What about Italian airports?

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi all,

I find it strange that Italian airports have been largely ignored by many FS developers. The Rome Fuimichino airport I use in FS9 is many years old and whilst excellent especially for a freeware package the airport must have been developed since 2004 or so?

Rome, Venice and Milan are crying out to be given the full treatment. Will FSDreamTeam be considering any of these? I'm sure they would prove very popular.

[sjt375]

I personally agree, an italian airport would be great, and I think it would have been done. Unfortunately, with the voting scandal that happened prior to FSDT starting KLAX, I doubt that Rome will be made.

[Ray Proudfoot]

I'm an occasional visitor so I'm not aware of any voting scandal. Do I take it that it didn't go as planned? 

[virtuali]

That's becoming a FAQ...

The majority of users fly in their local area, or at least their country, only a minority flies everywhere, and there aren't enough customers in Italy to make such scenery commercially viable, and the minority of non-italian customers that will buy the scenery is not enough to offset this.

We made several italian sceneries in the past, including Rome Fiumicino but, none of them has sold in meaningful numbers, one that was a moderate "success" (not really a success, but a bit less of a disaster than usual) was Aviano which, guess what, it's not really an italian airport, and has some appeal outside the italian public. This fits with the above analysis.

We have an italian airport, Florence, sold by Aerosoft, which is nicely done, very good on fps, it's a challenging approach, includes the whole city in 3d, it's one of the most famous italian cities in the world, and the experience of coming down on that short runway with the whole city in view and the Tuscany hills on the background it's really something to behold, yet it hasn't sold in 4 years what JFK or KORD or Zurich sold in the first DAY.

So, those are the hard numbers, a good way to make us reconsider, is simply go out and buy Aerosoft Florence (which was made by FSDT...), we'll certainly notice it, and might change our minds...

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Umberto,

Thanks for your reply. I must be in a minority because although I live in England I fly to many European countries. I have airport scenery for Paris, London, Frankfurt, Munich, Geneva, Zurich, Madrid, Lisbon, Barcelona and Budapest. And that's just a fraction of what's installed.

I also have many US airports including SFO, San Diego, JFK, KIAD, KBOS, KORD and several others.

Are you sure European-based simmers only fly in their own countries? How small-minded is that? Take-off from Zurich and in less than two hours you can reach many European capitals flying over fantastic scenery. I would have thought there would have been high demand for major airports such as Rome and Milan. Florence less so perhaps because it's probably not large enough for the bigger jets to land.

You clearly do your research so it's disappointing you don't plan to produce any Italian airports especially when your work is of such a high standard. 

I searched for Florence in Aerosoft but found nothing for FS9. Is it an FSX-only product?

[virtuali]

Thanks for your reply. I must be in a minority because although I live in England I fly to many European countries.

You probably are, but the issue is little bit different, see below.

Are you sure European-based simmers only fly in their own countries? How small-minded is that?

I haven't said anything specific to European simmers, everyone mostly flies in his own country. And US users even more, since they have a so large country to fly in. So, when comparing the whole US market against the fractioned EU market, you'll see why it's best to concentrate on the US, factoring the argument that most users fly in their own country.

On top of that, the Italian market is really in a bad shape now, I know it very well, I don't run just FSDT, but also a flight sim shop for boxed products that sells in Italy only since 1993, and I carry all products from all major flight sim publishers and, sales right now are a fraction of what they used to be, even just a few years ago.

I would have thought there would have been high demand for major airports such as Rome and Milan. Florence less so perhaps because it's probably not large enough for the bigger jets to land.

*Kona* has sold in a week more than Florence in 4 years! And, Florence bad sales, and the possible reason you cited that it's because it's for smaller airplanes, also prove another thing: people keep *saying* on forums "why you don't do a nice small and detailed airport ?", but when the time comes to purchase, they'll always choose international mega-hubs suitable for big airplanes.

You clearly do your research so it's disappointing you don't plan to produce any Italian airports especially when your work is of such a high standard

We haven't done just research, although it's very easy for use to correlate sales data to know, for example, if customers that buy an airport in Europe will also buy a US airport and vice-versa, so we know they *are* the minority, but we also made actual sceneries in Italy, and the only thing they had in common, they were all commercial failures.

I searched for Florence in Aerosoft but found nothing for FS9. Is it an FSX-only product?

Yes, it's FSX only. That's another unfortunate side effect of the marget fragmentation: having to support FS9 as well, means we can't risk anything other than the tried and tested mega-hubs projects.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Umberto,

Thank you for all those comments. Clearly you can only afford to spend time designing an airport you know is going to make you money. That's a hard fact and sadly, in recent years, the popularity of FS amongst the general community has probably lessened due to Microsoft's decision to discontinue Flight Simulator.

Although I have flown in the US I find the large distances between major cities a major deterrent. Flying to Hawaii even more so! I've flown there from KSFO in Concorde but 8 hours subsonic is for the US diehards only! 

The economic downturn has hit the FS community quite hard I imagine. Hopefully the good times will return and FSDT will continue to roll out quality airports both for FS9 and FSX. I anticipate moving to FSX in about 2-3 years when I can get 30+ FPS inbound to Heathrow in low cloud and lots of Ai. Things are getting better but we're not there yet. 

[Egbert Drenth]

Hi Ray,

It's indeed pitty there are no commercial airports for Milan and Rome.
Milan lays pretty central in Europe and my guess it will be popular (but I'm not developing airports  )

On the positive side:
At least there was no rain today in Cheadle Hulme (of all places.......   )

Take care,
Egbert

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Egbert,

Yes, it is disappointing but Umberto is not running a charity. Maybe if he wins the lottery he will change his mind. 

No rain today but there is plenty due tomorrow. Don't you just love England in the summer? 

[Silverbird]

I have noticed that on the aerosoft site at least in the u.s site Florence scenery is almost impossible to find hopefully maybe a few years down the line and the economy gets better there is a chance to see   Rome Fuimichino from fsdt.