Well I thought I've read it all amazing and I have done my share of freeware with a truckload of awards and downloads...It's real simple start your own and have fun ;-)With all respect you don't have a clue how long it takes to developa quality add-on, and when you do and have contributed yourself your free time we talk again...

Yeah. I once upon a time thought I'd write an aircraft manual in two weeks... Well, guess what, it's taking me at least two or three months of fulltime work already... And that's an aircraft manual! That's not even the coding and modeling...

I have made 3 x quality FS9/FSX sceneries, each of which took minimum 6 months to make. Nobody can understand the time involved to produce that beautiful payware airport that hatches out of a convenient little 50mb install file, fully beta tested and bug free. If people rely on this for an income it's pretty hard to convince them to give it away.

Edited January 5, 201214 yr by flyhalf

MS is clearly quite happy to explore the free intiial download model

It's a bussiness model, the word "Free" is more for marketing purposes (very little will be in fact free... commercial FS developers also make some free stuff form time to time).Off topic.. where can I turn ON spell checker?

It's always nice when having this sort of a discussion to operate with some real numbers so here are some which you may find of use.Nearly two years ago I released a freeware Tiger Moth and at the time I invited people to make a donation if they liked it.It took me 5 months to make it.It has had approximately 20,000 downloads over the various FS websites.I have received less than $500.00 in donations with the average donation being about $10.

MS is clearly quite happy to explore the free intiial download model (regardless of what we may think MS Flight offers to the serious simmer).Food for thought.

My adult kids talked me into XBox for certain games over the net. There I was confronted with the marketing used for games "expansion" and could readily see why they could offer "free or nearly free" incentives to bring folks into the "expansion purchase portals".That experience convinced me that these approaches work well in that market but time will tell if such scenarios would work in our little FS world... :(

Ant,I love your Moth.There's another $10 coming your way.

Anthony, thanks for posting such details. While the huge download count amazes me, the relation to the amount of donations of course is interesting. However, I think you didn't plan her to become the backbone of your financial planning.But guess what, your freeware (which includes nice scenery too) made me buy your payware. It raised attention and sympathy for your work and therefore all your payware titles are on my disk and I'm looking forward to every new title of yours. I loved the Sierra's update by the way.

":But guess what, your freeware (which includes nice scenery too) made me buy your payware."Absolutely love the Tecnam and have to agree with CoolP on that one Ant

It's always nice when having this sort of a discussion to operate with some real numbers so here are some which you may find of use.Nearly two years ago I released a freeware Tiger Moth and at the time I invited people to make a donation if they liked it.It took me 5 months to make it.It has had approximately 20,000 downloads over the various FS websites.I have received less than $500.00 in donations with the average donation being about $10.

Guess what we have made 7 freeware aircraft with over a million downloads from the different sites and it only cost us money go figure lol

Thanks Dean for the donation.I figure that of those who did donate most were doing it because of the additional 30+ freeware airports I had made for FSX (and FS9 before that).As CoolP says, it wasn't a way plan to get rich, just some nice beer money to offset some of the costs of developing (electricity prices are always going up).I was thinking that if there was a HUGE download market (ie 1,000,000 plus) then maybe donations would be sustainable but Andre paints a different picture, plus wikipedia is massively more popular than any flight sim product will ever be and they are always begging for donations. If wikipedia can't make a profitable business from donations only then what chance a humble flightsim developer?

FS addons. They are EXPENSIVE. Some of the airplanes and scenery I've been seeing are from $40-400.Personally, I think that's ridiculous. In my opinion, it's a rip off, and most people will pirate it anyways.Unless you produce a NGX level product; making sceneries won't get you a decent profit unless you do one of two things.It's extremely cheapIt's extremely good.orCompanies pay to get their product to the top.It's the only product of it's type.70% of companies in exception of BIG companies like PMDG, CS, or ORBX don't get publicity, or a decent profit for their products; and usually get pirated within a day.That's why I think the new era of FS addons is to start offering quality addons for free.So, you may be thinking, how in the world will they get their profit?Well, it's actually quite simple.Take Project Airbus for example. Their thriving! They get HUGE publicity for their addons, and therefore get donations from everywhere keeping it going.Project Opensky is another hugely successful one.So, how does it work? When a great freeware addon is produced, notice how it is naturally at the top, and it's what everyone is talking about? Yes, freeware addons get by far, WAY more publicity than payware, and, you don't have to pay a cent. (In exception of addons like NGX, and ORBX)Piracy is not needed, so all that traffic that would be going for piracy, is now flowing into your download and donate button.Having a popular freeware addon website is hugely profitable, according to cubestat.com, projectopensky.com gets $200 a day worth of ad revenue. Not including donations.Comparing to FlyTampa, who gets about $2 a day.Searching on the internet, when looking for a great airbus addon? Who's comes up first? Project Airbus, or CLS? You got it, Project Airbus.Just a ponder in my thought for all the people out there thinking the same way I do.Tell me what you think! I would like to know!

You obviously have a lot to say, so back it up, show me where you get these precentages or "fly tampa ...$2 a day or these other things you spit out, because if you can't this thread is irrelevant and needs to be locked and now!Seriosuly, your post shows you know absolutly nothing about running a business or making a profit.BUT...let me guess you are "the 99%" right?

":But guess what, your freeware (which includes nice scenery too) made me buy your payware."Absolutely love the Tecnam and have to agree with CoolP on that one Ant

Same here!Alain from Montreal

I admit, I rarely give donations but I buy payware very often.Where did OP go? Nothing to say anymore on the subject?

......this thread is irrelevant and needs to be locked and now!

If this were the case, then no doubt 90% of posts on all forums should also be locked.Making such statements is just plain silly. The thread may indeed be a little strange, but there has been some interesting comments. The fact that you do not approve, does not mean it "needs to be locked and now!"

Make 3d objects as a hobby for 18wos series game and it takes 30 hours and 30 photos just to make hood shape on a Buick correct, and 10 hours to make textures that look decent. Freeware has its place, but I hate when kids steal add-ons that are payware it means 3rd party developers go broke because they don't have funds to make future products. People that steal payware are making it less likely there is even freeware but that falls on deaf ears with teenagers. Why make something when it stolen or hacked.