Why are so many products not (yet) available on the MSFS marketplace? As a consumer I see the marketplace as a great way to keep all my products in one place. With X-Plane it was a very time consuming business to keep all products up to date and working all the time and so I refuse to buy anything outside of the marketplace for now. I may decide to go and buy stuff outside of the marketplace when necessary, but I’d rather not.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a great thing to be able to buy stuff outside of the marketplace as to prevent Apple App store monopoly situations. But I’m curious what the reasons are behind so many products not being available on the marketplace. If it’s the costs I’d rather pay a little more than having to go outside the marketplace for instance.
I’m also not stating that the marketplace is perfect as I think it’s pretty slow and hard to browse. The screenshots, especially those at the bottom which can’t be enlarged are a bit of joke. A web based version accessible from outside the sim would be very welcome, one that is connected to the sim. So if I buy something in the web version the in-sim marketplace should pick it up and download it.
There is an ongoing debate as to which method is better. Some favor getting their products direct from the source, others from a single outlet. The problem with the Marketplace is its backlog. They get submissions daily and each one has to be approved. The once it’s out, if the dev makes an update, then that has to be resubmitted and put through the same approval process. If you get something direct from the source, then you can get access to patches and bug fixes much easier.
I also believe (someone correct me if I’m wrong) that due to the “E” rating from the ESRB, they don’t allow anything with visible weapons. So if you want a Spitfire or Corsair, you won’t be getting one from the Marketplace, although sourcing those from a third party is perfectly acceptable.
I believe the main reason is that the products have to meet some standard of testing and be vetted by MS/Asobo. Now, what that actually looks like I’m not sure, as we have seen bugs with products available from the marketplace such as the M20R.
Yep, the whole vetting process is pretty anti-customer. I gave up on the Marketplace pretty quickly when I realized that buying from there would generally mean a two-week wait after something was released. For me, that is too much of a downside and I won’t likely be using the Marketplace for any future purchases unless that issue is addressed.
SDK needs to mature, and MS-Asobo needs to increase cadence on delivering TPM fixes to the Marketplace. But hidden within that is how to vet changes inside their own update schedule for the Sim itself. The latter will probably get easier now that they’ve moved to 30 day cycle instead of two week Agile Sprints.
Marketplace is really frustrating at this time of the year.
I already love the App Store on my iPhone, so I am totally into the idea of the marketplace: One place to get it all, one-click updates and especially not having to deal with an UI-hell like Simmarket.
But this update-cycles are shameful. At the moment there are six Airports I would buy instantly. From developers like Justsim (EFHK), Sim-Wings (EDDM), DigitalDesign (EGGP), Pilotplus (EGMC), or Flytampa (YSSY) - Developers, so reputable you don’t think, you just hit buy. About ten additional airports are on my list to at least take a look at. Nearly all of them aren’t available in the Marketplace since weeks (only YSSY is like ten days missing).
I really hope MS/Asobo will at some time in the future keep up with the update-cycles.
When Aerosoft comes out with the CRJ I will buy wehre it is available. If this is not the marketplace, I’m done with it. I mean, come on. Aerosoft is distribution partner - if they cannot get their products in the marketplace in time, who will? At least, this will be my benchmark.
I buy and will continue to buy airplanes from the Marketplace but I do not buy airports from there.
There have been too many instances where scenary makes the sim crash or CTD, personally. The devs are quick to fix that on their own portals or simmarket but not on Marketplace.
So, a new Marketplace Update and at least one airport of my list (London Southend EGMC) finally made it. Alongside the Eurofighter from Bredok3D.
How can anyone at MS/Asobo say with confidence, they are quality-checking everything as excuse for the slowness in Marketplace Updates - but let this Frankenstein-Fighter in?
I did file a bug report the other day on this slow procedures, since it must be a result of a bug that already quality-proven airports are not showing in the marketplace.
Since the arrival of the Eurofighter I am even more convinced that the marketplace is buggy!
Well, you should report a bug if you are filing a bug report. So, the missing airports etc. in the marketplace “must” be a “bug” in order to report them, right? Simply because you cannot report a stupid business decision.
It’s a shame that lately the quality of some products in the official marketplace is low.
Out of it, you can have the freedom to buy and download what you want. But the in game marketplace should be the best of the best or almost. Some products since the start of December are low quality!!!
Including all the other rated content, to meet an E rating on ESRB one must avoid frequent or intense depictions of violence.
For reference:
Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator has an E rating.
Microsoft® Flight Simulator X: Acceleration Expansion Pack has an ESRB of E10+ (Mild Violence). With no description of why it received that rating.
The reality is E10+ is a perfectly fine rating for MSFS. I don’t expect people under the age of 10 to be playing MSFS. Nor think it sensible to be advertised to people nine years old and under.
So a blanket ban on depicting war machines (that don’t have any functional weapons) is odd. Military aviation is a enormous part of aviation history and still to this day represents the cutting edge of aviation.
Losing that from the marketplace over the difference between and E and an E10+ rating would be a deeply disappointing reason if that is the case.
Microsoft needs to improve their ingestion process. It takes months for a new product to appear on the marketplace (Flytampa Las Vegas took over 3 months). Wing 42’s Bleriot xi which was released months ago is still on the queue for Microsoft to put it on the marketplace. And each subsequent product update takes another 1 month to come to the marketplace. @RoyalTot promised us before new year that the marketplace team will be expanded and the updates will be available faster. What happened to that?
… and in a weekly update of new products (~15-20 new products), there are up to 5-6 products from only a single low-rating developer which have been announced just very shortly before that (e.g. MSSceneryBuilder). While high-quality products like from FlyTampa took months to appear in Marketplace. How does Asobo give so high priority to that developer???
Those ratings also say something, FlyTampa Las Vegas Airport/City Bundle got more than 100 good ratings within only 48 hours. While a lot of sceneries from low-rating developers are below dozen after many weeks on the MarketPlace.
I do hope people who work for approval process in MarketPlace have also some knowleges about sim market and expectations from community, not only sit in office and do well their technical tasks there.
In the last Q&A Jorg made it clear that Microsoft will not curate the marketplace. His statement will encourage less talented developers to put out sub-par content. I respect Microsoft’s decision but they have to approve products way faster. Flytampa, orbx airports should not be on the queue behind the 50 worst airports waiting to get on the marketplace. At least Microsoft should release them all at the same time.
I think that one of the reasons why flightsim.to has taken off (pun intended) so quickly is that the freeware aspect of development really isn’t covered well by the Marketplace (if at all). IMO, and I’m just a subscriber - not a mover and shaker - it has become the “goto” place for free add-ons, just as flightsim.com and avsim.com were for earlier iterations of the sim. I think that it would be helpful if either sites like flightsim.to were either linked to the marketplace, or of the freebie market could be encouraged on this website in some way, perhaps by the use of a portal to encourage non-commercial developers and fan sites to have access to the members of this official site.
Simply because you cannot report a stupid business decision.