Are there plans to improve the marketplace system to make it more attractive for devs again to release on marketplace???
I just want to mention a fly in stream on twitch, not too far ago, when there was the statement of you and SeedL that it going to be a marketplace place exclusive with simultaneous release for PC and Xbox?!
And secondly, as soon as it was revealed that got friends will not exclusively release on marketplace, why hasn’t be a statement/commentary from MS/Asobo according to this?
And 3rd, what are the current efforts to bring this product to marketplace? Is it just going in the cue for release like all other submissions or is their a chance MS/Asobo has recognized the missed opportunity and will give this product more attention as it supposed to be a marketplace exclusive?
The Marketplace couldn’t accept submissions for at least a week a few weeks back.
Got Friends intended to submit the Wilga while the Marketplace was down but they couldn’t.
They submitted it as soon as they could, and released on their website around the time they would have released on Marketplace had things gone according to schedule.
Why?
Because it is the holiday season and that could spike sales. It would be a shame to miss out on Christmas sales because you are en queue for the Marketplace.
I don’t think there was an exclusivity deal, but if there was, IME there is plenty of room to get out of exclusivity deals if the product can’t be submitted to be sold as promised. Or MS/Asobo countered with an exception if they only sold from their own website. But who knows? That type of stuff could be under NDA. It isn’t the type of thing Community Supervisors get to pass to the public. And it was likely as mundane as Got Friends clicking a different box when they submitted their Wilga to the Marketplace.
I’m hoping we get lucky, seeing as the marketplace updates on thursdays, and it comes out tomorrow. Would be a nice little early bday present. Not holding my breath on that, but MAYBE. They did say they sent it to MS for approval a week ago…
What’s there to say? It’s a decision of the dev to no longer make it a marketplace exclusive, which is fine.
It has been submitted to the marketplace, so it will come when it’s reviewed and amended. So it’s being worked on, along with the rest of the marketplace products (Like Aerosoft North Sea, etc) that have been submitted and are in the queue.
The fact that you react like this is exactly the reason why companies (ms, devs, etc) are not keen on sharing planned stuff. When things change for whatever reason, some people are demanding an explanation. And there probably is a good one, but not to any of our concern. Their product, their planning. Simple as that.
I don’t see what your big issue is. As far as I understand there never was any exclusivity deal between Microsoft/Asobo and GotFriends. No contractual obligation. Just a conscious decision on the part of GotFriends to only sell the Wilga on the marketplace at first.
Then they changed their mind after the big issues with the marketplace (long waiting times, submission block) and quite a few people saying that they wouldn’t buy it on the marketplace for various reasons. That’s all.
They only decided that they will ALSO sell it on their website. It will still be released on the marketplace as planned, with the same waiting time as before. So, if you want/need to buy it in the marketplace, because you’re on Xbox or for whatever reason, absolutely nothing has changed for you.
Yes, others may have the Wilga before you, but that hardly does warrant a statement by MS/Asobo. They have nothing to do with the whole thing other than providing the marketplace as a sales platform.
first, thanks for your efforts to reply to my questions!
unfortunatly you may have missunderstand my concerns about this actual situation and also quoted the wrong text pieces.
to bring my first and second question together and maybe explain it a little more from a costumer wise:
This is in Marketing facts a complete debacle for Devs, Costumers & espacialy for the Xbx costumers!(which is by the way i guess your most reliable Market as most of pc users try to buy anywhere else then the offical Marketplace or even worse pirating files)
So in a little review perspective, i would assume that the decission of Got Friends (which is completly OK!) was known internal before the release Date got Revealed by the Devs their self…
So why not quickly reacting and try to show Dev`s and Costumers that the Official Marketplace can be a good place to make sales/bussines and at least try to make a deal and work for a “simultanious” on both markets? (like vision jet got the “special” release spot last week)
Or at least bring an anouncement to this as it was advertiveced as marketplace exlusive since a while. This could have been a big opportunity in marketing perspective!
To bring this post to a future related topic and defently the point of my first question (quoted 1st above),
can we costumers and devs as well, expect any improvements as delays are really one main problem of the marketplace?
And as u mentioned by your self, there are a lot of products stocking in queue due to delays.
And at least, Yes, i do ask Hard & unconfortable questions after a long period of dissapointments!
But this isn’t the best way to communicate with a paying costumer and rises the bad reputaion and literally incompetence of MS/Asobo (And its really hard i need to say it that way!)
But to round this with a little and may Ironic comment of mine:
“Your Marketplace - Your Sales - Your Business - simple as that”
No. The marketplace is a platform for third party developers to conveniently sell their products in-game. It is their choice whether they want to pursue selling on the marketplace and/or xbox or not. MS does not have any influence on that. It’s thus the sales and business of the 3rd party dev, not that of MS.
Yes there are waiting times to release stuff on the marketplace. That is well known and something that can’t be solved directly, since checking on stability and doing translations does take time.
Third, to be clear: I don’t work for MS/Asobo. But to blatantly call incompetence on their side is IMO completely unacceptable. You mis-understand the system and therefore are making wrong assumptions.
The marketplace IS Microsoft / Asobos property.
The things which are sold IN the marketplace are 3rd party properties.
MS surely has an influence if someone want’s to sell on the marketplace. Namely, how positive or negative the experience is for 3rd party devs and / or customers.
And currently the experience is rather negativ, for both.
I’ve written in another topic that the 3rd-Party Devs need to make money.
Being on the PC (and never ever I will purchase any console) I could just walk away.
But the fact that the XBox customer always have to wait for content that is already available for us PC users is, let’s call it “sub-optimal”.
And they not even know why does it take that long!
Some rumors said MS is checking every product if it is working correct. (DC-6 showed, that is not the case!)
Other rumors said they check if the content is E-rating compliant.
Lastly Joerg mentioned they need to wait for translations.
What should the customer believe?
Nothing? All of the above?
Another question: Is there any automation in the process? Like MS does with files in the OneDrive? Or is this all relying on human resources?
I can fully understand @STEU3R points.
I can fully understand why he (and for sure other XBox customers as well) are frustrated.
I can understand it, but it’s completely misplaced IMO.
But how would you solve this, then? No checking at all? Or should devs delay releasing other platforms until the marketplace falls through? Both are undesirable if you ask me.
Sure, this thread is about the Wilga.
Why do you not open a thread “Let’s discuss marketplace”?
Would have done this yesterday already and moved the discussion about the marketplace started here to the new thread.
Xbox is a world wide network of a hundred million users with little more than encryption for security, I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one that inadvertently left a back door open for a trojan, worm or virus.
everything on Xbox runs sandboxed, which means every app is isolated form eachother. Every attempt at an exploit would remain limited to the app itself
the Xbox can’t run unsigned code, which means it can’t run anything that’s not placed on the Windows store or sideloaded in dev mode. Signing the code is done AFAIK by the 3rd-party dev. Correct me if I am wrong.
There would have to be an exploit that is used in the wild. So far, there hasn’t been one for the Xbox itself.
As a 3rd Party Developer, I have full freedom of release. I could, right now, completely remove Xbox from our release platforms, and Microsoft has no control over it. We have full control over where our products get released. We don’t sign exclusive deals for normal releases like this. That protects us and Microsoft throughout the process. Also you need to know that Community Managers are just that… Commmunity Members. They aren’t on the payroll of Microsoft and can’t answer your questions. Same with SeedyL and other community streamers. He can talk about 3rd Party Aircraft as an individual. He is a Community Streamer and at the time, we did not have plans to release on our website so his statement was correct.
So let me answer your questions since Got Friends should be answering to a question truly directed at them, not Microsoft:
Q: How to make it more attractive?
A: 90% of our income is marketplace, it’s pretty attractive. I would wait an entire year if I had to in order to get that 90% paycheck. Luckily, I normally only wait 4-6 weeks, which I’m thankful for as a developer.
Q: Why hasn’t Microsoft commented on Got Friends?
A: They are not Got Friends, we answer for our own products. We make the decisions where, to what, and how we release our products. Microsoft isn’t our boss. They are our distribution partner. We control all aspects of the add-on and where it goes. Once it’s packaged up, it is shipped out by Microsoft at their timeline.
Q: What are the current efforts to bring this product to Marketplace?
A: The Wilga is in the ingestion process, being tested by Microsoft, and when the backlog is fulfilled, our spot is next in line. We do not hold priority in line just because our add-on was exciting. We wait in line like everyone else and are excited to be able to stand in that line to begin with.
The Community Managers team are MS Employees. They work directly for, are paid by, and answer to MS directly. They are core members of the MSFS team. There were even some that were Asobo employees too.
The description you gave applies to the moderation team, which are community volunteer members and not on any payroll and have no inside information that a general user wouldn’t have.
Thank you for the correction… this is exactly why I don’t like commenting on other members jobs. As such, I don’t find it respectable for others to comment on our job as if Microsoft has control over that as well.
It is correct that I am a paid employee of the Microsoft Flight Simulator team, but I have never once made any public comments about the Wilga (including if it will be released as a Marketplace exclusive) on a livestream. I’m not sure where that confusion is coming from. Perhaps STEU3R is misremembering and has me confused with another streamer?
Yes you have in an community fly in at a Fridays stream!
And Im really sure about that, cause the moment i wanted to ask in that stream about the relaese plans some one else already asked and the statement was right there!
To Reply to DigitalJonx:
I have never critized the Dev team of Got Friends nor their/your decission! As my critics about that mess were stated directly and unmissunderstanable to the team of MS/Asobo!
But Thanks for your efforts.
You are most assuredly mistaken and must be confusing me with somebody else. Neither Jayne nor I would ever comment about plans related to upcoming Marketplace releases, especially ones that are still weeks/months away, nor is our team even privy to any exclusivity agreements that may have been signed by 3rd Party Developers. That’s simply not something that the CM team has any knowledge or involvement with at all.
You’re certainly welcome to try to find a clip of these alleged comments you are falsely attributing to me, however. All our Friday Fly-in Streams from the past several months are saved complete and unedited here:
