200,000 +

[b52bob]

...the number of purchases of Fsx through steam (according to PC Pilot)

Good news for devs and users.


Bob

[mmann]

Microsoft Flight Simulator X sold 280,000 copies in 2007 alone, with a much higher asking price than $5.00.

[Mach3DS]

I doubt they will have much of an ROI, to keep investing in updates unless they change the way 3rd party addons are purchased? But maybe since they don't actually have the same overhead or inventory costs that the original did.

[Alan_A]

Microsoft Flight Simulator X sold 280,000 copies in 2007 alone, with a much higher asking price than $5.00.

True, but that was in the first full year of release, with in-store presence (back when that mattered) and advertising support.

The fact that FSX is still generating sales at this level nine years after release, even at a discount, is pretty impressive. By way of analogy, think of a 2006 movie that gets re-released in theaters in 2015 and sells roughly the same number of tickets in a few months as it did in its first-run year. Given the way sales roll off even after a couple of weeks or months, that'd show an unusually healthy level of interest, even if the ticket price is much lower (because on the other hand, there are a lot of other things that people can spend their money on now).

So to me this shows surprisingly robust interest in FSX. And depending on Dovetail's financials (and, per Rick's point, the fact that the don't have to pay for DVDs, packages, shipping, print advertising, in-store promotion) it might even produce a decent enough financial return. We'll never know, because they won't let us in on that kind of information. But I agree with the OP - in all, it's good news for the development community.