It is of editor's responsability to send informations and previews times to times - not too often - but at least some glimpse about their work. Honestly, i am worried about how things are evolving.
First, Orbx has decided to slow down announcements and previews. But more of that, we don't have any news from some developers :
Area51 and Apache project, last news : september 17th, 2011
Bajasim LaPaz for FS9, last news : january 2nd. 2012
Boris Forero Quito FS9/FSX : Boris sent me a message a few weeks ago to tell me that he is very busy with some other projects
Real Air is not giving any news any more.
Aviation Multimedia studios has most probably given up on Cancun X.
Taxi2gate doesn't post any preview and doesn't offer us any forum.
Chinese team Elite-Air have probably renounced to update their Shanghai airports.
Overland doesn't show any preview of japanese airports projects anymore.
iFly did not mention any new consistant aircraft project.
The new team XScena supposedly working on Rio Airport has not sent anymore news.
Not to tell about CLS or Captain Sim who seem to have lost some cockpit and dynamics developers on the road....
Etc.
All these teams have responsabilities to the market...and to us.
NB : a word about Tunis Carthage X airport. This project was about to be released by FSADDON+ but there were some misunderstandings between the editor and the developer, who did not send all the materials required (manual, charts) and minor bugs to be fixed.
Frankly, i am the first disappointed about this, since i launched the project in partnership with FSADDON+. Eventually, the developper will probably release its project via another distributor.
10 comments:
These are interesting times. Since becoming addicted to flight sims in the 1980s I've always felt that things have been moving forward. Now it seems people are holding their breath waiting for FLIGHT...
Simmerhead
Addon Devs are dead now. FLIGHT will put the greedy DEVs out of biz when everyone sees how much better FLIGHT is. Microsoft's team are the best in the world.
iFly is working on its 737NG feature pack, which shouldn't take long I think (maybe one month or two, my guess...).
As per Orbx, check this: http://www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/40585-2012/
I guess there are a few reasons for this. Working on a scenery sometimes takes half a year, sometimes a year. If i minor developer is doing that, there is really nothing to show to the public... Only last month is more eye candy.
The other thing might be a rist that someone else will start and finish the project before the original one is finished. Sure it might be much worse quality, but it will still earn a lot of customers.
Not to forget Aerosoft's Frankfurt-Hahn, which appeared in their preview forum in close to release stage.
I understand your disapoinment. It is your "business" to announce forthcoming projects. And this development is sad for you.
But I can very well unterstand the designers, who are more and more cautious with announcements. Read the forums! There are too many people around, who seem to have nothing else to do, than putting pressure on devolopers.
"When is xy eventually published - it´s overdue" ...
That´s how it is!
Kind regards, Klaus
Klaus got it right. The more you tell, the more you hear people complain if you don't make a projected release. You see it yourself on your Billboard, where it says "Quality Wings Bae146/Avro (FS9). Delays... delays...". Why should we give any more release estimates if results in comments like this? Everyone who has ever developed a product himself knows what I'm talking about.
Kind Regards,
Lars Roennig
QualityWings
Yes Lars and Klaus you are 100% correct, releasing ANY kind of info only leads to bitchin and moaning and PMs and emails and public hassling and dissection and complaining and nickpicking, and then if you fail to make your (own) deadline they start up with 'where is it?' and 'its overdue' and 'not happy' and 'you lied' and so on. I am not at all surprised developers are closing up and keeping everything secret, I know I am not ever talking about anything publicly until it is ready to be released, much less stress, this change in policy is purely due to the consumers behavior in 2011
I too understand designers. While many are astonishingly good at designing, they're too often terrible at public relations and media.
Here's a helpful hint gentlemen: Visit Aerosoft (with whom I have no affiliation, save that I enjoy their products) and read through their forums to learn a thing or two.
Mr. Kok et al know how to deal with their public. They understand that previews and updates aren't just a favour to the customer, they're important in creating interest in a product in advance of release to boost initial sales figures.
I'm sure you realise that, with the FS9/X franchise just about over, and no clear replacement at present, if you're going to take many months to develop something for FS9/X you really want to give your sales department every advantage.
I would like now to draw your attention to Digital Aviation, a company that, before being absorbed by Aerosoft, had three complete projects under its belt. Then came the Fokker. It was, as I'm sure you know, released without a VC in an age where VCs were becoming more and more popular.
The VC was promised. If you look, you can see evidence on what's left of their website. That was in 2009. in 2010 a heartfelt message, internal problems, an apology even, and renewed promised that a VC was yet to come. It is 2012 and there is no VC.
Apologies are nice, but what DA should of course have done is offer every customer who purchased the 100 expecting a VC a refund or some other form of compensation. I'm not sure that happened.
Aerosoft is now getting ready to deliver the CRJ--under the DA flag. I would urge all developers to browse Aerosoft's CRJ forum and study how Mr. Kok handles customers who are (rightly so) wary of the DA brand. It's quite instructive.
And Aerosoft deals with the same board traffic that you do. You will notice that Aerosoft does not complain about or blame its customers ever. And believe me, they do complain there as well.
The bottom line? Lars and Klaus and Anonymous have every right, of course, to do what they wish--no one can argue that.
I would kindly and gently urge them, however, to hire someone else to do their media relations--someone who never takes what's posted personally, someone who always remains cool and acts in the best interests of both designer and customer.
If you do that, your are going to find everything is much less stressful--and more profitable even!
This is also how it is,
Peter
Peter, you got some valid points there. However, you seem to overestimate the profit FS Products generate. Aerosoft is a publisher and developer in one and releases somewhat 20+ products a year. We're a small team and maybe release one product within two years if at all. It's easy to say hire someone for PR, but how will you pay the guy? It's not that easy;) Aerosoft and QW are by no means comparable. If you look at what we do as far as marketing and PR is concerned, I doubt you'll find anyone from our team freak out because of a complain. Anyways I get your point. In fact we moved in that very direction by partnering up with Flight1 Software.
Lars
Post a Comment
Comments are now deactivated. Please visit our new website: AirDailyX.net
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.