EDIT: please check the post below for the latest marketplace cost structure update by Robert.
PMDG confirmed that their products will be listed on the marketplace. However Robert revealed some information regarding the cost of placing products in marketplace.
" Folks,
Please allow me to add a bit of clarity here to this discussion, as it does seem that there is quite a bit of conjecture and opinion. We haven’t talked too much about our plans for MSFS Marketplace simply because we have been focused on other tasks.
Will PMDG Products Appear in the Marketplace?:
PMDG fully intends to have our products available in the MSFS Marketplace. A small developer like PMDG can gain a much wider market exposure through placement in the MSFS Marketplace, and thus we anticipate fully participating.
How long until this happens?:
We have not yet decided. There are a few factors playing into this decision right now, and the decision is entirely analytical with the goal of ensuring a smooth customer experience above all other factors. We really only have a single concerning factor here, and that relates to our flexibility in updating the products that customers purchase. The normal update lifecycle for a PMDG product is that we release the product and then update it rapidly in response to service reports during the period following release. The rate of updates tends to start out high and the reduce over time because we are simulating a highly, highly complex piece of machinery, often times with very advanced systems and computational processes that sometimes do an effective job of masking problems until the software is employed on a wide array of customer installations. Thus, we tend to work in overdrive to tamp down any issues that appear initially, but the update rate slows dramatically the further you move out along the release timeline, as you would expect.
To facilitate this, we have long used our PMDG Operations Center application to distribute updates to customers. This tool allows us to employ a rapid update cycle to PMDG products that allows us to quickly identify, resolve, test and push fixes for problems in our aircraft in order to ensure a uniform, stable customer experience. This is the primary method for updating PMDG products and has proven to be reliable, quick and simple for the vast majority of PMDG customers.
Unfortunately, there are some technical reasons that prevent us from updating Marketplace originating installations. If we wish to push an update to customers, we can easily hand it to PMDG.com originating customers within minutes, but the update for Marketplace originating customers will take days-to-weeks depending upon the flow of bits through Microsoft’s pipeline. This isn’t some evil plot on the part of MSFS, it is simply an offshoot to how the Marketplace distribution mechanism works.
For this reason, we feel it is highly important to ensure that a product is stable and down to a low-rate of updates before we hand it to the marketplace, and this will be a driver in the decision to begin pushing any PMDG product to the Marketplace. The moment we feel stability is sufficient to allow us to absorb the longer lead-time required for Marketplace update cycles, we will put the product in Marketplace.
What is the Truth About Costs?:
Placing a product in Marketplace is expensive. When an MSFS user purchases a product from Marketplace, Microsoft and sometimes Valve gets paid. For MSFS users who purchased MSFS via MS-Store, Microsoft will take a 30% share. For MSFS users who purchased MSFS via Steam, Valve will take 35% and then MS will take 30% of what remains (effective rate of 54% give-or-take.)
Before anyone howls too loudly: MSFS wasn’t developed on a shoe-string budget, and it exists because Jorg Neuman was able to convince the corporate hive that it would make money. It is in all of our best interest if it makes money- and Jorg’s team, in combination with Asobo have created an environment in which the potential market for products is so significantly larger than the old market that developers like PMDG can be quite healthy if we deliver quality products.
I am less enthusiastic about the value equation of Valve’s contribution, but there is an old saying about “you cannot fight City Hall.”
What About Pricing?:
Pricing will be the same across PMDG.com and Marketplace. Product functionality will be the same across PMDG.com and Marketplace. In a perfect world, you should only notice a difference in the update process and the update cycle time- and if we have done our work properly- you may not even notice that lag.
Okay- so I didn’t read Any of That: When Will DC-6 Be in Marketplace?:
We cannot say at this time, as we haven’t decided yet. It will depend upon our opinion product update stability.
There are many folks with many opinions about whether you should purchase from a developer directly or if it is better to purchase from the Marketplace store. To those of you waging argumentative battle with one another, I offer this:
Do what is best for you, as that is the correct solution for you"
