Let’s get right to the question and to the point on this particular topic. The question today comes to us from a fellow flight simmer named George.
Hello GrizzlyBearSims, Like you I’ve been around the flight simulation community for a couple of decades. I’ve noticed a recent trend since MSFS has come onto the scene with some folks selling their aircraft liveries. I wanted to get your opinion on the matter. I for one have never paid for an aircraft livery and don’t plan to change this anytime soon. George
Well George and all who may read this blog post, I’ve been simming for a really long time and while I’ve purchased many third party aircraft and even more airport or scenery addons, I’ve never paid one red cent for any aircraft livery and certainly don’t plan to change this behavior.
The observation George has made unfortunately is correct. Since the release of MSFS in August 2020, we’ve seen all sorts of behavior which was almost certainly unheard with previous flight sim platforms. In the past, individuals would create liveries for various aircraft types and provide them to the community. You can search all the various flight simulation websites and find hundreds of liveries being offered up by the community at zero cost. Most 3rd party aircraft developers like PMDG, QualityWings, Fenix, FSLabs provide a wide range of liveries which cover most of the real world airlines in operation today.
The unfortunate fact in today’s new world of flight simulation is there are many individuals who are looking to make a quick buck out of those who are brand new and just don’t know any better. Also, just as unfortunate…there are 3rd party developers who are also doing the same thing by pushing out “Frankenstein” aircraft which utilize the default systems of aircraft. In many cases they have done this very crudely and in my opinion all in an effort to make a quick buck with unsuspecting new users.
With the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator, the numbers of new flight sim enthusiasts have exploded beyond anything I could have imagined and as a result there are thousands of brand new simmers who don’t know any different. Fortunately for PC users who are in the know, there should never be a need to spend money on aircraft liveries. But I’m afraid the same won’t be true for those on the console platform as the only way they will have access to aircraft liveries which aren’t included with the aircraft will be to purchase them via the MSFS Marketplace.
Until next time…
Happy Flying!!!
Jerry