Of course not. It will receive updates containing fixes and improvements, some new features etc. Once all that has slowed down so much that no new update is expected for the next couple of months it is considered „stable“ and will be pushed towards the marketplace.
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No they couldn’t. They are not allowed to release updates to their store version until the update is available at the marketplace. This would slow everything down by months.
People have game pass to get access to all kinds of games and not just MSFS. We had people who tried the game via game pass and than bought the game on steam. I wouldn’t have bought it if it would have been a windows store exclusive.
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That isn’t a very relevant point. They still play MSFS regardless of how they acquired it.
Yeah. I’m very, very familiar with people who say “either it’s on steam or I won’t buy it!!!” I’m also pretty confident that it’s a vastly outnumbered but vocal minority.
Thankfully, I’m fairly sure most people still care more about the games than about the Store/DRM they buy it on. 
But hey, if you want to divert money from the developers to the only party in the equation that has done literally nothing to create a product (neither by creating the add-ons themselves or by creating the tools to make them), more power to you.
I’m keener on making sure my money goes to the right people.
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In my country, f/x rates are too high. The price of these addons is about 15-20% of the minimum wage. But in the marketplace and steam, there is some sort of regional pricing. So despite I don’t want producers to suffer from these commissions, I have to buy from the marketplace or steam
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Mathijs from aerosoft wrote on their forum after the release of the CRJ and when an important patch was needed that aerosoft wasn’t allowed to release the patch quicker outside the marketplace since the addon plane is also available on there simply due to “marketplace contract issues”. so, even though some of us didn’t buy the plane there we had to wait a couple of days even though the patch was ready to be released just because of marketplace issues slowing down the release.
as a reference:
Rest assured that Microsoft chose to do so because it was a sound business decision. The estimated extra sales numbers more than make up for the reduced revenue per copy.
As for Steam’s revenue cut being ridiculous, 35% is probably comparable to what your hardware pusher took when you bought your computer. They also added no value to the product but took care of the retail distribution for the manufacturer. Steam is a retail seller with direct contact to millions of potential customers. This is enough to make it worth 35%.
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By that logic you shouldn’t buy anything on this planet. If you are buying an iPhone is your money going to the poor guy in the Chinese factory or does it go to Apple? We can play this game for everything you can find in a store.
Creating a software alone won’t get you food on the table. You need to market and distribute it which is the job of places like Steam. If PMDG would be good enough at marketing they wouldn’t need the MSFS marketplace. They could push their own store to the max and get 100%. Oh wait…PMDG isn’t big enough or doesn’t have the resources for a big campaign? Well i guess they need to hire a company and make less money…
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This is misleading.
Valve is taking 30/25/20%, not 35%. It depends on the sales, the more you sell the less you pay. MS recently announced they lowered their cut to 12% for MS store.
Every addon which is not on marketplace simply doesn’t exist for me. It’s either steam or no buy.
According to Mathijs: “In the end it hardly matters, this time there was a complication that delayed things 2 days, but normally the delay is one day maximum.”
So hardly a reason not to sell through the market place. It’s all about the money, and very shortsighted on the part of PMDG, JustFlight and the likes.
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the customer affected and in need for the patch is most likely going to differ… users tend to go crazy - proven by many many posts after asobo updates the sim and things broke once again - even when things are delayed for just some minutes…
and in the end it took almost three days for aerosoft to get the patch out forcing mathjis to make another post regretting the situation and the longer than expected delay.
Both PMDG and JustFlight have provided VERY sound reasoning why they haven’t yet submitted their stuff for Marketplace. Just because you don’t agree with it, doesn’t make them invalid. Product stability IS huge - look how many updates JustFlight has published so far on the Arrows - more than 7! When the cadence slows down, it will happen. Just like PMDG. Those of us who choose to have the product right away buy direct. Otherwise, you can wait.
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There are plenty of opportunities to buy things directly from their creators, so this is obviously incorrect.
You can’t always do it, but in many cases, you can, and this is one.
Steam isn’t needed at all to purchase MSFS or any related product.
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Most if not all add-ons exist in an identical form on X-Plane and P3D. So we’re not here because of the addons that already exist on crappier sims. We’re here because of the platform Microsoft and Asobo has produced and is still supporting at huge expense. Your $60 initial outlay isn’t going to cover the costs incurred every time you fire up the sim forever. Seeing addon devs not supporting the platform to make a few extra bucks is what ticks me off. All the bs about the frequency of updates is just that… pure bs. They can easily push an update once a day or every couple of days at the most.
It’s just wrong.
Except that’s not how Marketplace functions today. If it was a better platform that was suited to getting users getting their updates in a timely manner and didn’t suffer from things like DRM causing CTDs for 2 aircraft now, maybe they’d support it more. If the Marketplace was, for instance, as good as Orbx Direct with updates, I’d have no beef purchasing products there. That was my original plan! Then it had to change because for me as a consumer, the Marketplace is currently implemented horribly. They also did a lot to damage the reputation of the Marketplace. So don’t put it all on devs or consumers. Go knock on Microsoft’s door and ask them why their storefront is terrible.
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I never had a problem with the Marketplace. Granted, It’s not perfect. But providing feedback and bug reports will certainly yield better results than not supporting it. But let’s not kid ourselves… that is not the reason why PMSG and the likes are selling “new” releases on the side.
Was wondering about this as well. PMDG certainly seems to contradict what was said on the Aerosoft forum, in 2nd link you provided. Maybe in a future Asobo Q&A they can expand on the Marketplace policies, to help determine the best place to purchase items. Would prefer to use the in-game Marketplace as much as possible.
The best place to purchase is clearly the in game market place:
1 - You get your add-ons on PC and XBOX
2 - You don’t have to deal with downloading and running executables and activation codes from a gazillion different small-time shops.
3 - You don’t have to share your payment info with said small-time shops
4 - You can update all your add-ons with one click in the content manager.
5 - You support the platform so that they don’t slap us with a subscription fee if there is no support from the add-on devs and the community.
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All sound reasons, but the list is a bit biased.
As cons, and purely for the sake of argument:
- Most of the times addons are cheaper elsewhere
- Purchasing on the in-game marketplace will not guarantee the add-on in question will run on both PC and XboX (MS content and Asobo content will, the rest is up to individual developers)
- I don’t think anyone should fear a subscription fee coming for at least 9 more years.
But in general, everybody should just buy where he/she prefers.
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“clearly” may be a bit of an overstatement. It may be “clear” according to your personal priorities, which you listed, and it’s fine, but many may feel that directly supporting developers is a priority outweighing those.
I know I do.
Supporting Microsoft is also a priority, but a less pressing one, so I’ll buy on the marketplace if direct purchase options are not available.
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