I’m wondering whether I should buy add-ons via the official Marketplace or directly from the third party. I’ve done both so far. I think that my preference in general would be to have everything through the Marketplace. When thinking about why I feel that way, I come down to an assumption that it is less likely to get broken as the game is updated. That may not be true, however. The other reason is to have everything in one spot, with the ability to update things via one interface. On this last point, since I already have third party add-ons, I’m always going to have multiple update issues, so perhaps it doesn’t matter. What do other think about this?
Thanks
Mark
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I posed the question as to what specifically is the difference between the Marketplace software and and buying that same exact software off of another website quite a while back.
There is though on Q&A concerning the Marketplace which may help you…
Marketplace Partner Program FAQ
Support Updated : August 23, 2020 17:12 August 13, 2020 06:55
What is the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace Partner Program?
The new Marketplace Partner Program provides a streamlined path for you to partner with Microsoft and sell your content directly from the simulator itself. There is no cost to sign up for the program, but you need to apply and be approved in order to get started. Once you’ve been approved and you’ve published content in the Marketplace, you’ll be able to see how your content is performing, how much revenue you are earning and automatically receive payments based on your payment profile.
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Thanks btb100!
Easy. I buy where it’s cheaper …
All products sold via Orbx Central (Orbx, Gaya, FSimstudios, SoFly, IndiaFoxtEcho, Iris) are normally cheaper than in the marketplace and the Orbx software keeps them up to date as well.
And I got a rebate on the St. Tropez airport directly via Aerosoft.
Carenado only seems to be available via the marketplace, so I’ve got no choice there
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What is nice they’ve updated FS2020 now so even your items in your community folder show up along with your official FS2020 software files within your submenu under the Profile tab.
Unlike my old FSX days, I’m really trying to keep add-ons as streamlined as possible as it seems was your goal as well in order to;
- …know if one is actually causing a conflict within the sim itself and be able to quickly identify and remove it and …
- …make updating an add-on as easy as possible if and when an update occurs. This is especially true if you’ve got reams of freeware add-ons, such as scenery or liveries.
One place I found that really helps in keeping the updating of freeware add-ons manageable is flightsim.to as once you have an account created (free of course) it tracks your download history and will also let you know if an update is availlable for that particular title as well. Currently under the freeware sceneries section they have about 1,500 - 2,000 freeware sceneries, landmarks, airports, etc. available along with lots of other headings and a new news section as well. As the years click by one can only imagine how far these lists will grow.
So in short, you’re safe either way but like you I’m really trying from the get go to keep it simple as possible in regards to keeping track of updates. Thank God for the community folder as in FSX depending on its function downloads were place all over the place and was a real pain to track down all the folders and sub folders after an install if a conflict occurred.
Hope this helps. Cheers!
PS - as an added note, for items such as freeware scenery, on my desktop seperate from FS2020 in I keep them all in one folder, but then have sub folders within that for each country (obviously you can categorize the sub menus anyway that’s convenient for you) I have downloaded a scenery for. That way it’s easier to drag and drop from your community folder within FS2020 only the area you are actually flying in rather than having the sim load every single freeware you’ve ever downloaded!
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Although update intervalls are to improve and prices are higher, I prefere the MS Marketplace just for one reason:
I appreciate having updated planes and sceneries without clicking through several online stores.
When MSFS has reached the 2 year milestone, we all will have lots of add ons and it is annoying to check on several websites, if updates are available.
Edit:
Unfortunately updates are published with big delay in the MS marketplace. Hope it will be faster soon.
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This why FSX was such a learning experience for me, actually it taught me a few things of NOT what to do. What you mentioned here is one of them. I downloaded stuff from all over the place and ran into this exact problem, especially when a bug or glitch began showing up. A nightmare as files and sub-folders were scattered everywhere in accordance to the dev notes.
So now I have told myself to either download from the marketplace or flightsim.to exclusively and if something needs to be placed outside the Community folder I don’t touch it for the above reason.
The one thing I do like about flightsim.to is that upon logging in it lets you know exactly which files you have previously downloaded AND will let you know if there is indeed a newer version out also.
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Definitely do not use the marketplace unless you are absolutely sure that you’re not going to move between XBox gamepass and Steam. Your market purchaces will be lost if you do. Despite speaking to various departments in Microsoft I can’t get my money back unlike comments in simmilar posts.
This seems really wrong to me because you actually buy ‘Flight Simulator Credits’ which are then used to buy the DLC against your FlightSim account, but Flight Simulator wipe their hands of this and say on the support pages to contact the Microsoft Marketplace.
Personally - I strongly recommend steering clear of the market place and purchasing directly from developers.
Marketplace just like direct sales have their PROs/CONs. Guess it’s an individual choice as to what works best for you?
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For me the choice is easy for planes: If you buy from the Marketplace, then the configuration files will be hex encoded and very difficult to edit.
You cannot do a fast 2 minute simple effectiveness change on elevator, ailerons, or the rudder. Changing effectiveness of these three from 1.0 to 0.2 will greatly reduce the wild movements near the extremes of controller position. Changing the ‘sensitivity curve’ cannot do this.
You cannot do a simple and quick 2 minute movement of station_loads forward to alter the center of gravity. If for instance a plane tends to turn sideways sharply after wheels touch down, a simple shift of cargo or passengers toward the nose would have greatly reduced that problem. In real life, and in a simulation.
These are fair alterations and done in real life by real pilots and supervisors all the time.
I do not fly the premium edition nor marketplace planes. Because most 3rd party sale planes and the standard edition planes have text editable (notepad) configuration files. I fly these all the time.
Your honor, after the latest update today I would like to withdraw my objection to the Deluxe, Premium, and Markeplace planes.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em! (they are A-OK number 1 now).
I don’t want to use many store for just one game. So I buy only on ingame store.
There is less content and update intervalls are bigger. But MS validation is, in my opinion, a guarantee for optimum compatibility and quality.
In addition, potentially PC purchases of Marketplace can be compatible on Xbox (as for other MS games such as Forza). Yes, it’s just a supposition, but for third party store you can be 100% certain that your purchase won’t be compatible with Xbox.
I also wonder, for every purchase from the marketplace, you get FlightSim credit points on your acount - what is the use of that? Totally i personally got 699 flightsim points until now (from sept. 2020 until jan 14 2021) .
Before i could buy items from the marketplace with my creditcard, now they force me to buy FligthSim credits, and this is impossible for me. Clear defined questions to the Flight simulator support site are never answered to the point, but they allways refer to the Microsoft support site, which by the way serves you with looped answers, without any satisfactory solution.
A very long story short: Marketplace because my money goes to both Microsoft and developer and all my addons are in a single place. No need to find username, password etc to reinstall if needed.
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External vendor.
The is no itemized receipt/proof of purchase provided when you buy through the Marketplace. There is therefore no way to prove what you own should something “go wrong” - this is a major issue and a year from now once everybody has been buying things for a while and losing track of what they bought and when…
As I am planning a full OS and game reinstall I really just don’t want to take that risk when I can buy from an outside vendor, be able to backup the installer/files somewhere else and also have an itemized receipt to prove ownership in case of mishaps.
The issues some have is definitely a risk.
MS needs to fix that.
But then, I see the ingame store is a benefit, as I don’t need to check 10 websites to get updates or install my sceneries.
I had no problem up to now when shopping in MarketPlace: Mooney M20R, Piper PA44 y WACO basically. All through Paypal.
I’m sticking to marketplace purchases. I fly on two computers, each at a different location. With the marketplace, when I logon with my Microsoft account, all my purchases are available on both machines and my log books sycronize from the cloud.
With community purchases, add-ons aren’t licensed for multiple machines. If I were to buy the new Just Flight PA-28R Arrow from their web store, I would need a separate account on each machine and have to buy the airplane twice. That’s a non-starter for me.
Side note: I understand Just Flight plans to make the Arrow available through the marketplace in the future.
I avoid Marketplace if I can, their updates take way too long.
How? You download a zip folder from whatever third party store. There is no DRM or any registering. Or did some developers find a way?