Check out the latest Development Update blog here:
Please use this thread for feedback and discussion.
Thank you!
I think I mentioned this after the last dev live Q&A, but the new format is excellent.
The dev updates interspersed with relevant community questions is great.
I really like the deep dive explanations of how problems/bugs etc are approached by Asobo and how they intend to fix them, for example, the snow depth and ice forming on water was fascinating. It was also interesting to hear about other projects, even if I don’t have an interest in them at the moment, e.g. multi-rotor, xcloud improvements etc.
I’m really happy that WT have been working on the G3X after their fantastic updates to the GNS and G1000NXi, quite a few of my aircraft use the G3X, so I hope the 3rd party devs take the opportunity to update their mods.
Anyway, thanks to all involved, much appreciated.
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The marketplace top seller list is really insightful, thank you for sharing it with us!
For those interested in playing with the data, i have aggregated the data from the Dev Update’s 2023 marketplace Top Sellers by Gross Revenue and put it into a Google Sheet.
You can access it here: 2023 marketplace Top Sellers by Gross Revenue - Google Sheets
Few notes:
- The information is taken from the Feb 1st 2024 Development Update
- Pricing collected ignored any sales and took the regular pricing
- Star Rating Votes above 1000 are rounded off to the hundred. Eg. 1255 is 1200. This is due to the marketplace providing rounded numbers above 1000
- Ratings are in categories and grouped in alphabetical order by product name. Order is not by revenue
Top Selling products by Gross Revenue categorized:
- Bronze: Top 51-100 Products
- Silver: Top 25-50 Products
- Gold: Top 13-24 Products
- Platinum: Top 1-12 Products
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I also applaud the developers for spending more time on questions, and giving more depth to the answers.
I really wish they would consider doing a few videos dedicated to describing how the base sim works, the challenges, and roadmap in more depth, for a handful of simulator functions, such as:
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How Bing Maps is used, how often it is updated, how masking works, etc. So many airports and runways are missing due to old Bing Maps and old satellite imagery - an explainer might be very educational for users to understand how it works, and if there is anything to look forward to… such as a more up-to-date underlying Bing Map snapshot, or, even better, a periodic update to keep up with the real world.
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Multi-monitor setup. Simulation is meant to be immersive - and immersion is greatly increased with multiple monitors. However, as is frequently discussed on the forum, there is constant frustration that MSFS doesn’t seem to use what is considered a standard way to set up multiple monitors - wouldn’t it be worth considering how this is done, or at least giving an official demo from the developers?
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The Marketplace is in desperate need of review. I my own opinion, each add-on should have a note indicating publication date and which version of the sim it is tested / compatible with. Microsoft is missing sales because of uncertainty. Also, they really need to provide a way for updates to be more efficient, perhaps a separate review stream than the new products, especially for Xbox since Marketplace is the only path for products and updates. Perhaps they could discuss this in more depth to explain what the goals are for the marketplace?
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@ FlyingCookie650:
Thanks for that spreadsheet! I sorted the list slightly differently, by “Type” of download, which is a variation of your “Category”:
Airliners 30
Military 29
GA 20
Scenery 05
Helicopters 04
Other 12
I found the results quite interesting. Much more interest in the airliners (I’ve lumped modern-day jets & historical props together) than I would have expected.
No surprise with the military - some folks just like to go really, really fast! 
I was surprised at the low Scenery number. My current theory for the low numbers is that Scenery is much easier to develop than aircraft (no complex gauges or aerodynamics to worry about), so that’s why there are many free packages available on sites such as https://flightsim.to/. Hence, low sales of Scenery.
However, the fact that Airliners was #1 would suggest that there would be an equal demand for highly-detailed major commercial airports that can accommodate tube-liners, since these aircraft have such a hard time landing on small GA bush airstrips! Creating major commercial airports is a lot more work, so less likely to be considered by the “for-free” community of builders. Yet the numbers don’t bear this out. Perhaps commercial companies can’t get permission from airport authorities to create them?
No surprise that helicopters are so low, & no gliders at all. This has always been a niche community of flyers, but very dedicated ones!
Also, good to see how many different companies are represented on this list - promotes competition and, hopefully, quality products.
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Glad you like it. I tried to keep the sorting per the website, to be as neutral to sort and customize as anyone wants.
I agree with you about the scenery elements and flightsim.to, the access to free scenery of high quality would indeed reduce the percentage of purchases focused on scenery. I do find myself more picky with payware scenery as a result.
As for airliners, its good to remember that every flight simulator in the past was really made for airliners, as the tech was lacking for VFR and sightseeing. I did see my flying behaviour change tremendously as I transitioned from FSX to MSFS2020, from airliners to GA. I have a feeling many kept their habits and that segment was already running strong for years.
For the airport demand associate with the airliner crowd, i wonder if high quality int’l airport performance is a factor or if the freeware available is simply good enough for most. I have yet to see a developer be blocked by an airport authority to make it in the sim, but its always a possibility.
One thing to note is the inherent bias of items that released early into the year compared to more recent items. We wont be able to get more accurate data, but I hope we can have similar data next year to compare.
Looking forward to the new air traffic update, improved plane models and corresponding liveries. SU15 promises to be interesting.
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That is a very good point! 
Did they mention when they’ll begin the SU15 beta?
They didn’t mention it but I believe that between this week and next
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Jorg said Beta 15 should begin within 1-2 weeks.
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Nice, thank you!
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But what surprised me was that military was only one behind airliners, and was a huge portion of the top 24.
[MODERATOR EDIT: Replaced “C word” with “combat”]
Yet MS won’t say “combat”, and (As in Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator) and apparently has no interest in reviving the line.
I totally get keeping combat out of MSFS. Don’t want Cessna, Boeing, Airbus etc. getting antsy about licensing.
But man, give me a modern WW2 sim with this level of visual and simulation technology… (Insert “Take my money!” GIF here)
It was sad to see some of the “sub-par” aircraft enter into the top 12 list. And then I realized, on the contrary, some players are finding those models useful for one reason or another, which is probably a good sign that MSFS fits not just serious simmers.
I’m very happy to hear the commitment to VR. Martial using it daily and recognizing the value it brings to flying is great to hear! Thank you for committing to further developing it. Would love to see quadview support and leveraging Eye-tracking tech in the sim. OpenXR standards and allow as many with varied VR headsets to jump into the skies!
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I also enjoyed hearing Working Title is pushing the G3X and look forward to it being in many experimental aircraft! G3X and hand tracking in VR would be a future development I look forward to!
It will be interesting that it’s only for the unit in landscape form. I believe some core aircraft like the NX have it portrait form.
Yes I was very surprised at the total lack, bar one, of airports in this list. But looking at the list I really think it shows through that marketplace purchases are heavily driven by xbox users. This is probably because PC users have so many options for other stores, and freeware.
The problem with airports on Xbox has always been instability, you pair one with a glass cockpit and boom, it all breaks. I imagine that a casual user - that doesn’t hang out on forums trying to work with others to discover a usable set of airports - is probably going to give up on airport purchasing rather quickly.
On the other hand it also shows there is a lot of demand for basic models. PMDG can spend years making a high quality aeroplane, or someone else can come along and make basic models of 20 different aeroplanes and make 10 times as much money overall. At least for PMDG most of their revenue is probably off marketplace so hopefully that evens it up a bit.
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Two very good points!
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So I notice that the “Performance decrease when using popouts” line item on the feedback snapshot has been removed and replaced with this:
Does this mean that popout performance has been fixed, or just overall glass cockpit performance (which had been bad overall for a long time) got fixed?
Because the original problem wasn’t just about glass cockpits. It was related to ALL undockable windows including VFR Map, ATC, etc…
I’m really hoping this long-standing issue hasn’t fallen off the radar again.
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