The recent release of the Flight Sim Labs A320-X, which gives you the basic A320 with IAE and CFM engines only, has spurred a bit of a debate about what is an acceptable price for a FS addon these days. Sitting $99.95 for the FSX version, and rumored to be roughly $140 for the P3D version, the argument isn’t exactly out of left field. The price of addons, especially aircraft, has seemingly skyrocketed over the last six years. So, are these higher prices justifiable or is the community getting squeezed for all they’ve got?

Eight years ago before the release of the PMDG MD-11 we were all enjoying addons such as the Level-D 767, Leonardo Fly The Maddog, and PMDG’s “Boeing Officially Licensed” B747 and B737 for somewhere between $45 to $60. These were the top tier addons with the best systems and visuals, period. It didn’t seem as if it was too big of a deal to expect to pay that much for a quality addon, after all these guys have to make a profit and we are getting a full simulation. PMDG has seemly lead this charge of increasing prices for aircraft addons with their MD-11 being about $20 higher than the normal price at the time, which increased another $15 with the NGX if you get both the base pack and expansion, and then again another $25 with the T7 if you get the base pack and expansion. This is not even consider an even higher price for the P3D versions. Will the new 747 continue this trend? I guess we’ll find out.

But let’s not pretend that PMDG is the only one doing this. For years now people have been willing to pay Carenado upwards of $30-50 for aircraft like Cessna 172’s, Beech King Air’s, and other general aviation aircraft that look amazing but don’t fly nor function even close to the real aircraft. They even come with the default GPS baked right in. As long as the flight simulation community is willing to pay whatever a developer asks, they will not price aircraft reasonably. These are businesses after all, and if people are willing to pay a higher amount, then of course they are going to charge it. That’s the way it works, and unfortunately we have a lot of people willing to drink the developer kool-aid they are spoon fed. Personally, I think more aircraft developers should consider But let’s not pretend that PMDG is the only one doing this. For years now people have been willing to pay Carenado upwards of $30-50 for aircraft like Cessna 172’s, Beech King Air’s, and other general aviation aircraft that look amazing but don’t fly nor function even close to the real aircraft. They even come with the default GPS baked right in. As long as the flight simulation community is willing to pay whatever a developer asks, they will not price aircraft reasonably. These are businesses after all, and if people are willing to pay a higher amount, then of course they are going to charge it. That’s the way it works, and unfortunately we have a lot of people willing to drink the developer kool-aid they are spoon fed. Personally, I think more aircraft developers should consider a model similar to that of Majestic , where you can get a fantastic addon minus some features you may not be interested in for a lesser price. They did a great job with the Q400 Pilot, Pro, and Training editions and even if you only bought the Pilot edition you still get a very in depth and fantastic Q400 simulation for an extremely reasonable $60.

What is interesting about this subject is that it is aircraft that have seen the dramatic price increase but everything else has stayed relatively the same. Now of course prices will go up over the years, it is inevitable. I mean, I can’t buy a candy bar at the store without my grandparents telling me how they use to be a nickle “back in their day”. While aircraft are probably the most time consuming and complex things you can make for a flight simulator, the scenery development world has seen their own amazing technology advancements and yet hasn’t raised the prices much, if at all.

Look at FSDreamTeam as a good example. They released their Los Angeles International scenery in 2011 for $38. When released it was one of the best on the market, but today it appears to be using technology and methods no longer employed with the FSDT group. They just released their Memphis scenery, with full P3D avatar support allowing you to walk up into the tower cab, for a whopping $34. Less than their aging LAX scenery, but with better technology and techniques. So while FSDT could have easily bumped the price up well over $40 claiming “new technology advancements”, they did not. Good on them.

An interesting player in the scenery world is ORBX. This is a developer that has brought us some truly jaw dropping scenery and revolutionary technology. The way they price these addons does make you raise an eyebrow though. All of their airport scenery’s come with a prerequisite which you could say really jack the price up high. They have airports that are “standalone” FTX Global airports, and FTX Region airports. The FTX Global airports require you also have their FTX Global Base addon installed which will run you about $99 AUD/ $75 USD, couple that with the price of the airport you are buying at $40 AUD/ $30 USD and you’re looking at over $100 USD for an airport scenery. To be fair though, the FTX Global Base is a one time fee, and will massively upgrade your entire FSX/P3D world, and perhaps that may justify the cost for some.

What I find interesting about ORBX is that it doesn’t seem as if they have any rhyme or reason for their airport scenery pricing. For example, their Palm Springs scenery runs at $40 AUD/ $30 USD, which is a little high for a small Class C airport like that but falls just behind the prices you’ll pay for large major hubs produced by Flightbeam, FSDT and FlyTampa. I’d say that is a fair price, assuming you’ve already got the required FTX Global Base purchased and installed. However, consider a smaller rural airport like their Yakutat scenery, and you’re paying the same price plus you’ll need the Southern Alaska region which will run you another $55 AUD/ $41 USD. Is that pricing fair and reasonable? If I can get a bigger airport like Palm Springs for the same price, what is the reasoning behind pricing such a small airport at the same price? There is no indication of any specialized technology such as People Flow, Tree Flow, etc, being present in the Yakutat scenery that Palm Springs doesn’t have. Perhaps it is because ORBX does contract independent developers to make scenery. At the end of the day, ORBX does provide a higher level of detail and aside from forcing customers to buy regions, I think you could probably justify their prices.