I feel sorry for John!
When I saw the price of this package and the way this thread declined, I stopped reading this thread. However last night when I couldn't catch sleep I went through it from the first post to the last. When I finished reading I felt really sorry for John Terrell, who is in my opinion one of the biggest talents in this hobby. And beside that a great person, who has given an awful lot to this hobby. The Warbirdsim P-51 was his baby and when you look at the model and textures I think he definitely used all his skills to create the best product he could. Therefore I think it is more than sad that only a few will enjoy this beautiful model, because of its steep price.
I have always struggled with the question what you should consider a reasonable price for an add-on. I come from a world where a lot of dedicated software is used. Therefore I accept the fact that professional programming is very expensive. As I have been involved in the development of several payware and freeware models I realise creating a model is a time consuming business. As the market is limited, costs have to be paid by a relatively small group of buyers. Therefore when you want to cover (labour)cost and perhaps even want to have a small profit a developer should perhaps ask the sort of money Warbirdsim is currently asking. I realise my comparison isn't completely correct, when I need software at work, it is a professional requirement for which I have to pay. For me Flightsim is "just" a hobby therefore I have the choice whether I want to pay or not.
On the other hand when I see what most developers can still offer for a price below $30, I think the price of the Warbirdsim Mustang is way over the top. When I look at A2A which is in my humble opinion market leader based on the number of sales. The A2A P-47 (without Accusim) is still less than $30 and so is the A2A P-40. All reworked WW2 Fighters cost even less than $20, while the complete package including 5 different aircrafts doesn't even cost $30. Other developers like Alphasim seem to use the $30 ceiling as well as the latest model, the Yak-52, remains under the $30. Not one of the products offered by Sky-unlimited exceeds $30. The Realair Spitfire costs less than 30 Euros and there was a reduction for the owners of the FS9 version. Although the FSX version even came with a totally new Mk.IX version! And last in my list, but definitely not least the complete Classics Hangar FW190 package, with in my personal opinion a new standard setting VC, is even below 30 Euros! Again these prices seem the ceiling for what is considered reasonable from the customers side and are perhaps not really reasonable, taken the actual time or efforts into account.
But I'm convinced that when you don't offer a product for the price your customers are willing to pay, you won't sell this product. To explain; I won't sell an ordinary 4 doors sedan for the price of a Ferrari, even when its in my opinion the best 4 door sedan! Therefore when the Warbirdsim P51 would have been priced at $37.50 or even better below the threshold of $30, I'm convinced they would sell at least more than 2 or 3 times as many copies.
I still remember the fS2004 P-40 by Bruce Thorson, he made a very nice free model and asked only $5 for an update and support. As the model was hardly flyable without the update, I guess all downloaders of the free product paid for the update in the end. As it was "Only" $5, nobody bothered, but in the end I'm convinced Bruce made much more money than Warbirdsim will ever make for the FSX P51.
Reading all the comments about the FSX version in this thread, I get the feeling the updates implemented in the FSX version of the FS9 Warbirdsim P51 are far less sophisticated than the free updates given by A2A on the WWII Fighter package. Therefore I personally consider it very bad business not to make a gesture to the customers who have bought the FS9 version. And next to that I have serious thoughts about the price. Based on not more than my opinion; the model is most likely not much more than an FSX upgrade of a model which already existed in FS9. I realise there has been quite some extra work to get the existing model FSX genuine, But as all of the research was already done for the FS9 model and base model already existed, you could even wonder whether it is really reasonable to ask more for the FSX version than for the FS9 version.
Again I feel most sorry for John, his model deserves a better faith than being just beautiful in the showcase on the slick web pages from Warbirdsim!
Apart from just a few facts, all above reflects just my personal opinion and nothing more....
Huub
