An exclusive interview with... Miguel Blaufuks, CEO of Simmarket, the famous web and simshop. How does he analyse the FS market ? The strength of Simmarket. FS9/FSX/P3D....and the future.
Airdailyx :
Mr Blaufuks, can you explain to our readers what are the strong points of Simmarket as a distributor ?
Miguel Blaufuks:
Over 15 years in the market, not one day offline, not one payment to any developer ever missed, over 5000 listed products, over 250.000 registered customers, over 1 million orders processed.. need i say more?
ADX - How can you differenciate yourself from other competitors ?
M.B :
That is a question best asked to our clients, we do not offer any affiliates program, we do not offer any points or other rewards for shopping at simMarket. However we offer a reliable and solid platform to our end clients, developers and publishers alike and i believe we have done that in the past years.
To be honest i don't go around snooping at the competition, i often am hinted at shops i have never heard about before. we were the first on the market, we can proudly say that we created the market, modesty aside. seen from our side everyone else came later and made the same thing we were already doing., no one has yet reinvented the market, just enlarged it, which is a good thing.
- You have recently added new servers. Do you have some figures or indicators
on your services and performance rates (on downloads, bandwith, speed...)
M.B :
Without disclosing too much information, we have around 100.000 downloads with a bandwidth usage of over 23 TB [Tera-bytes] of traffic per month. that is why we needed to once again upgrade the server park, i believe it was already the 4th time, we are getting used to doing it :-) This time we did not simply ad new servers, but actually replaced the entire fleet with increased capacities and up to date hardware.
- Can you tell to our readers how Simmarket is able to serve the whole world today
and 24h/24h (if this is indeed the case).
The internet runs 24/7/365 and is universal, how could we work any other way?
- It's a well know fact that distributors take fees from developers for their service.
Are you supporting developpers and young developers and how so?
We have not ever had such programs, might be an idea for the future.
- I think a lot of us are eager to know your opinion about the FS market.
Do you think that multiplying the platforms (FS, X-Plane, Aerofly...) is pertinent and fruitful ?
in fact the more the merrier, simply because it spreads the word. the more people know about flight simulators the bigger the possibilty that they find their way into the hobby.
so pertinent for sure, fruitful on the short run yes, on the long run many projects are abandoned by the users and by the developers themselves for lack of interest and other reasons.
- What is the market share of FS9/FSX/P3D today (according to your own figures).
(maybe at least you could give us some tips)
FSX and with it P3D, is the predominant platform on the market, FS9 is unfortunately loosing market share quicker every year that passes.
- Is the Flight Simulation a promising market ? I mean in a philosophic sense.
Young people are attracted by race simulation but airplanes ? Aren't we all dreaming of airplanes and flying at some point of our existence and will it stay a marginal phenomenon ? What is your intimate opinion about that?
i would say that it is a niche market for a niche hobby. the golden times are long gone of course. the big problem is the current stagnation caused by the void MS left and by the generation change of the hardware, currently the demise of the desktop PC, that is going on. actually it is a promising market which is halted by the above stagnation problem.
yes, flying fascinates everyone just as discovering new worlds does, but we also have to acknowledge that both can nowadays be easier achieved then ever before, be it by new and less costly forms of flight experiences and of course cheaper travelling , although that is not true for all parts of the world.. it is much different now then when the first flight simulator versions hit the market 20 and more years ago.
- What is the futur of distribution to you ? What could be the most promising ways and Tools to sell sceneries and aircrafts ? Twitch? Virtual shops ? 3D virtual shopping malls ?
In an ideal world we would continue to serve our little FS community as is for the next 20 years or so... but realistically i believe that shop forms like simMarket will become obsolete at some point in the not so distant future :-(
I currently see no alternative to a flight simulator if not to run it on an affordable desktop PC but one could imagine a fully new flight simulator concept on a Xbox One console for example... basically a spin off from MSFlight but of course done more sensibly and on a higher technical mindset . kinetic, a keyboard and dedicated hardware could be added for flight controls and of course all add-ons would be purchasable directly online from their included store front. and with this simMarket needs to become a publisher, rather then a sales platform. but time will tell!
Regards,
Miguel Blaufuks (ceo)
Miguel Blaufuks (ceo)
Special thanks to Miguel for all his time on this interview !
ADX
July 13th 2013
DM
simFlight GmbH, Nikolaus-Kopernikus-Str. 4
55129 Mainz, Germany
HRB 41234 Mainz
www.simflight.com www.simmarket.com
8 comments:
Great Interview!
Miguel Blaufuks...now there is a guy who can truly say "I am legend", at least as far as all things concerning flightsimming are concerned ;-)
I agree with him that we are in a strange moment with MS gone away and PC Desktop on crisis.
But there are good things; our hobby has became more serious on developers and stores, ORBX, PMDG, FlyTampa, Simmarket, Aerosoft, FlightSimStore... and many others.
A micro-cosmos has been created and virtual flyers are very demanding (I wouldn't be able to understand a migration to Xbox.. arghhh...)
We have our space in the world, and developers and distributors know us better than MS did, and we all apreciate very much our hobby.
We only need very solid platforms to live on. Perhaps DCS model is best model with its modules. I hope P3D will give us what we need in future too. About Xplane, I would like Laminar to have many more resources.
About Simmarket, I apreciate its discounts, the suport service and that you can find many addons and useful software (FSXtoP3D migration tool, in my case)
Interesting interview. I live in the U.S. and really like SimMarket. I use it for many of the products I purchase. Download speeds are almost never an issue.
It's sad to read, from a lot of sources, about the decline of flight simulation. It is no wonder so many developers give up on their projects and support ends for many others (like RXP). The market is just not there any more. Just look at VA participation. A lot of the former legacy VA's are either out of business or close to it. I'm afraid, however, this new generation is more interested in gaming than flight simulation. I'm not being critical of what they enjoy, just observing their interests are different. And, yes, I do see a difference between gaming and flight simulation. I hope either P3D or X-Plane really takes off and maybe we see a resurgence in our hobby. One can only hope. For the time being, I will enjoy all the new turboprops that hit the market this year and next.
Interesting. I guess he's knows best abouT Fs9 dying fast.
Very interesting interview and insightful perspective.
Thanks for the interview, Miguel. From the photo I think I wouldn't want to play you at Poker...
The future for flight sim, as we know it, looks bleak. Seems like a move away from a PC platform might be necessary in the future.
While I agree with some points, SimMarket was not the first on the market by any stretch. Here at PC Aviator we are now in our 23rd year of retailing flight sim goods to the market :)
Nonetheless there are some other valid points raised by Miguel in regard to future of flight sim. I am a little more optimistic and despite no further development of the MSFS platform, there is still just as much new stuff coming out for it as there has been in past years, so it is still a little way from being dead in the water.
Time will tell.
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