Do all the scenery developers coordinate their efforts to avoid duplication?

[John Hargreaves]

Something that has puzzled me a little, and I've thought about it more since MSFS has come out. I wonder if developers know what each other is working on, so we don't get two sets of devs bringing out say Paris, or Washington scenery at the same time, or the same airport by two companies. That could both dilute the market and confuse customers, but might also create competition and push up the quality. There seems to be little duplication, even on the older sims that have been around years, so I'm curious if they share their plans in advance, even before we get to know.

[carlosqr]

I don't think they coordinate but might be possible

 

I rather say they build what they want regardless of others, we have seen that in P3D mainly, 3 or 4 versions of the same airport by different developers while at the same time many people requesting specif airports that are never built or that exist but quality was not ideal, like Ushuaia, Cairo, Santorini, Keflavik etc

 

Fortunately all already made for MSFS. Santorini though needs its real autogen not default but would it ever be updated? I think we just have to thank the airport was considered.

And I hope Keflavik lands in MSFS soon

 

Cheers

Carlos

[olderndirt]

From what I've seen, Orbx has an exclusive on regional scenery and a lot of the better airport people are becoming partners.

[John Hargreaves]

It does seem to be a situation where cooperation is in everyone's interest. Most of the flight sim DLC is at pocket money prices or something close to it, and there are fairly regular sale bargains to pick up. As we aren't going to the pub at the moment, picking up an airport or city scenery for the price of a round of drinks is quite fun, and there is always a regular supply of new stuff coming out. I tend to prefer getting Orbx stuff as Central is a really efficient way to keep stuff up to date. That was always a drawback with the .org store, stuff would be updated and unless you kept checking it was easy to miss those updates. I like the way Central is like Steam in that it automatically checks for updates.

I've picked up a few other items from other sources, so it is nice to have some variety, but I'm pleased that developers are joining forces with Orbx and releasing content on the store.

[Matt McGee]

Some

On 1/10/2021 at 9:29 AM, John Hargreaves said:

I wonder if developers know what each other is working on, so we don't get two sets of devs bringing out say Paris, or Washington scenery at the same time, or the same airport by two companies.

I think the answer is, "sometimes".

I'm not an expert, but some developers simply make whatever they want, while others are making whatever their contract or employer have asked them to make. 

I assume that companies have various internal ways to decide who is working on a particular airport, to prevent duplication within a company.  

No idea how much coordination goes on between companies to prevent duplication, but they are certainly paying attention to what others are making.  

 

[John Hargreaves]

12 hours ago, Matt McGee said:

Some

I think the answer is, "sometimes".

 

I like that answer, it's very much like 'it depends', which is pretty much always the right answer. Interesting discussion, enjoying reading these replies 

[Senchay]

Sometimes they do, other times they fight about who was the first one to announce something.... And create the same airport 3 times...

 

Sometimes they steal reach others assets. 

 

Sometimes they blame each other for it but none did it.

 

Sometimes various devs announce something but it never happens.

 

And sometimes they cooperate.

 

In flightsim you you can experience everything imaginable.