And yet even IFE’s planes don’t meet the requirement of the OP.
You probably need to wait some time until quality freeware appears.
The Zibo 737 has shown that freeware can be as good as or better than payware. But such projects don’t happen overnight.
As to professional 3rd party creators making quality planes in the 5$ range, that’s not very realistic. Your best bet in that regard would actually be Asobo who seem to be planning to release new planes at pretty low prices themselves. The first one they released was 10$.
As an Fsx, P3D V1,2,3,4 + 5, Xplane11 and Msfs2020 owner, the only thing I can tell you, is that we should be thankful to have the option to buy such expensive add-ons. Some of us love complexity and realism (whatever that means in the end?) and are ready to PAY for it. I actually enjoy spending 70 dollars or more for a well developed add-on. I always think of it like this: F**C it, the mere fact that a team of people cares enough to spend years developing and refining a study level airliner, turboprop, historic aircraft etc, SHOULD and HAS TO BE honored with adequate financial compensation for the hard working developers (I love you guys). There are so many planes I’d love to see and fly, in as much detail and fidelity as possible, and money flow is the only way to maintain this dream and to see more amazing planes in the future. Less product cost = less fidelity = ultimately less long term fun and immersion.
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Just my 2c:
It’s not cheap to develop a new plane - if done well.
I am happy to pay north of 100 eur for a plane, if it’s accurately modeled, with good authentic audio, fully simulated cockpit, correct flight model and comes with good documentation.
Just bought the JustFlight Piper Arrow bundle, which I think is really a bargain for what you get.
If you get to learn a new aircraft it’s almost like a new simulator.
I think it would also be a matter of quality which is a bit of a paradox.
Let’s say you spent 1 man year on a plane (that’s not much) and you decide to sell it for 5$. You sell 20,000 copies for 100,000 $ and after you deduct the cut and taxes etc it would be decent compensation for your efforts. Right?
The problem is however, how can a small, part time developer, in a competitive market with other developers, hope to sell 20,000 units? Well you’d need to a really good product. And in order to deliver a product that is superior you need more than 1 developer but also graphic, programming, sound specialists, you need audio recordings and expensive tools, you need licenses, a lawyer and so on. And then you realize that the price would be somewhere between 30-70 $
So in the end it’s probably much easier to sell half as many copies for 40$ but through providing a superior product. At least that’s the theory. Many developers never find the right spot where they break even and then try to fib. But thats another story still.
Or would you pay 5$ for a product that is not better than the best freeware?
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Too many harsh answers to the OP.
MSFS has gathered together not only flight simmers but also gamers interested in a flying game.
Many people are looking and will be looking for cheap planes with little or no attention to systems to fly around and enjoy the scenery, they only want the visuals, liveries and that it responds to the basic flight controls.
I believe that sooner or later some company will exploit that niche for very good profit, I mean models in the $5-$20 range should be doable if you only need an exterior model and basic flying.
It is similar to what CaptainSim did but they were not very open about their target audience.
As many others I have no interest at all in such a thing but we should understand the users that want those planes and share the forum with them in a civilized way.
In my mind it would be a good idea in the future to have an “Arcade models” section for such planes so the users looking for them can enjoy them, buy them and fly them around and those interested in flight simming can just skip. It is just giving each product a proper name and “Arcade Model” vs “Simulation Model” sounds reasonable to me it might help get a cleaner marketplace and also the forum.
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I.E. and yes that includes simmers that sometimes enjoy a little “relaxation”. I’m a born and bred nailed in the wood liberal, if it doesn’t hurt anyone else then why the hell not?!?!
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In the spirit of the OP, Cars that don’t cost $20,000 - $60,000 would be great…
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Did you know that James May (have a google) very recently made a youtube video detailing his new Toyota Mirai, a hydrogen powered car. This new Mirai is his 2nd one, and due to the number of people purchasing hydrogen powered vehicles having gone up significantly since he bought the first one…this new one was priced cheaper.
Yes indeed, you read that right, the price of a new car went down…due to the size of the market increasing. Wow, my GCSE economics teacher was right all along!
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I’m willing to pay as much as $3000 for one
So…a Chinese copy of a Dacia Sandera?
No I want a quality automobile.
As a reminder, this topic is about aircraft, not automobiles.
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It is. He’s saying he wants study level airliners for £3 each, doesn’t accept the argument that as a product’s market gets bigger the price generally drops and is using cars as a reductio ad absurdum argument.
Honestly it is deserved. This is my first flight sim and I was well aware of which companies made the best 3rd party stuff and how much it cost on other flight sims. 2 minutes of research quickly opened my eyes when the first payware dropped for this game. I bet next time OP actually does research before making a complaint thread in which the prices he is complaining about are super cheap all things considering.
I do agree with what you said as well but people need to learn to research stuff.
If you compare these prices with other game add-ons, lootboxes, packages etc, than these are quite fair prices in my opinion.
And just like when i was a little boy in a candyshop, sometimes I need to make desiscions to.
In the end, the chase is most of the times more fun than the kill.
Just read about the product, watch reviews and decide if this price, quality, design is worth your money/time.
Personally i dont care so much about the pricetag and quantity but more about quality. Sometimes you buy things that you regret, and so did in this sim.
For example, my money only goes now to airports and “studylevel” aircrafts. The addon citypacks i pass, because i will wait patience on the worldupdates. And to be honoust, most flights i do are ifr so before i can enjoy the scenery, iam allready above that level that the extra (vfr) detail doesnt matter anymore.
If you bought a Nissan would you complain to the dealer that it’s not as equipped as a Mercedes?
You get what you pay for and nobody is forcing anyone to buy.
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I wouldnt buy a car overnight but first dig a bit in the specs. If the promised specs dont match what iam buying, than i certainly would complain.
If you judge the book only by its cover or better said product by its promotionvideo than thats just ignorance.
No reason to blame others if you didnt do your homework well enough.
I think of aircraft in sims as a “game within a game”. Well made aircraft take an exceptional amount of research and development, so you are effectively buying a new simulation (the aircraft), which sits inside your existing simulation (the flight simulator). I have happily paid well over $80 for well made / study level aircraft. They are magnificent pieces of work that deserve a fair market price.
People unable to afford the high price, as with most things, can benefit from sales when prices drop significantly.
MS needs to police the quality of products in their store though. There are products that fall short and this erodes the ability of good developers to deliver future products when bad developers are profiting more from items that are “mutton dressed as lamb”.
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I think it’s really funny how some here are so happy to spend MORE.
Caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware.)