ORBX future product announcement

[spud]

John Venema has made an announcement concerning future software release's and costs that will affect users of ORBX software in the future.
Here is a link to the post:

www.orbxsystems.com/forum/topic/84391-future-product-announcements-and-plans-from-sept-2014-onwards/#entry771765

[Deleted]

Why do I suddenly have a "feeling of doom" here ?

Thanks Spud.

[Deleted]

Well, basically it's just Orbx giving everyone the "silent treatment" on all new products, but does give you an idea as to how often one might expect a new release. Actually, I rather agree with this approach. I'm sure they are sick to death of the "when's this coming out" posts (which this announcement won't stop, unfortunately), and this is basically covering their own butts over these questions. The idea of announcing something only after it goes to beta does make sense in some ways, and is probably the best route to go. For a long time now, I've been rather fed up with some (most) developers who go into a big hype on a new product, followed by a long period of silence. When we start asking if it's still under development, they get downright nasty in some cases about us "harassing" them over release dates. My thoughts have always been, if they don't want us asking about a product, why did they hype the beejeebers out of it in the first place?? It just seems like a funny business model to hype a new product, then give the customer hell about it when they get hooked and want an update. Orbx's approach to me seems to make much more sense and should give them and the customers a break over endless questions about release.

However, there is a flip side to that coin that could come back to bite them. This may not affect that many people, to be honest, but it is going to affect me. Many of us "older simmers" (meaning we've been simming since the wire frame days) really depend on fairly frequent updates and new stuff to play with. Without it, the sim (for me anyway) starts to get rather boring. When I know I've got something new on the horizon to play with, it keeps my interest up. With this announcement, by the time something new is announced by Orbx, I may already have made up my mind that nothing is coming and have moved on. As I say, this may just be me, but it's rather rare that I have the corner on any single thought out there. Of course, the good news is, that once it is announced, it's not that far away from completion so we won't be sitting on our hands all that long waiting for it. Either way though, it is better than catching hell from a developer who started the promo in the first place because someone had the audacity to ask about how it's going. If anyone doubts this, go over to PMDG and ask how the DC 6 is coming along. Just make sure you are wearing your flak jacket when you do!

Now Orbx is saying they are planning on releasing 2 fat regions per year (give or take). I'm interested to know what the next one is and when because it should be soon given when NorCal was released. This might be one of those "give or takes" they mentioned. If it's an area I'm interested in, great. If not, it'll be a long wait until the next one is announced, and then we'll have to see if that one is of interest. It's a slow process for sure, and that's fair, but I'm just not sure how much time I have left with FS at this point. I can say that if my gaming machine decides to bite the dust, so will FSX. I won't be getting another machine just to run FS anything at this point in my life. In other words, they'd better hurry up (yeah, I'm speaking somewhat tongue-in-cheek here as I know the FS world does not revolve around me ).

Interesting announcement. I think in this case they are doing the right thing, and we can't now say that they aren't communicating with us. That's something I wish a few other developers would take to heart.

[olderndirt]

After scanning the horizon for competition, it probably seemed like an excellent time to rewrite the rules of engagement.  Can't blame the man really - he's become the Pied Piper of Flightsim and his groupies will applaud anything he plays.

[spud]

In all fairness to ORBX the announcement is nothing new. The policy on announcing new software from the days of VOZ v0.99 was just the exact same as this post. Over time they apparently just let things get out of hand. Can't remember how many times in the past that the official response to a question about release dates was always:
"When it is ready".
I'm glad to see the return and hope (silly me) it will kill a few hundred posts a week asking when it is going to be released. Now if we could just figure out a way to cut the "Oh that is so good, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you .... well ya get the idea. A simple post saying here is a new airport produces 150 slobbering expressions of gratitude. I think spending my money on the software if I want it is a much better way to say thanks.

[Deleted]

Strongly agree with both of you. Good posts.

[pivo11]

Concur. 

[spud]

Reading "between the lines" this paragraph:

"With regards to Prepar3D Version 3.0 we will be charging a nominal upgrade fee for any Orbx products ported to it, depending on the complexities of the P3D3.x engine and work required. Since V3.0 is very far away I wanted to go on record and give you a heads up that our policy moving forward is to charge a nominal fee for upgrades to new sim platforms. The same applies for any 'point' release of existing products, i.e. like the charge for YMML when it went from 1.x to 2.x"

Says to me that 'when' P3D v3 come out they already know it will once again "break" ORBX installers causing another re-write to be necessary and they just can not adsorb another round of free updates as in the past. Can not really blame them for that. P3D apparently works pretty well but is still in need of improvement and tht means more work for all concerned. They already increased the price of P3D $10 from the older version.