Piracy is becoming a huge problem and one of the reasons why most developers don’t switch strictly to the MSFS in-game store is because how long it takes for updates to be approved and published.
The team at MSFS needs a dedicated team just for publishers. A team where they can approve updates, approve future creators/publishers and also have the team to takedown stolen mods via request with the assistance of Cease of Desist letters. This addition will be very beneficial in the long-run.
As a Developer, (putting myself in the developer shoes) if I have a plane on the marketplace for $50 and a customer buys it, I should be able to provide them with countless updates/hotfixes within that week to give them the most customer satisfaction I can give them. I shouldn’t have to make them wait 1 or 2 weeks for an update/hotfix to release.
In short, updates should take no more than 1 business day to approve and have that new add-on or update published on the marketplace within that hour of being approved. MSFS, support your Partners not piracy theft.
These screenshots below are from a private server where piracy exists. I joined the server under a fake name to see how they handle DRM and how they get add-ons for free, then ban them (if they have mutual servers with me).
The in-game store is uncrackable for Piracy. We need this storefront update to improve the longevity of MSFS for the next 10 years that Asobo wants this game to exists (based on QA’s stated in Dev Streams). If the Third-Party Partners aren’t supported correctly, add-ons will die and developers will stop supporting the game and support X-Plane 12 instead.
