I really think you are drawing your conclusion from what you fear rather than what was said today.
The main difference this time is a new contract. Devs need to opt in to sell their stuff in 2024.
Their addons will be automatically ported to 2024 like they are automatically ported to Beta versions of new SUs, just to give devs an opportunity to check how their stuff works and to make tweaks if needed to remain perfectly compatible. But the devs must give MS the ok this time before their addons will be sold in 2024.
Yes, many dev teams are small, often just one or two people, but they all make their living selling addons, so they are really skilled at keeping the stuff they already developed in stores to be sold.
Just one day prior it was said that an airliner could be upgraded to the 2024 physics in an hour. So no.
We’ve seen significant upgrades already in the current sim. V2 versions of planes, complete overhauls, remodelings, new flight models, sound sets, new avionics suites. All updates are free. Developers sometimes keep working on aircraft for years after release, free for existing owners.
The second speaker made an interesting comment - something to do with the number of users who sadly brought their content elsewhere. I want to highlight three main reasons I tend to buy elsewhere:
No Proof of Purchase:
Legality aside, customers should be given a receipt via email (and ideally also one visible in game) whenever they purchase something on the marketplace.
I remember dealing with one community member on the forums who posted because he/she woke up one day to find items missing from their simulator. I asked them to contact support as I could not help them as a moderator but one of the issues they had was they couldn’t tell support exactly what they had brought or when. They had to rely on their memory, which is just not okay.
It also means you can’t go to a developer and say, “look here I brought your product” - can I get the update via your store while I wait for the update to be released through the marketplace, something that could have been a very reasonable workaround whilst marketplace ingestion has been painfully slow.
User Reviews:
The current star system lacks context. It’s a bit like asking someone on a scale of 1-10 how much pain are you in? My 10 will be different to the OPs, and to the person who is a commercial captain. I would like to see the following changes:
When users give a star rating, they are required to write a written review (at least 100 words) that justifies the rating they gave.
Filters I can click on to see reviews by star (e.g., see the reviews with one star)
Give developers the ability to reply to reviews in a way similar to Google Play
This would enable me to look at a product I’m considering purchasing and see what other owners think, it also gives me a way to see if the developer is responsive to issues as I can see whether a developer replies to negative reviews - and how they reply.
Webstore: Allow me to buy items on sale without having to install the sim (currently uninstalled for #reasons), or launch the sim if I’m away from my PC - I have missed out on a sale because of this in the past.
I am not talking about running a MSFS2020 aircraft. through the 2024 SDK and taking advantage of new features if they wish. I am talking about making a significant upgrade to an existing product. You are thinking about this too hard. That is what the upgrade path is for.
I got the sense that they would not be available in 2024 until they were checked by the developer first. (I should rewatch the presentation on that part.)
Do you think, for those of us who have already purchased content (i.e. during 2020’s lifespan) will just have that content ready and available, albeit without the devs testing/blessing?
I didn’t get that sense, and I am not arguing with you here. All friends. I just want to hear your thoughts.
But we have already seen this. I bought most the tropical Caribbean airports. One of those developers released V2 of a couple of their product, but charged full price yet again. I’m sure we will see similar things here. Unfortunately, it has to be a purchasers own perogative what they do since we can’t control what developers may do.
I also thought this. It will be a dual sign off. The dev will have from September til Nov 19th 2024 to send their updated libraries to MSFS. Then MSFS MP team will approve or disapprove the update. Much like the process we have now for the weekly dev & marketplace updates
Since MSFS 2020 itself is going to be supported for at least the next few years (Jorg mentioned Sim Update 24 or something like that), then people who neither want 2024 nor paid updates to addons will be able to continue with their current versions as-is.
I think they’ve done their best to provide the choice, to users and developers, within their marketplace. I’m more concerned about the functionality of the marketplace - such as refund policies, try-before-you-buy, and more specific software compatibility information.
I think this system will just provide an opportunity for developers to charge for insignificant updates that technically put a “2024” label on their products but don’t actually do that much. Updates should remain free. And if 2024 meant such a significant difference then add-ons wouldn’t be compatible in the first place.
I don’t know where you get this from. She clearly said that there’s no new contract as anyone set up for 2020 is already approved for 2024.
All existing addons are ported to 2020 but not made available to customers, MS require developers to retest their products with 2024 to ensure compatibility before they are released into marketplace. Once they are signed off the process is automatic, no bottlenecks from MS.
I think this is reasonable. The alternative is that all products are brought across, but clearly some are no longer relevant. Imagine the outcry if they just re-released everything for sale and a bunch of it didn’t work?
Now it’s down to individual developers to sign their products off and nobody polices their testing, so maybe some of them might just spend an hour clicking buttons and hoping for the best. You have to feel sorry for Dreamscenery, like 1,000 night enhancement products, that is a heck of a lot of clicking!
As to existing owners of addons it’s totally not clear how it works. Obviously the content manager is currently totally separate (something which seems to confuse a lot of users and is a less than optimal design). It’s entirely possible you’ll be able to download content from the content manager even if not signed off for marketplace sale, assuming you already owned it, or it’s also entirely possible you will not be able to until it’s signed off. My guess is the latter but I’m pretty sure she didn’t say, so that’s definitely a guess. And this assumes the content manager wasn’t done away with.
The devs will have to give MS permission to sell their product on 2024 to make it legal. MS doesn’t yet have the rights to sell their property outside 2020.
Consent and a blessing must be given, but MS will port everything over like they do with a new SU beta, so devs can have a few months in beta to make sure everything is up to par.
That will be your choice. Developers cannot continue to develope a product for free forever. It is not sustainable.
It is pretty simple. If you do not want to pay, don’t purchase the upgrade.
I do not understand this mindset of free forever.
This forum is turning into the consumate place of speculation, whining, and complainig about everything unkown. Let’s be happy for what we have and what is to come.
I don’t think that really works. Maybe you want to use something in the new sim with something you had in the old one. Or maybe they’re are others like me, where I’ve only ever had 2020 on gamepass, but I need to reduce my number of subscriptions, and no longer use anything but MSFS, so I plan to cancel gamepass and buy 2024 upfront as soon as it is released, so will lose use of 2020 from that time.
None of us can know that. If they’ve improved the encryption with 2024 (and we know devs have been requesting that due to stolen content) then it’s almost certainly not going to copy across that way.
I got it from the same speaker, when they said it.
You seem to have misinterpreted something else they said, as there will be no need to reapply to become trusted developer who can sell on Marketplace if you were already approved to sell on Marketplace for 2020. But devs will STILL need to give MS approval before MS can allow their 2020 addons to be sold on 2024’s Marketplace.
Marketing speak is weird. Most of us are better wired to hear and understand Jorg and Seb than the folks who presented today!
These folks almost speak a different language.
So we all might need to compare notes for a while to really parse through this all.
I must have dozed off without realising then because I heard that they needed testing for compatibility and didn’t hear they needed signing off for legal reasons. I’d be interested in the quote if you can find it.
Current partners will be partners in FS24, they don’t need to reapply
Their products will be ported to a pre-release state for FS24; however they have to play-test and approve the release of their products on the new platform.
