Here. Ill help you out. Below is the 2016 statistics from one of the biggest virtual airlines around.
That shows only what that particular virtual airline is doing. And it doesn't say anything about what users BUY. It's a similar situation like IOS against Android. There's no question Android is the leading OS in terms of number of users. But IOS apps make more money.
There was a recent poll on OrbX forum (which is currently down for maintenance), that painted a very different picture, with a surprisingly high P3D usage.
And same results from Aerosoft, where P3D is clearly in the lead for the ONLY statistic that a developer can be interested in, which is which simulator you PLAN to use in the next years, NOT the one you are using *now*:
http://forum.aerosoft.com/index.php?/topic/99711-what-simulator-will-you-be-using-end-of-this-yearI would rethink your above comment.
Please re-read it carefully, there's nothing to rethink about it. I've said:
a platform full of existing stuff, but with no further space to grow.
Full existing stuff means both there's a very large number of products available AND it's clearly still in the lead in user base TODAY Nobody is denying that.
But it takes many months and even years to make new products, so it would be wrong for us to base our plans on today's situation. This is what I mean when I said "no further space to grow". Do you see FSX user base GROWING ? Nobody in his right mind could think that, which is exactly what I've said.
Let's assume the following scenario for 2017-2018:
- Prepar3D v4 will most likely be 64 bit
- DTG Flight sim will *surely* be 64 bit, since the Flight School IS already 64 bit
- X-Plane is 64 bit since a long time.
Are you still convinced that I should "rethink" my statement about
FSX not having further room to grow ??
From a purely technical point of view, FSX is already dead, especially the non-Steam version. From a commercial feasibility point of view, it will start to fall into oblivion the moment ALL other platforms will all 64 bit.
If you still don't believe this, think about Windows:
- Before Windows 7, almost nobody used a 64 bit Windows platform, most users were still running old faithful XP 32 bit.
- After Windows 7, which was the first 64 bit OS viable for everybody, the move towards 64 bit Windows was made not overnight, but VERY fast.
You don't have the faintest idea how *much* stuff we could do, and how much more reliable it could be, if we could use the native P3D SDK with ALL its features, which means dropping compatibility with FSX. Unfortunately, we cannot afford to do it NOW, but we will have to, sooner or later.
