"When will it be on Marketplace" is a question that is all too common in our support portal. We love the fact that our customers are keen to get our products for Microsoft Flight Simulator as quickly as possible through the in-sim marketplace. We are also very aware that it is the -only- way for those on Xbox to access new downloadable content.
It's no secret that the process of getting products into the in-sim Marketplace is a long process. By the time a product is ready, it then needs to be sent to them, tested, and ultimately then be released on a weekly basis. How that process -actually- works is a mystery to many - including us.
A year ago, when we first had our products on the in-sim Marketplace, it took maybe 4 weeks from us sending the product to it being available in the store. It was a fairly reliable process that meant we could work out roughly when we could tell customers things would be available in the store. However, that process has become twice as long now, and in some cases, even longer.
We submitted Global Landings: Europe to the store back on November 8th 2022. It has been 84 days now since we submitted it and yet still not available via the store. Okay, there have been major holidays since then (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's), but that's still a long time to wait for a product to be ingested into the system and then released to the public. There's still zero indication of when it will actually be made available.
There is a similar wait on updates. STORM was updated to version 1.20 for customers on SoFly and Orbx (plus other Vendors), but it took 6 weeks to appear on the in-sim Marketplace.
This has a major impact on all sides:
- Customers have a worse experience due to the lengthy delays on updates
- Xbox customers have to wait longer for a product release than anyone else and they are bound by the timeframes set
- Our business is impacted as we cannot plan releases in a timely fashion
- Customers get frustrated with us when we cannot give them an accurate release date
- Microsoft/Asobo get inundated with requests from developers/customers about when products will be released, which may contribute to the delays
We aren't the only ones to experience this. Our friends at Parallel 42 have shared the same experience. We're huge fans of their products and they are game-changing.
The in-sim Marketplace is an important platform for us. The audience that we currently can't serve as easily is loyal and dependable and we wish we could do more to bring products to the platform faster. The store itself is great and offers a huge array of products for all kinds of people to enjoy; whether you're a casual simmer or an experienced virtual pilot.
We know our customers are frustrated by the lengthy process and time it takes for products to be released. Please know that we are doing our best to get things out quickly and as efficiently as possible, whilst trying to have as few issues with products so that we don't contribute to the delay of releases by issuing too many bug-fixing updates.
Of course, if you're a PC user and want new releases or product updates first, then buying direct from SoFly or Orbx is your best course of action.
