The exchange rate of REAL->USD was adjusted to match what current Foreign Exchange is. What was done before was the exchange rate as it was 4 years ago.
I get hat it is a big shock to suddenly see effective prices go up. And we all know, the exchange rate varies daily.
also less, the combined GDP of the G7 countries is about 44 trillion US dollars in 2024.
Mate, I think you must have missed some of the comments above.
Microsoft is using an exchange rate of 1 USD = 6.6 BRL on the marketplace. The exchange rate today is 1 USD = 5.45 BRL. Microsoft is using an exchange rate that is 21% higher than the actual exchange rate.
When MSFS 2020 was released in 2020, the exchange rate was 5.54 BRL. Since then, it has varied between a maximum value of 5.71 BRL and a minimum value of 4.68 BRL. Today the value is 5.45 BRL. This means that there has been no significant variation in the exchange rate and today itās actually slightly lower than when MSFS 2020 was released.
As I have repeated many times, if they no longer want to have an advantage over other stores and donāt want regional pricing anymore, thatās fine. But they should apply the actual exchange rate that all other stores use.
US prices are exclusive of tax, you mentioned that sales tax is high in Brazil, are prices there inclusive or exclusive of tax, and could that explain the difference?
1 USD = 5,46 in August 18, 2020
1 USD = 5,53 today, October 9, 2024
Why did you do this, guys? 6,6 is insane.
Taxes from your government?
Taxes can have a significant impact on final prices. In Brazil, there are several taxes that can be levied on digital products and services, such as the ICMS (Imposto sobre CirculaĆ§Ć£o de Mercadorias e ServiƧos), which can vary in amount depending on the state.
Additionally, other taxes such as the ISS (Imposto sobre ServiƧos) or the PIS/COFINS could also play a role. These taxes can significantly increase the price of digital products and services, thus contributing to the higher costs you mentioned.
In fact, the tax is not that high. When purchasing a digital product in foreign currency with a credit/debit card, the IOF is charged at a rate of 4.38%. These other fees that were mentioned by someone above, some are only applied to the purchase of physical products from abroad.
In the case of PMDG 777-300ER that I have seen mentioned before: If you buy it at the PMDG Store: $74.99, which converted at the current exchange rate of 1 USD = 5.59 BRL, is approximately R$419. Applying the 4.38% tax, the total is R$437.35.
On the Marketplace, it costs R$494.95. A difference of R$57.6
As I said, even with the taxes, the total value of the purchase of products from external stores is still lower than the price charged on the marketplace and the more expensive the add-on, the greater the difference.
XBox buyers are a small fraction of overall marketplace sales. Less than 1% of XBox simmers buy $500 or more of add-ons. PC buyers, on the other hand, spend more, both on initial hardware, controls, upgrades, and marketplace purchases.
Supply and demand - developers always have the option to lower prices to increase sales. Every week, I check the sales - a good sale Iāll buy 5-10 airports. No sale, Iāll buy nothing. In the last 30 days I bought 48 add-ons in the marketplace.
Serious simmers will spend if the price is right. Cut thevprice 40% for a week, gets attention, makes 10x as many sales and a lot more money.
FYI, this slide, shown at the FSExpo Sunday Presentation, shows the Marketplace Revenue by Platform:
If you are interested in more marketing statistics, you can watch the presentation here.
I didnāt bother to read everything but let me explain what should be obviousā¦
If the developers live in a Western country and must make several 10ās of thousands of dollars to make a living at a minimum, why should they sell what hey spent time and effort making for less simply because someone makes less. Do I have to pay 1/1000th what Elon Musk does just because he makes more than me? Letās be serious hereā¦ Be thankful for any price breaks you get no matter who you are or where you live.
ā¦but, at the extreme, if you raise the price to a point where nobody can afford it and no units get sold, the developers and MS arenāt going to make any money at all, from the target market.
Iām not saying that this point has been reached, but there will more-often-than-not be a relationship between the price of a product and the number of units sold. The trick for the seller is to find a āsweet spotā, where they can maximise their total profit. OK, the ācaptive audienceā for Xbox will skew that a little, but there will still be limits as to affordability.
Ultimately, if MSFS Marketplace sales in Brazil now drop significantly, as they may well do, given the previous comments in this thread, MS will need to decide whether that is acceptable or whether they should adjust their pricing.
This seems to conflict with the information which SmotheryVase665 has provided above and with a source link too.
Are you 100% sure about your claim here?
Could you provide your source too please?
You will never be able to please everyone because there are too many differences in the world.
We have an expensive hobby, which is considered an expensive hobby even in the western world. Unfortunately, it is a reality that people from poor countries have a harder time getting into this hobby, and what happened in the previous four years was simply not normal and surprised me.
The purchasing power of all people is very different and you could turn the tables and say that it wasnāt fair before and that people from poorer countries were given much preferential treatment.
I mean, the many crises in this world wonāt make things any better in the future and inflation sucks, but thatās the world we live in.
You will never be able to make everyone happy.
Developers control the base price of their goods, irrespective of exchange rates. Thatās why sales generate more revenue overall - people who wonāt buy 1 unit at full price (so zero revenue) will buy half a dozen at half price.
Software isnāt like hard goods - it doesnāt cost 6x as much to produce 6x the number of units.
Want more income? Lower the price enough, and a lot of people will buy it who had no intention to, broadening your client base.
Yup, for the developer, recovering the costs of development will be their first objective and then paying for the ongoing development/maintenance.
As you say, the variable costs arenāt the same as they would be for a piece of hardware, for example,
For MS, there will be costs associated with running the Marketplace, but the vast majority of those costs will need to be met, regardless of how many units they sell.
Iām sure this number will increase even more in 2024. PC is no longer unanimous for MSFS. We expect fairer prices.
XBox revenue includes gamepass sales (recurring payments for ārentingā games.) XBox even said that only 1% of XBox users spend more than $500 in the marketplace.
Itās simple XBox is the ālow rent districtā of gaming, people with the funds buy/build PCs for the better experience. The XBox S is the lowest of the low - mostly either kids who got it as a gift from their parents, or people on income support (try doing charity work and youāll see people on welfare with an XBox S and gamepass because they can āmake the paymentsā for gamepass but donāt have the scratch for buying premium deluxe in one shot.
Donāt criticize me for making this observaation - it comes from years and years of volunteer work with the poor. I donāt like it any more than you do. Try volunteering, or a job working with the poor - itās the same as the joke āthe only people who have 4 kids under 10 nowadays are those on welfare, because they can afford it.ā
If I sound cynical itās because Iāve spent thousands of hours volunteering in food banks, and now homeless shelters (huge problems getting and retaining volunteers for homeless shelters, for reasons I wonāt get into).
I can only speak about Brazil, where I live. A Series S here costs around 3K BRL, the minimum wage here is around 1.4K BRL. A Series X costs 4K BRL. I have a Series S because itās what I could afford at that moment and it will be like that until I can have a Series X. Iām a casual simmer, I donāt care about complex avionics or high-end PCs that my money canāt buy. My complaint about Marketplace prices revolves around the added value that the product should deliver. Currently the SIM has a lot of bugs and its LOD is terrible. I have 130 addons purchased and shelved because of the bad experience. I hope this reality changes in MSFS24.
Iām going to complain to Phil Spencer who made it available on the XBOX, which allowed people who didnāt have access to a flight simulator before. 
His speech is purely elitist and goes against what Asobo is trying to do, which is to make it as accessible as possible.
