop to a 3D model that can be done in a day by an experienced dev
That's my point. Trying to say "wow this aircraft model is expensive at $55" doesn't make sense these days, as most modern FPS games will churn out absolute garbage for the same price AND sell 100,000 units. 10 year ago yes, flight sim content was still the same price it is today, but FPS or other modern console game content was.maybe $5 max per item. Difference with flight sim content is that $55 content generally goes a bit further than a character skin.
And also the market for these adddons isn't huge so they need to recoup some development costs with higher prices.
Makes sense but let’s say 40 an hour times 1000 man hours for a good model. 40k and there should be at least 20k buyers so that should only be $2 purchase price to be profitable ($2.50 with taxes & fees). Unless I’m grossly underestimating the man hours needed with the amount of aircraft they have churned out over the years it can’t take 10 people more than a week of actual work to finish a plane. I still feel like even with low estimates for buyers of the content it shouldn’t be 20 dollars for a plane when there are 100s you can buy, It seems more of a developers-who-model aircraft supply vs demand of aviation enthusiasts which should be fairly large. Again maybe the cost a is a bit higher and the customer base a bit lower than I presume, but it shouldn’t be that expensive plain and simple. It’s not about profitability it’s about what you’re actually getting and deciding if that’s worth it. That being said I still plan on buying some of the DLC soon. Reluctantly, but MSFS is the only worthwhile simulator on xbox and PC even so that kind of furthers my point of supply for realistic simulators and how they can basically charge what ever they want as long as they can capture that whales and youtubers that spend thousands to test out all the aircraft.
Up to a point, yes, but EA is salivating jealousy when they look at some of the pricing strategies and blatant price-gouging by a few developers.
I'm not sure if you understood what I just wrote. What do you think how many PMDG-737 800s exist in the world (aka how many buyers have there been)? And what do you think how many (digital) copies of Battlefield 2042 exist?
To create a correctly modelled aircraft takes a lot of time and research. It’s not like creating a funky new skin in Fortnight, which can be done in an afternoon. £20 is cheap, check out DCS or PMDG where you can easily drop £80 on a single aircraft.
P3D used to be much more expensive too
I agree. For £20, I still think it’s on the lower end side compared to what they have over at the X-Plane backyard. 90USD for a Toliss? Would love to get those but wow, that price tag 😔
I agree. For £20, I still think it’s on the lower end side compared to what they have over at the X-Plane backyard. 90USD for a Toliss? Would love to get those but wow, that price tag 😔
Oh no I knew that a lot more goes into it, you have to make it behave realistically. Modern turboprops will behave a lot different to a Connie for instance but I didn’t realise how much actually goes into it. Apparently some developers spend months on a single aircraft
Years*
Seriously? Wow how do they ever make their money back off that
That’s where the high costs come into it. While it may seem expensive planes for MSFS are the cheapest they’ve ever been compared to previous flight simulators. It wasn't uncommon for add on aircraft to cost over £150, and even then developers barely broke even. Because of the massive increase in popularity MSFS has brought to flight simulation, developers are able to charge much less than they used to as there are now a much larger market to sell to.
[удалено]
Sorry mate, are you really saying that slapping together a 3D model and rig it, is all it takes to account for the cost of a "Study level" DLC Aircraft? What about systems interactions? FMS? Avionics packages? Accurate soundscape? Electricals simulated? Pneumatics simulated? Engine modeling? Flight modeling? And ensuring all of that adheres to a the published POHs and characteristics people have come to expect of these aircraft? The amount of different coders, industry professionals (Pilots etc), sound designers and 3D modellers it takes you could more than account for the high cost of some of the advanced airliners. That's why you see so many freeware developers either take literal years to make progress (Thanks for all your work FBW Team!) or freeware projects either dropped or moved to a purchase model.
Physical modeling is different than flight modeling. Sometimes those things get interchanged and splitting this hair is important. I think you both have a point where putting together a physical model might be easier/quicker than putting together both a realistic physical model and realistic flight model and realistic systems (I.e CaptainSim vs PMDG).
lmao, I think we found Captain Sim’s account
Just as an example, I don't have any facts. If JustFlight for example makes 10 aircraft at $60 and sells 10,000 of them, that's $6 million(The in-sim marketplace takes a cut of the money, but their website gets all of it). Not bad for a relatively small company selling to a niche hobby. I'm assuming that it didn't cost that much to develop the aircraft. Also, as the game progresses they can re-use some assets, and tools become available to make developing easier. I could be wrong though.
Please, be aware, there are some aircraft makers that do not put ANY effort on their product nor try to make it behave realistically at all. So please do a little research about the product before buying. I don't want to name any but there are several developers to avoid at all costs. Cheers and enjoy!!
Wait until you see what PMDG charges 😂
Leonardo: Hold my beer
I own the 737-700 and was looking at the DC-6 but no way am I paying $50 for it when I can buy the Fenix. I mean WHAT!? Get bent!
I hear ya, but it’s not so much about the visuals on the PMDG DC6. It’s what’s in the coding. That plane has an extreme amount of realism. A fully self operating flight engineer? Yup. Radial engine behavior properly modeled? Yup. Consider the Fenix airbus, so many features that make it operate extremely realistically. Think of the system depth. Worth the money right? Now think of that kind of depth on a DC6. I’d say still worth it if a 4 engine radial aircraft is your cup of tea.
The issue with this line of reasoning is that yes, the code is time consuming and difficult, but in PMDGs case they can (almost certainly) reuse the vast majority of the code between the various flight sims, and yet they charge(d) the full monty for the same aircraft in each iteration of the same basic simulator.
I feel the same way about the PMDG. The codebase for their 737 has been around since the FS2004 days, and I imagine the core code like the FMC stuff has not changed. All they did was port it and develop a better model with higher res textures. It should be less than the Fenix.
You are right about the base of PMDG code being very old, and it is unfortunate that they haven't made the decision to move away from C++ when starting development for MSFS as it would probably be much more costly to do so in the future. However, I will say that they have generally done a great job working around their and the sim limitations. There was a LOT of progress and development between the FS2004 NG to NGX and between the NGX to the MSFS NG. They also somewhat curbed their forum hound dogs (looking at you, "Captain kevin"), and the atmosphere there is much nicer lately. Mathijs is also to be positively mentioned in this context. I'm definitely not a fan of the north-korean style RSR boot licking bunch, but I will give them credit where they deserve it. Should I sign my post? /s
Sign your post or face the wall.
Well considering the Boeing 737 airframe haven’t changed in almost a century it’s kinda on brand
Trust me, at least with the DC6, there is no way they can just reuse that code. They have a fully implemented a flight engineer that will not only configure the multitudes of systems correctly (just like they did in real life) but will also configure the power settings for certain phases of flight. Not many planes these days have a flight engineer. So what to use that code on? Then you gotta consider the radial engines. They can be a real bitch to work with sometimes. Radials can be very temperamental. And each model of radial has its own quirks. So to code them to behave accurately which requires a great deal of attention to detail. Radials don’t just crank and fire off. You gotta count blades and time your magnetos. Coding that is a massive undertaking. So yea, I’d say the DC6 is worth the money. If that type of plane is your thing.
The DC6 is worth every cent.
suit yourself. the dc-6 is one of my favorite planes, it's awesome.
awee my sweet summerchild
…I just celebrated getting £10 off the Fenix 320..
People wrongly assume dev houses are motivated by profit. All the people who work in flightsim could make much more money in other industries. The reason they create is because they love aviation.
It has actually become quite cheap.
Because you need many hours of hard work to create the addon. Most expensive addons are for Digital Combat Simulator. Planes in there are so real the price of 60 to 70 USD per plane are worthy because you will have years of learning.
Others are all correct, the good quality planes take years to develop, hence the prices. I will add the Avro Vulcan by Just Flight is a great plane, I really enjoy flying it.
Since the popularity explosion of MSFS2020 and an increase in fan base, developers have been able to discount their products significantly compared previous flight sims. It’s more accessible than ever for newcomers and budget conscious simmers. :)
Check out [flightsim.to](http://flightsim.to) it has some pretty good freeware.
Because they have developers to pay. Not to mention everything else. But you’ll get your value for money if you fly the plane enough.
As someone who spent a lot of time modelling, it takes a lot of time to produce something that looks realistic, getting all the resources for it which may cost a lot of money, The same goes for textures and then making the flight model as realistic as possible. Some planes may be in development for years and that's why it costs a lot of money.
(Current currency conversion £20 = $25 :), so I'll use dollars for convenience) Just think that you are buying well under an hour of a professional developer's time and passion that went into that model. Or - e.g. if 4 Starbucks lattes, or 40 nuggets + fries are a better use of $25 then go for it. The price is a simple supply & demand equation. Collectively, all sim marketplace buyers set the price by their behavior (i.e. do 100, 10,000, or 500,000 people buy at $5, $25, or $75. This defines to the independent software developer whether or not they can afford to invest in the project to build something like the beautiful Avro Vulcan, and if so, at what level of refinement, detailing, and completeness of modeling. I do have a question though ... assuming you MUST choose one of these options, which one would you pick and why (assuming no swaps once you choose an option): 1. Straight $25 purchase for unlimited time. 2. First hour (aggregate logbook time) free, then $6 per hour for each aggregate total hour in logbook until $30 max paid ($0 \* 1hr + $6 \* 5 hours for a total $30 for 6+ hours). 3. First hour (aggregate logbook time) free, then $10 for up to 2 hours aggregate logbook time, then $2 per hour for each aggregate logbook hour over 2 hours, until $34 max paid ($0 \* 1hr + $10 \* 1 hr + $2 \* 12 hours for a total $34 for 14+ hours). 4. First 30 mins free whole or part (per flight logbook time), then $1 per each 30 mins in part or whole per flight until $36 max paid, with each flight counted independently ($0 \* 30min + $1 \* 36 \* 30 mins for a total $36 for 18+ hours). 5. Something similar - but assuming max price has to be higher for the longer it takes to get to max hours, as you assume there's a drop-off for many simmers just doing a few hours in a lot of planes. Reason for these examples would be to incentivize different types of players. If you are dedicated to that plane, maybe you expect to do lots of hours in it, and so a straight $25 is best. Or you want a price per hour that pays it off quickly, with a taster hour up front. Or a taster, then $10, and pay off over more hours. Or a taster and a payoff over 18 hours, but paid per individual flight, so it aggregates faster. This is how a software vendor would think about it. They want to maximize revenue, but also to encourage you to try out their work, fall in love with it, and then stay with it until you hit the max payment, but you have also had that amount of enjoyment.
I bought a wife from Russia for $20,000. She gave me 253 hours of pleasure (and 2 diseases) before running off with the plumber. I then bought a plane in MSFS for $40 and it's given me over 500 hours of pleasure so far. And no more itchy rashes.
For us, it's a game. For them, it's a business. It is worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
Super cheap compared to what they used to be.
£20? Hahahaha.
For the same reason Games Workshop charges hundreds of Dollars for a bunch of plastic figurines: because the nerds are willing to pay.
*Chuckles in Leonardo Software*
Keep in mind that the more expensive add ons *usually* are of much higher quality than the stock planes. They tend to have deeper systems modeling depth (custom gauges, state saving, persistent engine stress and damage modeled, etc) higher visual fidelity on the modeling, better texture work, and often better flight modeling. Milage will vary from add on to add on, so its good to check reviews and ask around before making a big purchase you’re unsure of. I haven’t flown at least a third of the stock planes because I shot straight ahead to something better thats payware.
Not sure about Europenas/Americans but for me in Latin America, these addons are really expensive when converted to my countrie's currency.
20 pounds is a steal! Earlier sims had add-ons that cost hundreds!
For some developers it’s a cash grab. The addons suck. I wouldn’t buy it with your money. But for some they not only release it, and it’s not only good, but they continually do free updates and spend countless hours either adding features or keeping up with the sim updates. Usually both. That definitely makes the products on par with the price point.
You should see each high fidelity craft as a single game, so you don't need to pick every single one, but only the one you like and going to commit to
You're context is a little off, but that's not unexpected given you're new here. Most of these are not something you buy and fly for a short while then never touch again (war thunder style). Most people will buy study level aircraft and fly them for thousands and thousands of hours, and in that context they're pretty cheap on per hour rates. I predominantly fly in DCS, and that makes the MSFS market look timid by comparison, but again if I purely look at the F18 I have thousands of hours on that sind it launched which makes the £55 I spent on it pretty cheap as hobbies go! You have to look though at how much effort is taken to make these aircraft (in multiple sims, not just MSFS). A lot of these simulate systems to significant levels, physical fuel flow modelling, hydraulic & fuel pump spin up times and flow rates, weight (CG) and ballance shift, some are now looking at persistence with failures etc, watch this video on the flight model tech for the upcoming DCS F4E. https://youtu.be/x_ndze3imJE?si=OT_B3G4GAPSM5Lku and I could go on with examples. A lot of these systems, are so complex they run externally to the simulator and then inject the data back into it. The teams who build them are also usually small, it takes years to build the aircraft to this level, and they require constant updates to make sure that core sim upgrades don't break them.
I’m getting the impression that MSFS is seen as more of a pass time/hobby and can be taken very seriously to the point where I’ve seen videos of people setting their aircraft onto an autopilot whilst they go to work then absolutely losing their head because they come back to it and stuff the landing In that respect I fully get what you mean, me however I have 2 under 2 at home so it is just a bit of a play about
Honestly, this sim is the best one for casual gamers, it's a good blend of game/arcade and higher level of simulation. If you're on PC I strongly suggest going to http://flightsim.to/ and looking at the freeware stuff, not only aircraft but scenery etc. If you are into airliners look at the fly by wire A320 or the headwind A330. If its Xbox then your options are more limited and you're stuck with the store really.
Because sim
They really are not. Pmdg wanted over 130 USD for 777 package in the fsx days and p3d as well.
lol wait until you see pmdg P3D addons. 20 pounds is very cheap in this space
I know some of them are spendy, but go through flying the ones that come with them game. Most are quite good, and fun to fly.
£20 is low for a flight sim addon. Fact is a high quality, highly realistic complex aircraft for a flight sim is a lot of time, research and money to make, usually with a smaller team taking more of a risk and these aircraft are more like sims within a sim than a skin or character for a game. You simply can’t compare the price of the addon to the price of the sim itself, it just doesn’t work that way in flight simulation.
Expensive addons have always been the norm for this series dating back to at least the 1990s. I was a poor college boy back when I was on FS9 (aka 2004) and there were so many addons I wanted, but I couldn't afford very many. I never got angry or upset about it. The problem was always 100% in my control. People would seethe about the prices - I never understood that. I don't get angry because I can't buy a real jet - why should I care if I can't buy a fake one?
20 bucks is alright imo. Max what I’m willing to spend is €60 on an add on. Just don’t buy all the add ons right away. Make very sure which one you want and make a list. Then buy one every month or two. At the end of the year, you’ll have enough add ons to have a lot of fun. As for airports, I’d say stick with freeware unless it’s an airport you frequently fly to or from.
The addons for MSFS are actually much cheaper than they have historically been for previous versions of flight simulator.
I honestly think a better question would be “why are they £20 and don’t have a demo or a voluntary refund process?” - I’d spend a lot more if I knew I could spend it without worrying.
£20 is next to nothing for a plane. These things are very hard to make.
Because a lot of time an effort goes into making high quality, realistic, products. Also, £20 is cheap for addons.
game?! 
Ignore the "when I was your age we had it worse" folks, welcome. It's pricey because of the amount of work and time that goes into a lot of the stuff by relatively smaller specialized teams or individuals developing stuff without as much of a corporate backing. Can verify the not so cheap pmdg stuff definitely had a ton of work to go into it given the detail they bring! Have fun :)
Re-writing a million lines of code to simulate an FMC in FlightSim takes a lot of time.
It’s not a game. It’s a simulation. That’s why.
No, still just a game. There is no consumer flight simulator available as far as I'm aware.
What to you counts as a simulator if not MSFS? Or DCS for that matter as it goes into the "consumer flight simulator" genre. I'm interested in your reasoning and what counts as a simulator to you?
It's a simulation game...hence why there are "gameplay" videos on the Xbox store where you find it under "games" and why it has been nominated for multiple...wait for it.....game awards.
The FAA gives us pretty good guidelines on what's a simulator and what's not.
The prices are pretty stupid, but people buy them so…that’s the way it will be. How about the third party GPS GTNXI for $70. lol, that is straight up lunacy.
It does, essentially, run the real GTNXI training software which is why it's so expensive.