P3D Pricing

[cyberpilot]

First of all let me say I'm a great fan of A2A and over the years have bought a large number of their aircraft for FSX.
However, I have now switched to P3Dv4 and find that I will have to pay a considerable sum of money if I want to have compatible versions.
I accept that a fair degree of work has gone into creating the P3Dv4 models but wonder whether it's fair and reasonable for loyal customers to have pay the full price for what is essentially the same product.
A number of flightsim developers are currently offering substantial discounts for customers in my situation and I would be interested to know why A2A isn't doing the same.
The $10 discount that was recently offered on the Spitfire was a step in the right direction but in my humble opinion didn't go far enough and wasn't enough to tempt me (and I suspect many others) to take the plunge and pay almost the full whack for it again.
A2A should also take on board that not all of its customers live in the US and there are many of us who get hit by crippling exchange rates and transaction charges when we do business with them.
Please think this through some more.

[patful]

If you purchased your FSX aircraft through the A2A site, you should have some very generous discount points available for your next order. Some folks had so many points they ended up with a freebie by the time their discounts were applied.

[n421nj]

I wish I bought all my A2a planes through A2A I have a descent credit that will go right towards the v35 on release day.

[MarcE]

A number of flightsim developers are currently offering substantial discounts for customers in my situation

who?

[Medtner]

To quote A2A member and long time tester, KillRatio:

Hmmm. Interesting. I just checked and my first beta test flight in the P3D Spitfire was 14th of October 2017. I am now wondering what the hell it was I was doing for 7 months as the Spitfire was just a "simple port over to P3D."

7 months worth of testing, 7 months worth of changes and corrections to make it work in 64 bit AFTER the initial programming AND alpha testing. And all the months, by the way, with costs and wages that A2A sank into the project.

But then again, I never really have been any good with numbers.....

So there.

But, adding to that, I have to say this: buying a product years ago for FSX, and then years down the road complaining that you have to pay for it again having switched to P3D? This is silly. The product you bought was made for FSX and still works for FSX. You don't have to buy it again, you could keep flying in the old sim.
You could also support the developers in their adaptaion to the new sim - a development, incidentally, that cannot be compared to others, Accusim being all kinds of different from your other companies (re-read the above quote for context to your "essentially the same product"-comment).

"crippling exchange rates and transaction charges"

I live in Norway. Haven't seen any of this. Can you substantiate further? To me this sounds like whining. Even if you can demonstrate that there are any unreasonable charges for your transaction it is surely not A2A's problem - it's something to fight locally at your end.

Don't underestimate the work these fantastic people are doing behind the scenes, and feel free to bottle the entitlement - eeeeespecially since A2A has, infoxtrotingdeed, a substantial loyality point system. If you have, as you say, bought a large number of their addons (from their page, that is) you are in for a nice treat in the form of points to be used against the price to pay for the products.

[cyberpilot]

Please get off your high horse Mr Aasland and stop lecturing me.
I'm not whining and I don't have a sense of entitlement.
I'm merely pointing out that some developers are offering significant discounts to customers wishing to upgrade their products from FSX to P3D.
Aerosoft for example is offering substantial discounts to existing customers of their FSX A320 who want to purchase the soon to be released P3D version.
Mathijs Kok says: "As always Aerosoft will never charge you double for anything. If we replace 50% of a product the update will only cost you half the new price."
Which means that existing customers will only pay 25.17 Euro for the A320 compared to new customers who will pay 50.38 Euro.
To me this is very fair and sensible.
However, since my initial post I've discovered that A2A are also offering incentives to customers who've bought products from their store.
These so-called A2A dollars are much appreciated and it's reflects very well on the company.
So good on you A2A and keep up the good work.

[Nick - A2A]

Cyberpilot,

Thanks for the feedback.

Our pricing structure for Prepar3D products reflects the fact that this involves ongoing development for a moving target. Unlike FSX which has been 'stable' for years, each version (and often each sub-version) of Prepar3D present additional development and testing workload.

So whilst it's not necessarily true to say that 100% of each product had to be 'replaced' for the Prepar3D version, a lot of ongoing work goes on behind the scenes to support P3D as it continues to diverge from FSX.

Obviously different developers have different pricing policies but complex add-ons like those produced by A2A (with lots of custom C++ and XML code) will require more effort to adapt and update than simpler products.

Hope this helps to explain A2A's position, and glad you like the "A2A Flying Hours" at any rate. We also offer FSX + P3D bundles at the point of purchase which provide a significant saving.

Cheers,
Nick

[DeeJay]

Aerosoft for example is offering substantial discounts to existing customers of their FSX A320 who want to purchase the soon to be released P3D version.
Mathijs Kok says: "As always Aerosoft will never charge you double for anything. If we replace 50% of a product the update will only cost you half the new price."
Which means that existing customers will only pay 25.17 Euro for the A320 compared to new customers who will pay 50.38 Euro.
To me this is very fair and sensible.

But don't forget that the Aerosoft airbus goes to the 4th round now since it was released for FSX. First there was this simplified Airbus X, then the "Extended" version came. Some time later, the Extended got a paid rework (now called "Airbus" again), and now the upcoming new version for P3D4. For all of those upgrades you had to pay - which I think is absolutely OK because every time a lot of work had been done.

In P3D2 times, I was indeed a bit pissed for paying the full price again for the A2A P3D product. But meanwhile we have P3D4, and the licence from the early P3D days is still valid. So with all that work for the upgrades, I think it has paid out afterwards which is really absolutely fair in my (customers') opinion. The only thing I still don't get is why there is such a big difference (of a difference at all) between the Academic and the Professional Licence because just "following" the Prepar3d Licence system doesn't really make sense to me. But hey, as a customer, I don't have to understand everything.. Looking forward for the Bonanza now.

[DrumsArt]

Aerosoft for example is offering substantial discounts to existing customers of their FSX A320 who want to purchase the soon to be released P3D version.
Mathijs Kok says: "As always Aerosoft will never charge you double for anything. If we replace 50% of a product the update will only cost you half the new price."
Which means that existing customers will only pay 25.17 Euro for the A320 compared to new customers who will pay 50.38 Euro.
To me this is very fair and sensible.

But don't forget that the Aerosoft airbus goes to the 4th round now since it was released for FSX. First there was this simplified Airbus X, then the "Extended" version came. Some time later, the Extended got a paid rework (now called "Airbus" again), and now the upcoming new version for P3D4. For all of those upgrades you had to pay - which I think is absolutely OK because every time a lot of work had been done.

In P3D2 times, I was indeed a bit pissed for paying the full price again for the A2A P3D product. But meanwhile we have P3D4, and the licence from the early P3D days is still valid. So with all that work for the upgrades, I think it has paid out afterwards which is really absolutely fair in my (customers') opinion. The only thing I still don't get is why there is such a big difference (of a difference at all) between the Academic and the Professional Licence because just "following" the Prepar3d Licence system doesn't really make sense to me. But hey, as a customer, I don't have to understand everything.. Looking forward for the Bonanza now.

The same for me?!
Regards,

[patful]

I don't mind the extra $20 for the Pro versions, seems a bargain considering I'll have them until my death. Unless I die tomorrow...