I won't comment on my views of CS directly but I agree that they are making a lot of $$. As a new company I realize we will have skeptics but my goal with our BBS 757 and 767 is to eventually fill the void that has been missing for a quality 757 and 767. We won't rest until BBS gets there.
I'm sure you won't have much of a challenge surpassing them ;-) Looking forward to your releases and giving them a ride! Just make sure not to make the same mistake as FSS did with their Embraer (or some other dev is probably about to make soon) and release too early in a useless state. That's what my main recommendation would be to new developers. The first impression counts, make sure it's a good one.
Do you have any source for the info that they're only one person nowadays? Back in the day they surely had more developers. Though I guess it would be the obvious question where all those system developers have gone since.
I would add A2A to the list of developers making COMPLETELY simulated aircrafts. You cannot get any more complete than a full physical simulation of the engine and wear&tear of virtually every element.
Back in the days of FS9 and FSX, the Captain Sim 727 and 757 were some of the best and my favourite airplanes to fly.. How things change over a few years.
Microsoft made CS rewrite their product page for the C130 Exterior twice because they were trying to make it read as though it had a cockpit. Their website also claims the aircraft use the default 747 systems "to provide expandability with community mods" - which is untrue, because these community mods did not exist when they created the aircraft, the community mods are now unsupported due to various CS updates. So yes, they do try and "lie". Also they no longer use the "default 747 systems" because the default is now AAU2. CS are still using the old systems. Also if you consider an extra 12 euros will buy you a PMDG 736, additionally the 738 works out to a little over 16 euros per variant (pax, BCF, BDSF, bbj2). This makes CS' 20 euro-per-variant price tag seem even more extortionate. So no, they are not "relatively low priced". Do not claim they are genius on any kind of level. Do not give them praise. Captain Sim are predatory.
Will probably be the 777-200 first to maximize profits as most will want the 777-300ER but get the 200 variant while waiting for the 300. It's the usual PMDG MO. Would like to be disproven though 😂
I still reminiscence of the days of FSX in 2008-2011 when Captain Sim offered a wide array of addons. The 757 was magical to fly and the attention to detail created a lot of immersion.
I’m glad you try to be fair with the history of captain sim. Hopefully they change their ways and do better. That’s what the free market can do to motivate a company.
I think the reason companies like Captain Sim can thrive in this market is because of the low standard environment Microsoft has created and allowed to continue within the Sim's (if you can call it that) addon community. If there was a strict quality focused criteria that had to be met for addons to be approved, you would see less of these practices. Though people have their issues and opinions on Eagle Dynamics as a company, I think their payware model is the best the flight sim community has. Things take longer yes, but you know the quality of aircraft you are getting are at a unique and professional standard to say the least.
Addons aren’t approved. Devs are allowed to put a addon into the marketplace without any quality check because Microsoft expects the dev to determine if they think they met the proper quality for the price that they sell the addons for.
Will say, its true about the income for lower detailed aircraft. Look at the time that some of these devs spend on highly detailed aircraft, including community expectations before, during, and after a release. There is always a market for everyone
We gotta remember that msfs released on xbox as well. They’re probably buying captainsim products and have absolutely no issue with what they are doing
Just a note on the first shot of outside a flight deck window. I really wish MSFS had good window reflections like the ones in the opening shot. I swear it used to have ok reflections, (they called it raymarched reflections) but I swear they've all but disappeared and we're left with no cockpit reflections at all. It's the only thing stopping the cockpit from feeling properly realistic. 😢
Agree… A general pointer; Searching for corporate ownership details nearly always reveals said compay’s targeted degree of financialisation vs product sales and transparency for an end customer. If company ownership details are fuzzy (as with CS), the business ethics most often are too - not a rule, but a very high degree of coincidence. I.e. was there a change of equity ownership around CS around 2020? New board members, new strategies?
I bought the virtualcol e175 because I didn’t need a hi fidelity aircraft. I just wanted the autopilot to work. And last time I tried, it doesn’t. 😒 so I don’t want to try again with the CS or LVFR even if the autopilot is better
Haha..great timing...Bought the 777F this morning.. 😂 not such a smooth start for me, had to download mods to get it to work... Starting my first flight EHAM- KORD now😮
but you not mentioning pmdg has released its product to MSFS Market place a year after official release of 737-700 product on PMDG website ...i remember the day one of 737-700 release day.... man their website got shot down for a few hours...i was waiting hours to buy...
If captain sim changed its name before moving into a new business model different from what prior expectations held, they may have been in a better position with less criticism.
I'm not even going to comment on the Captain Sim but just wanted to politely point out one thing you mentioned in the video. When I purchased the PMDG 737 for MSFS the product description said that the EFB is coming late summer... last year. Fast forward a year and we still haven't seen a single screenshot of it. Again, I'm not trying to compare PMDG with Captain Sim but as we can see PMDG is also guilty of over-advertising.
Emanuel, regarding which law is applicable, it is completely irrelevant where the company is based. It is always only the law of the country applicable where the product is sold/purchased. So e. g. there might be completely different terms and conditions applicable if the product is bought within the EU or in Japan. Of course I am only talking about consumer laws/rights andnot talking about laws regarding production, e. g. laws to protect the environment when producing or to secure competitive equality etc. for which of course the laws of the country where the production takes place are relevant.
Always impressed by the way you keep finding fresh content, delivered to a very high standard and presented with a balanced and respectful point of view. Enjoyed watching and, in the absence of having any prior knowledge about the subject matter, feel rather enlightened (Caveat emptor)... as always, looking forward to the next episode :)
@@DarkAndVelvetNights Perhabs. Judging on their progress updates I'm not too certain at the moment that it will live up to the standards I'm hoping for for this channel, at least not on its initial release, but rest assured I will have a look at it and if it's good I'll do a tutorial.
Personally, I'm.... Well, the best way to describe it here is "kinda disappointed", because CP used to deliver some great aircraft with some pretty advanced features. I often mention the "C-130 X-perience" (for FSX) as my absolute favorite. For its time, it was PRETTY advanced, with some proper simulated systems (again, for its time). You could tell, that CS had put some EFFORT into delivering a almost LITTERAL "EXPERIENCE" - especially if you spent some extra money for the two Extra Packs (WELL SPENT for what you got, might I ad!!). The Base Pack contained a C-130E exterior model, with 2 (TWO!!!) 3D cockpit layouts and modelled cargohold, and 7 liveries. With the Extra Packs, you got : 17(!!) extra external models representing pretty much EVERY version of the C-130 ever produced, ranging from the C-130A, over the C-130J (both the regular and the C-130J-30 which has a streched fuselage), KC-130 (the tanker version), L-100 (a civilian cargo version), the AC-130 Gunship, just to name "a few". On top of all the extra exterior models, you also got a extra 18 liveries. So I was HYPED, when it was announced, that the C-130 was coming to MSFS - and that it was "developed" by CS! 😃 But DAMN!! I actually felt like CS had let me (and many other former "fans" of CS) DOWN!!! The exterior model was okay. But seriously NO COCKPIT??!! 😳 Like in : Not even the default 747 one, like they did with all their other aircraft?? 😦 In my opinion, it's just sad to see, how something that was once great, suddenly is just a (barely visible) shadow of itself. 😞
The market doesn't care about fidelity - it is not about simming, it is about playing 'flying games.' MSFS is the Walmartization of flightsim - everything is there, some of it is great but most of it isn't. Also, there is increasingly nowhere else to shop. XP12 business is down, and P3D is dead.
Well, XP12 has its own issues that prevent the full experience, starting with the CPU usage, bad performance and frequent stutters. It might have better physics, but what's the use of those when it goes to five fps at 300ft on final and then into time acceleration to catch up, smashing you into the ground? Both MSFS and XP12 have their right of existance and are good sims. One better in some aspects than the other.
The market doesn’t care about fidelity because only 3 million players are simmers, 3 million are gamers, and all the rest are CASUALS. That means they don’t want to do 10 hour flights over the ocean using sim brief. It’s not like everyone wants to use a 75$ 777 by PMDG when they can easily use a 20$ 777 that is easier to use and easy to have fun with. The sim has a market for simmers, like JF, PMDG, A2A, etc, but devs like captain sim are aimed for the gamer and casual market. The sim was made for all audiences but why would all addons be pointed towards simmers? You have to remember that there needs to be a market for all types of players. Captain sim has its place, Mscenery can work for gamers as gamer have basically no standards, and PMDG and JF are many for simmers.
It's not like they didn't steal private liveries in the past @frodeskibrek According their own EULA they claim they still own those private liveries (though I doubt how legal that is).
The genius of Captain Sim is preying on new simmers that aren’t informed and don’t know better and console users that don’t have as many options. And with it being featured in the “Popular” section almost all of the time. Yeah it was a genius move… for them that is.
Well, for the ultimate beginner those captainsim aircraft aren't quite wrong, are they? They give them avionics which they're used to while - somewhat - modelling the plane in question. For 20 bucks I find that alright.
If you take a look at the number of downloads of the Salty compatibility mod you get a lower bound for the amount of money they are making here... even though what they're doing purely from a flight simmer's perspective is reprehensible from a business perspective, as you said, it's genius. Let's just hope this won't motivate other good devs to move into this territory. Thankfully at the same time we have very promising projects like the FBW A380X. It's a tale of two cities really.
Thought so. There's no shortage of people who are just fine with essentially a skin for the default 747, which sucks for us, and stings real bad since Captain Sim made some really nice products before the age of MSFS. They found a more lucrative market and just threw away their existing customer base. They were very blunt about it in "The freighter story" on the Captain Sim forums after they released a rushed 767CF expansion for P3D in 2021. Just not worth it to them in "the current market."
They were nice products but I find the emphasis even back in the day was on eye candy over realism or even fixing obvious bugs that took away from the simulation. Anyone remember the TOD calculation issue on the CS767 in FSX, where you'd put in an arrival and that thing would just refuse to calculate any TOD at all? Happened like half the time. It really took some devoted scrolling through their forums and finding good mods to make it more usable. I still have a folder of that stuff on my drive. The older analog planes, 707 & 727, were better since they didn't have to simulate FMCs and trajectory computations. And when their rushed CS777 came out just before the PMDG 777 for FSX, that really signalled things to come, to me.
Hi Emanuel and thank you for this outstanding report. Very well researched! It was a pleasure and fun to view for me! I agree on all points. But the title is a bit too suggestive for my taste ;-)
My pleasure! As for the title - you know UA-cam. It has to be something special. Calling them genius is something I can actually stand behind. From an economical point of view though as I explained in the video.
fair points made. i've been flying CS since fs9/fsx. i always thought they were russian. not my cup of tea these days but like i said, you make some very good points. thanks for the video
I thought they were Russian too. I seem to recall seeing the names of some of the developers and they were Russian names. That was a long time ago however. Clearly they have decided to conceal more.
My comments for what it’s worth. I review approx 75% of what I buy on market place especially the exceptional or the terrible. I buy at least 80% of products direct from devs as I want them get most money avoid the kickback. I’m sure vast majority of serious simmers do this too. Therefore I would expect pmdg sell alot from their website direct. Regards captain products what you said wasn’t unreasonable. In fact if the default 747 is used then after the AU/etc updates for 747 you would expect their products to work even better. You could argue it’s lazy or clever probably a bit of both. I don’t own their products so I carnt make a fair comment. As you say consumer choice we all know how that goes sometimes 😢
Is it “lazy”? Sure is. But which company would not strive to make as much money with as little effort as possible? Welcome to capitalism. Can’t blame them as long as they are honest about what you get before the purchase. If you can make up an informed mind before you buy and still choose to buy then they can not be blamed for it.
Back in FS2004/9 days I purchased the 727 during one their $10.00 deals. You had to buy (as today) liveries and engine packs as well well. The $10.00 was the base package. Everything else was extra. I did enjoy flying it as a break from the Level D and so. It was nice to “light the fires and kick the tires.” I don’t think I’d spend the $20.00 bucks today however. Great video.
Recently they have brought out the flight deck for their piss poor Hercules.... how long since being released??? exactly. They shot themselves in the foot when they stopped simmers from creating their own textures..... They didnt forget that in a hurry and that was the start of their downfall. It will take a great deal of good work to get back to where they were. Dont hold your breath.
The "Genius" in getting people to part with their money for a beautiful model with Flight Simulator 95 cockpits.😂 It's just like that other company with the E jets.👀
I think their business model targets two groups. The lazy and the stupid. Unfortunately they are taking advantage of the lack of any study level long range aircraft on the market at the moment. They're just exploiting their reputation for developing great aircraft. I personally find it very disappointing because I have loved SC's 727 and 757 aircraft since FS2004. Unfortunately money first.
You are clearly wrong. Captain Scam is shit. The fact you don't see it when you are a real airline pilot. Makes me seriously question the standard of airline pilots today. Clearly not high... CAPTAIN SCAM - PERIOD!
Exploiting a marketplace system and earning lots of money from less knowledgeable, casual audiences is not genius, it's despicable behaviour in my book.
Well, for the ultimate beginner those captainsim aircraft aren't quite wrong, are they? They give them avionics which they're used to while - somewhat - modelling the plane in question. For 20 bucks I find that alright.
I agree with what is said. But personally I haven’t brought any of CS products. Due for obvious reasons of them producing a low quality product especially compared to there offerings they use to produce. It’s obvious what the are doing and there primary focus is money 💰 money 💰 money 💰. But the comparison with pmdg may not be equal due a lot of pmdg owners buy directly of pmdg. I don’t mind companies earning profit especially I run a business. But CS dose seem to be in it for greed.
This sucks because I flew the fsx 767 religiously. It is hands down one of my favorite Add ons and to see them just give up and go for the money grab is disappointing. The aircraft they produce now are terrible and are catered towards the people who fly on Xbox with a game pad.
Agreed, there is no Captain 'scam' when the product is clearly advertised. Buyer beware applies. 'Craptain' Sim on the other hand 💩 Oh well, if folks want pretty skins on top of inaccurate systems for the type, who am I to judge what others like.
Nice video. Could it be said that the reason for the CaptainSim hate is because mob mentality? Do "serious simmers" have a problem with the existence of non-serious simmers and therefore fuel the anymosity against CS?
I believe it's more how they treated their customers in the past where they've made their enemies. CS customer service has always been horrible, but ever since they did their livery thing and even threatened to sue flightsim.to for hosting free liveries, which they claimed to be their own, that's where they crossed the breaking point.
Captain Sim has a chance to be great. If only they started working on their systems and bugs then that would be amazing. They need to build a larger team and then people would quite hating on them. Models are great, but the bugs are bad.
If it's a forum rule that pricing isn't to be discussed and you violate that you can get banned, yes. There's plenty other forums out there where you can discuss pricing policy. Let's be honest, which developer *does* actually allow discussion of their pricing on their forums?
I never bought a Cpt. Sim aircraft model. The name is too cliche. It screams bogus, reminds me of something my 10 year old self would come up with. Yes, I think they are in the USA and probably use something like a Canada address to avoid laws. The site looks nice and the captions are carefully well written. Like what an autobody man once told me, I can paint it, polish it, buff it, and spit shine it some more, but it's still a turd.
I get the genius thing but I'm still of the opinion CS does a disservice to MSFS. CS provides gaming crap. I would like to see an advanced version of MSFS that would only accept a minimum standard of aircraft like PMDG or Fenix, other.
While I expect the community backlash, I never expected the severity of it - kind of like that The Verge's PC built video - it is a bit too much conflagration: making up concerns, manufacturing consent about how serious it is. "New users will think this is acceptable", "we need to educate the market" - that sounds a bit too gate-keepy, some people at ThresholdX probably need to chill a bit too. Many of us are already past that, but some of us just need to rag on the bottom feeder as our own copium medicine. I am more concerned about Bredok3D - at least CS planes looked right. Back in 2002, CS 757-200 is a MSFS breakthrough pioneer, just like Dreamflight and their 737-400, and PMDG with their 737NG. Their main thing has always been visual details. We got 757 with opening engine cowling, radome, and all maintenance access panels to the incessantly pointless details for FS2002. However, at the time, it came with workable super detailed panels, as ESP platform FS2000 all the way to FSX and P3D allows 2D panels that does its own thing in its own module, while the plane and the visuals do entirely different thing. Their limitations in capability are totally exposed when they really have to produce a proper aircraft for a proper flight simulator platform. The genius plan might be for CS to wait out as the platform matures... more talent emerges, more developers formed, and with stagnating XP12 user base and market - those folks doing work for FlightFactor 767 and 777 might want to take a look at CS' Boeing widebodies as their starting point to get into MSFS market. If we got FF 767 and 777 level of fidelity for MSFS and with CS visual quality - PMDG is up for serious undercut.
I'm trying my best to hear you out because I'm sure you're heading somewhere. I just can't handle captain sim and genius in the same sentence so I'm sorry, can't watch this one
They're good for what they are. But CS got themselves into lots of trouble due to the disrespect they are showing the community which I can totally understand.
It was started by a Russian enthusiast yes, but he left Russia quickly after. It actually started within Project Tupolev, which was actually backed by Tupolev itself.
I'm sorry to say I disagree why bring out planes with 747 cockpits when they are so good at what they do let's put it this way if you brought a ford and you picked it up and it was a reliant robin you be disappointed I hear what your saying but making profit for cheap aircraft is bad the flight model is horrible and basic sounds is not right
This is bad for community what’s wrong with the world is outrageous how can someone well known for being professional and a knowledgeable person like you call them genius for making bad products at least don’t make them a favor to justify their bad products what’s is bad it stays bad no matter what their description is
CapTain Sim now is HOT GARBAGE!!! Got the 757 FSX and was great till they stopped supporting it and have been trash ever since. CAPTAIN SIM is just a rip off.
Did you just really said something positive about CaptainSim? I must have missheard that! Go and wash your mouth! 😂😂😂😂 just kiddin. I bouth the T7F from them and use it with a WT mod to have a better FMC and Systems. It looks fantastic, sounds awesome with FTSim+ and works okay. Although it is way off a PMDG T7, it works 🤷♂️ I can load my FPL, even Import it from Simbrief, change it on the fly and fly it. Dont grill me now please but I like the T7 with the Mod even with its problems. You can grill me now 😅😂
😂😂😂 No need to grill anyone, you Argument totally makes sense. With the WT mod (or rather thanks to the WT mod) the CS aircraft get to about the level of those default 747 and 787. Surely not perfect, but then again for many that is all they are looking for.
@737NGDriver yes! They realized the absolutely brand new market of casual and new simmers with msfs and they used the new business model of online shopping to capitalize. I never got burned with any of this. I only got burned once in Msfs and that was the twin otter.. all I use now is pmdg, fenix and a2a.
Love all of your videos but this was confusing and unnecessary in the best case. CS in MSFS is a dev for external models and that's all. Thumbs down on this content, sorry.
Thanks for asking. You are displaying in public a livery for CaptainScam and at the same time calling them "genius", that is by all means confusing. Then I think it is unnecessary because contrary to all your other videos there is absolutely nothing to conclude from this one, you spent a portion trying to, probably incorrectly, estimate the amount of money CS is making in the MS marketplace, what is the point of that? Yes, they are probably getting a lot of money, yes they have a horrible reputation and yes they probably don't care and the people buying their planes don't care either so why do the analysis? Finally we have a lot of outstanding devs in the flight sim community, many of them living from making awesome high-quality products for all of us, wasting time in a vid about CS is quite difficult to process.
@@LuisArgerich Showing the livery and calling them genius is exactly what it is about: The confusion among the community. Many call them scammers, in my opinion that makes the *actual* scammers look good. There are scam developers in this community. However a scam is what you advertise or sell something that you don't deliver. CS doesn't do that. They deliver what they promise. Now that's not a lot, no doubt about that. But as a consumer you can inform yourself prior to the purchase and you get what they tell you you'll get. The maths I put into the video to show people why they do that kind of stuff and that it makes total economic sense. That's where the genius comes in: From a monetary point of view what they did was probably the best they could have done to fill their pockets. And as long as the customer knows in advance what he'll be getting I honestly don't see too much of a problem with that. What IS a problem is what CS did with the livery thing and their non existant customer service. But that's a different story. The overall intent of the video is to clarify what they are and what not. Too often I hear incorrect statements and assumptions posted about them which just make the true scammers look better than they actually are.
The last thing we need in the flightsim community is an apologetic message about CS. Sorry if I disagree with your view but it really doesn't look good coming from you. Again love your content but lets skip this subject if we drink a coffee.
Why didn't you do a flight with the CS 777 plus the freeware improvement mod? It would be cooler to actually show us the plane instead of analyzing buisness, which is not your job.
Are you his boss? Weird comment given he does reviews with the flight sim community. The fact that it needs a freeware improvement mod says a lot on the on how limited is as an add on. Just because you enjoy flying low system junk doesn't mean we are all pleased with it.
@michisvet2922 we didn't ask your opinion either but you posted in a public forum so it fair game for critique. This has nothing do with politics. If you don't fly the plane then your opinion is of 0 relevance.
I won't comment on my views of CS directly but I agree that they are making a lot of $$. As a new company I realize we will have skeptics but my goal with our BBS 757 and 767 is to eventually fill the void that has been missing for a quality 757 and 767. We won't rest until BBS gets there.
I'm sure you won't have much of a challenge surpassing them ;-)
Looking forward to your releases and giving them a ride!
Just make sure not to make the same mistake as FSS did with their Embraer (or some other dev is probably about to make soon) and release too early in a useless state. That's what my main recommendation would be to new developers. The first impression counts, make sure it's a good one.
I agree 100% on first impressions :)
@@bluebirdsimLooking forward to seeing your products in action.
Keep it up guys!
@@bluebirdsimCan’t wait for that 75, my favourite bird!
Looking forward to another solid dev bringing commercial aviation to life in MSFS! Specially the 757-300 with the Rolls Royce engines.
Their B707 Captain was a very good add on for FSX. I still enjoy flying it with a back-dated scenery through Cal Classics
The Level-D was great. CS nowadays is just one person who can make nice models. Everyone else is long gone.
Do you have any source for the info that they're only one person nowadays? Back in the day they surely had more developers.
Though I guess it would be the obvious question where all those system developers have gone since.
cs is a ukrainian company that had mostly russian developers so they cant do anything advanced even if they wanted
@@A330Driver
@@A330DriverThere is a video on UA-cam from some time ago which proves they had many devs back in the day. The owner I think was a 767 pilot.
I would add A2A to the list of developers making COMPLETELY simulated aircrafts. You cannot get any more complete than a full physical simulation of the engine and wear&tear of virtually every element.
True that!
You have absolut right
I miss the A2A B-17 for FSX. I'm just now getting into msfs after a hiatus from civil sims
Every captain sim plane is basically a 3D livery for 20-30 bucks
Back in the days of FS9 and FSX, the Captain Sim 727 and 757 were some of the best and my favourite airplanes to fly.. How things change over a few years.
Indeed, the CS 757 was my favorite before PMDGs MD-11 released for FSX. Times surely changed!
Microsoft made CS rewrite their product page for the C130 Exterior twice because they were trying to make it read as though it had a cockpit. Their website also claims the aircraft use the default 747 systems "to provide expandability with community mods" - which is untrue, because these community mods did not exist when they created the aircraft, the community mods are now unsupported due to various CS updates. So yes, they do try and "lie". Also they no longer use the "default 747 systems" because the default is now AAU2. CS are still using the old systems.
Also if you consider an extra 12 euros will buy you a PMDG 736, additionally the 738 works out to a little over 16 euros per variant (pax, BCF, BDSF, bbj2). This makes CS' 20 euro-per-variant price tag seem even more extortionate. So no, they are not "relatively low priced".
Do not claim they are genius on any kind of level. Do not give them praise. Captain Sim are predatory.
All the more reason to wait for the PMDG 777. Have they actually said which version is coming first?
Yep, fully agree. Unfortunately the version that comes first has not been announced yet.
Will probably be the 777-200 first to maximize profits as most will want the 777-300ER but get the 200 variant while waiting for the 300. It's the usual PMDG MO. Would like to be disproven though 😂
@@glennkamers I’d get, -200ER/-200F and -300ER anyway
@@glennkamerstotally agree. There's no doubt in my mind they'll do this. It's just smart business
You are spot on, I was hoping for a 727 from them, however that will never happen.
I still reminiscence of the days of FSX in 2008-2011 when Captain Sim offered a wide array of addons. The 757 was magical to fly and the attention to detail created a lot of immersion.
The only plane I purchased through CPT sim was the C-130 for FSX. The C-130 was not bad. I am still thinking about getting it again for msfs2020
There is no cockpit
I’m glad you try to be fair with the history of captain sim. Hopefully they change their ways and do better. That’s what the free market can do to motivate a company.
I think the reason companies like Captain Sim can thrive in this market is because of the low standard environment Microsoft has created and allowed to continue within the Sim's (if you can call it that) addon community. If there was a strict quality focused criteria that had to be met for addons to be approved, you would see less of these practices. Though people have their issues and opinions on Eagle Dynamics as a company, I think their payware model is the best the flight sim community has. Things take longer yes, but you know the quality of aircraft you are getting are at a unique and professional standard to say the least.
Addons aren’t approved. Devs are allowed to put a addon into the marketplace without any quality check because Microsoft expects the dev to determine if they think they met the proper quality for the price that they sell the addons for.
I reviewed their FSX 737-200. It's very neat and actually nice. But it was nearly 9-10 years ago
Will say, its true about the income for lower detailed aircraft. Look at the time that some of these devs spend on highly detailed aircraft, including community expectations before, during, and after a release. There is always a market for everyone
We gotta remember that msfs released on xbox as well. They’re probably buying captainsim products and have absolutely no issue with what they are doing
We don't expect captain sim to simulate all systems but at least a good taxi, decent sounds and a decent flare.
I hope they update it.
How does one make a request to Captain Sim for an airline livery?
I’m in great need of the KENYA AIRWAYS BOEING 737-800 Livery on the XBOX.
I don't think that's possible at all, but try sending them a message on social media or post on their forums
Just a note on the first shot of outside a flight deck window. I really wish MSFS had good window reflections like the ones in the opening shot. I swear it used to have ok reflections, (they called it raymarched reflections) but I swear they've all but disappeared and we're left with no cockpit reflections at all. It's the only thing stopping the cockpit from feeling properly realistic. 😢
Agree… A general pointer; Searching for corporate ownership details nearly always reveals said compay’s targeted degree of financialisation vs product sales and transparency for an end customer.
If company ownership details are fuzzy (as with CS), the business ethics most often are too - not a rule, but a very high degree of coincidence. I.e. was there a change of equity ownership around CS around 2020? New board members, new strategies?
I bought the virtualcol e175 because I didn’t need a hi fidelity aircraft. I just wanted the autopilot to work. And last time I tried, it doesn’t. 😒 so I don’t want to try again with the CS or LVFR even if the autopilot is better
Haha..great timing...Bought the 777F this morning.. 😂 not such a smooth start for me, had to download mods to get it to work... Starting my first flight EHAM- KORD now😮
but you not mentioning pmdg has released its product to MSFS Market place a year after official release of 737-700 product on PMDG website ...i remember the day one of 737-700 release day.... man their website got shot down for a few hours...i was waiting hours to buy...
Great video explains everything 👍
If captain sim changed its name before moving into a new business model different from what prior expectations held, they may have been in a better position with less criticism.
I would like the add I’d love to see a study level dc3 from pmdg. That would be a nice way to introduce Flight Simulator 2024 next year.
I'm not even going to comment on the Captain Sim but just wanted to politely point out one thing you mentioned in the video. When I purchased the PMDG 737 for MSFS the product description said that the EFB is coming late summer... last year. Fast forward a year and we still haven't seen a single screenshot of it. Again, I'm not trying to compare PMDG with Captain Sim but as we can see PMDG is also guilty of over-advertising.
Don't forget MSFS got a cut of Captain Sim Airliners and still to this day has NO Standard for the Marketplace .
Probably because some people like 20$ addons that are easy to fly.
Emanuel, regarding which law is applicable, it is completely irrelevant where the company is based. It is always only the law of the country applicable where the product is sold/purchased. So e. g. there might be completely different terms and conditions applicable if the product is bought within the EU or in Japan.
Of course I am only talking about consumer laws/rights andnot talking about laws regarding production, e. g. laws to protect the environment when producing or to secure competitive equality etc. for which of course the laws of the country where the production takes place are relevant.
Where can you download that beautifull livery at 00:58 lol
It used to be on flightsim.to but I believe they took it offline. If anyone still has a link to it I’d highly appreciate if it could be shared.
Always impressed by the way you keep finding fresh content, delivered to a very high standard and presented with a balanced and respectful point of view. Enjoyed watching and, in the absence of having any prior knowledge about the subject matter, feel rather enlightened (Caveat emptor)... as always, looking forward to the next episode :)
I appreciate that!
Captain Scam is "NOW" a much better Name for that Guys. :) Their had a almost good Planes in older Sims. Sad!
Loved the CS 767 / 757 in P3D 😢
AGREE
19.99 for that? I'd say it's worth maybe 1.99.
PMDG on the other hand, worth every single penny. The entire 60 bucks.
Their official youtube channel - linked on th website - also says they are from canada btw
wish they'd get around to finishing the C-130 for MSFS 2020
Blackbird Simulations just released a picture of their c130 they are building right now. It’s on their website.
Thanks, Bigboss! Good news.@@Bigboss45305
still no EFB on 737, how is this possible 😅
Follow the forums and you'll know.
CS 707 + civa INS was my favorite addon back at FS2004 times
I guess the real question is what does Capt Sim sim if anything?
One thing they do for sure: Make a lot of money for the work invested.
The flight simming world's Ratner Moment.
this very very good video Thank You
Can you make a tutorial for the TFDI MD-11 when it comes out??
I didn't preorder it so I won't get a copy until months after release.
@@A330Driver I didn't either. Can you do it after the full release??
@@DarkAndVelvetNights Perhabs. Judging on their progress updates I'm not too certain at the moment that it will live up to the standards I'm hoping for for this channel, at least not on its initial release, but rest assured I will have a look at it and if it's good I'll do a tutorial.
@@A330Driver ok
Personally, I'm.... Well, the best way to describe it here is "kinda disappointed", because CP used to deliver some great aircraft with some pretty advanced features. I often mention the "C-130 X-perience" (for FSX) as my absolute favorite. For its time, it was PRETTY advanced, with some proper simulated systems (again, for its time). You could tell, that CS had put some EFFORT into delivering a almost LITTERAL "EXPERIENCE" - especially if you spent some extra money for the two Extra Packs (WELL SPENT for what you got, might I ad!!).
The Base Pack contained a C-130E exterior model, with 2 (TWO!!!) 3D cockpit layouts and modelled cargohold, and 7 liveries.
With the Extra Packs, you got : 17(!!) extra external models representing pretty much EVERY version of the C-130 ever produced, ranging from the C-130A, over the C-130J (both the regular and the C-130J-30 which has a streched fuselage), KC-130 (the tanker version), L-100 (a civilian cargo version), the AC-130 Gunship, just to name "a few".
On top of all the extra exterior models, you also got a extra 18 liveries.
So I was HYPED, when it was announced, that the C-130 was coming to MSFS - and that it was "developed" by CS! 😃 But DAMN!! I actually felt like CS had let me (and many other former "fans" of CS) DOWN!!! The exterior model was okay. But seriously NO COCKPIT??!! 😳 Like in : Not even the default 747 one, like they did with all their other aircraft?? 😦
In my opinion, it's just sad to see, how something that was once great, suddenly is just a (barely visible) shadow of itself. 😞
The market doesn't care about fidelity - it is not about simming, it is about playing 'flying games.' MSFS is the Walmartization of flightsim - everything is there, some of it is great but most of it isn't. Also, there is increasingly nowhere else to shop. XP12 business is down, and P3D is dead.
Well, XP12 has its own issues that prevent the full experience, starting with the CPU usage, bad performance and frequent stutters. It might have better physics, but what's the use of those when it goes to five fps at 300ft on final and then into time acceleration to catch up, smashing you into the ground?
Both MSFS and XP12 have their right of existance and are good sims. One better in some aspects than the other.
The market doesn’t care about fidelity because only 3 million players are simmers, 3 million are gamers, and all the rest are CASUALS. That means they don’t want to do 10 hour flights over the ocean using sim brief. It’s not like everyone wants to use a 75$ 777 by PMDG when they can easily use a 20$ 777 that is easier to use and easy to have fun with. The sim has a market for simmers, like JF, PMDG, A2A, etc, but devs like captain sim are aimed for the gamer and casual market. The sim was made for all audiences but why would all addons be pointed towards simmers? You have to remember that there needs to be a market for all types of players. Captain sim has its place, Mscenery can work for gamers as gamer have basically no standards, and PMDG and JF are many for simmers.
My B722 & B724 upgrade were my favorite liners in FSX. The weird part, being a tinkerer is the entire cockpit/systems model were in a singular gauge.
I for one would love to see Captain Sim having the guts to upload (and sell!) the 777 livery shown at 12:47. 😂
Thats a private livery...
It's not like they didn't steal private liveries in the past @frodeskibrek
According their own EULA they claim they still own those private liveries (though I doubt how legal that is).
Compare Captain Sim to Aerosoft now. A330?
The genius of Captain Sim is preying on new simmers that aren’t informed and don’t know better and console users that don’t have as many options. And with it being featured in the “Popular” section almost all of the time. Yeah it was a genius move… for them that is.
Well, for the ultimate beginner those captainsim aircraft aren't quite wrong, are they? They give them avionics which they're used to while - somewhat - modelling the plane in question. For 20 bucks I find that alright.
If you take a look at the number of downloads of the Salty compatibility mod you get a lower bound for the amount of money they are making here... even though what they're doing purely from a flight simmer's perspective is reprehensible from a business perspective, as you said, it's genius. Let's just hope this won't motivate other good devs to move into this territory. Thankfully at the same time we have very promising projects like the FBW A380X. It's a tale of two cities really.
Thought so. There's no shortage of people who are just fine with essentially a skin for the default 747, which sucks for us, and stings real bad since Captain Sim made some really nice products before the age of MSFS. They found a more lucrative market and just threw away their existing customer base.
They were very blunt about it in "The freighter story" on the Captain Sim forums after they released a rushed 767CF expansion for P3D in 2021. Just not worth it to them in "the current market."
Yep, they way of treating people surely didn't help them get a better standing among people.
They were nice products but I find the emphasis even back in the day was on eye candy over realism or even fixing obvious bugs that took away from the simulation. Anyone remember the TOD calculation issue on the CS767 in FSX, where you'd put in an arrival and that thing would just refuse to calculate any TOD at all? Happened like half the time. It really took some devoted scrolling through their forums and finding good mods to make it more usable. I still have a folder of that stuff on my drive. The older analog planes, 707 & 727, were better since they didn't have to simulate FMCs and trajectory computations. And when their rushed CS777 came out just before the PMDG 777 for FSX, that really signalled things to come, to me.
Hi Emanuel and thank you for this outstanding report. Very well researched! It was a pleasure and fun to view for me! I agree on all points. But the title is a bit too suggestive for my taste ;-)
My pleasure!
As for the title - you know UA-cam. It has to be something special. Calling them genius is something I can actually stand behind. From an economical point of view though as I explained in the video.
fair points made. i've been flying CS since fs9/fsx. i always thought they were russian. not my cup of tea these days but like i said, you make some very good points. thanks for the video
Thanks for sharing
I thought they were Russian too. I seem to recall seeing the names of some of the developers and they were Russian names. That was a long time ago however. Clearly they have decided to conceal more.
My comments for what it’s worth. I review approx 75% of what I buy on market place especially the exceptional or the terrible. I buy at least 80% of products direct from devs as I want them get most money avoid the kickback. I’m sure vast majority of serious simmers do this too. Therefore I would expect pmdg sell alot from their website direct. Regards captain products what you said wasn’t unreasonable. In fact if the default 747 is used then after the AU/etc updates for 747 you would expect their products to work even better. You could argue it’s lazy or clever probably a bit of both. I don’t own their products so I carnt make a fair comment.
As you say consumer choice we all know how that goes sometimes 😢
Is it “lazy”? Sure is. But which company would not strive to make as much money with as little effort as possible? Welcome to capitalism. Can’t blame them as long as they are honest about what you get before the purchase. If you can make up an informed mind before you buy and still choose to buy then they can not be blamed for it.
@@A330Driver captainlism* sorry xD
Back in FS2004/9 days I purchased the 727 during one their $10.00 deals. You had to buy (as today) liveries and engine packs as well well. The $10.00 was the base package. Everything else was extra. I did enjoy flying it as a break from the Level D and so. It was nice to “light the fires and kick the tires.” I don’t think I’d spend the $20.00 bucks today however. Great video.
The Dreamfleet was the best 727 way back when.
I stopped buying their products after buying their 777 (before PMDG released their excellent version). Their 707/727/757 was excellent for the time.
Based on your review from now on I will call it 'Captain Alibaba Sim"😂
I didnt know about that, I still remember the 727, 707 e 737-100 for FSX and Xplane and I love it. This is what a scam looks like, CS is lost!!
i knew those Canadians were up to no good in the shadows
they invented snow, what more can you say
Recently they have brought out the flight deck for their piss poor Hercules.... how long since being released??? exactly. They shot themselves in the foot when they stopped simmers from creating their own textures..... They didnt forget that in a hurry and that was the start of their downfall. It will take a great deal of good work to get back to where they were. Dont hold your breath.
Captain Sim is based in Russia, the other two addresses are just post office boxes.😉
Xplane addons need the heaviest criticism they deserve but are under tha radar. Looking at you Flight factor and Jardesign.
The "Genius" in getting people to part with their money for a beautiful model with Flight Simulator 95 cockpits.😂 It's just like that other company with the E jets.👀
I think their business model targets two groups. The lazy and the stupid.
Unfortunately they are taking advantage of the lack of any study level long range aircraft on the market at the moment. They're just exploiting their reputation for developing great aircraft.
I personally find it very disappointing because I have loved SC's 727 and 757 aircraft since FS2004. Unfortunately money first.
JUST SAY NO, to Captain Sims (in MSFS 2020)!
Captainsim for MSFS, more known as Captainscam, trash aircraft which I do not recommend to anyone, do not buy that.
You are clearly wrong. Captain Scam is shit. The fact you don't see it when you are a real airline pilot. Makes me seriously question the standard of airline pilots today. Clearly not high...
CAPTAIN SCAM - PERIOD!
Market place is a cash cow for unsuspecting msfs users.
Exploiting a marketplace system and earning lots of money from less knowledgeable, casual audiences is not genius, it's despicable behaviour in my book.
Well, for the ultimate beginner those captainsim aircraft aren't quite wrong, are they? They give them avionics which they're used to while - somewhat - modelling the plane in question. For 20 bucks I find that alright.
I agree with what is said. But personally I haven’t brought any of CS products. Due for obvious reasons of them producing a low quality product especially compared to there offerings they use to produce. It’s obvious what the are doing and there primary focus is money 💰 money 💰 money 💰.
But the comparison with pmdg may not be equal due a lot of pmdg owners buy directly of pmdg. I don’t mind companies earning profit especially I run a business. But CS dose seem to be in it for greed.
Captain sim are missing a trick by not adding aau2 to the aircraft.
This sucks because I flew the fsx 767 religiously. It is hands down one of my favorite Add ons and to see them just give up and go for the money grab is disappointing. The aircraft they produce now are terrible and are catered towards the people who fly on Xbox with a game pad.
Agreed, there is no Captain 'scam' when the product is clearly advertised. Buyer beware applies.
'Craptain' Sim on the other hand 💩
Oh well, if folks want pretty skins on top of inaccurate systems for the type, who am I to judge what others like.
Nice video. Could it be said that the reason for the CaptainSim hate is because mob mentality? Do "serious simmers" have a problem with the existence of non-serious simmers and therefore fuel the anymosity against CS?
I believe it's more how they treated their customers in the past where they've made their enemies. CS customer service has always been horrible, but ever since they did their livery thing and even threatened to sue flightsim.to for hosting free liveries, which they claimed to be their own, that's where they crossed the breaking point.
Captain Sim has a chance to be great. If only they started working on their systems and bugs then that would be amazing. They need to build a larger team and then people would quite hating on them. Models are great, but the bugs are bad.
Uh oh Captainsim…
PMDG is unfortunately sliding towards the same pricing model compared to the P3D days, but if you say that on their forum you get banned ;)
If it's a forum rule that pricing isn't to be discussed and you violate that you can get banned, yes.
There's plenty other forums out there where you can discuss pricing policy.
Let's be honest, which developer *does* actually allow discussion of their pricing on their forums?
A company without an imprint is not serious. I never buy their crap.
I like the way you threw shade at the E-JET dev group
I never bought a Cpt. Sim aircraft model. The name is too cliche. It screams bogus, reminds me of something my 10 year old self would come up with. Yes, I think they are in the USA and probably use something like a Canada address to avoid laws. The site looks nice and the captions are carefully well written. Like what an autobody man once told me, I can paint it, polish it, buff it, and spit shine it some more, but it's still a turd.
Oh boyhhh 😫
I get the genius thing but I'm still of the opinion CS does a disservice to MSFS. CS provides gaming crap. I would like to see an advanced version of MSFS that would only accept a minimum standard of aircraft like PMDG or Fenix, other.
I Love Boeing but captain sim ruined it for me😕 my only hope is pmdg
While I expect the community backlash, I never expected the severity of it - kind of like that The Verge's PC built video - it is a bit too much conflagration: making up concerns, manufacturing consent about how serious it is. "New users will think this is acceptable", "we need to educate the market" - that sounds a bit too gate-keepy, some people at ThresholdX probably need to chill a bit too. Many of us are already past that, but some of us just need to rag on the bottom feeder as our own copium medicine. I am more concerned about Bredok3D - at least CS planes looked right.
Back in 2002, CS 757-200 is a MSFS breakthrough pioneer, just like Dreamflight and their 737-400, and PMDG with their 737NG. Their main thing has always been visual details. We got 757 with opening engine cowling, radome, and all maintenance access panels to the incessantly pointless details for FS2002.
However, at the time, it came with workable super detailed panels, as ESP platform FS2000 all the way to FSX and P3D allows 2D panels that does its own thing in its own module, while the plane and the visuals do entirely different thing. Their limitations in capability are totally exposed when they really have to produce a proper aircraft for a proper flight simulator platform.
The genius plan might be for CS to wait out as the platform matures... more talent emerges, more developers formed, and with stagnating XP12 user base and market - those folks doing work for FlightFactor 767 and 777 might want to take a look at CS' Boeing widebodies as their starting point to get into MSFS market. If we got FF 767 and 777 level of fidelity for MSFS and with CS visual quality - PMDG is up for serious undercut.
is the title a sarcasm?
No. It's just the economical view and not the simmers view ;-)
No one should be buying Captain scam products these days!
I'm trying my best to hear you out because I'm sure you're heading somewhere. I just can't handle captain sim and genius in the same sentence so I'm sorry, can't watch this one
idk why he is hated so much i think his planes are good
They're good for what they are. But CS got themselves into lots of trouble due to the disrespect they are showing the community which I can totally understand.
@@A330Driver yeah
They are a Russian company, at least originally.
It was started by a Russian enthusiast yes, but he left Russia quickly after.
It actually started within Project Tupolev, which was actually backed by Tupolev itself.
I'm sorry to say I disagree why bring out planes with 747 cockpits when they are so good at what they do let's put it this way if you brought a ford and you picked it up and it was a reliant robin you be disappointed I hear what your saying but making profit for cheap aircraft is bad the flight model is horrible and basic sounds is not right
This is bad for community what’s wrong with the world is outrageous how can someone well known for being professional and a knowledgeable person like you call them genius for making bad products at least don’t make them a favor to justify their bad products what’s is bad it stays bad no matter what their description is
Well, they don't produce "bad products" per se, they simply produce very simple products. And they advertise them as such.
Their 767, and 757 for P3D was their best work in my opinion. Also that scam emoji is not shit I think it’s pudding lol
Dont own any of their planes. Will leave it at that
Best decision!
CapTain Sim now is HOT GARBAGE!!! Got the 757 FSX and was great till they stopped supporting it and have been trash ever since. CAPTAIN SIM is just a rip off.
Did you just really said something positive about CaptainSim? I must have missheard that! Go and wash your mouth! 😂😂😂😂 just kiddin.
I bouth the T7F from them and use it with a WT mod to have a better FMC and Systems. It looks fantastic, sounds awesome with FTSim+ and works okay. Although it is way off a PMDG T7, it works 🤷♂️
I can load my FPL, even Import it from Simbrief, change it on the fly and fly it.
Dont grill me now please but I like the T7 with the Mod even with its problems.
You can grill me now 😅😂
😂😂😂
No need to grill anyone, you Argument totally makes sense. With the WT mod (or rather thanks to the WT mod) the CS aircraft get to about the level of those default 747 and 787. Surely not perfect, but then again for many that is all they are looking for.
Lol emi.. the point you said where they're genius.. and they suck..
Well, they *are* genius. No other flight sim company has probably earned so much for doing so little. That's genius.
@737NGDriver yes! They realized the absolutely brand new market of casual and new simmers with msfs and they used the new business model of online shopping to capitalize. I never got burned with any of this. I only got burned once in Msfs and that was the twin otter.. all I use now is pmdg, fenix and a2a.
Better known as Captain Scam.
you couldnt even pay me to sly any CS planes they are absolute garbage
Is this a joke
Captin Sim is bad
Love all of your videos but this was confusing and unnecessary in the best case. CS in MSFS is a dev for external models and that's all. Thumbs down on this content, sorry.
Could you explain why it was confusing and unnecessary please?
Thanks for asking. You are displaying in public a livery for CaptainScam and at the same time calling them "genius", that is by all means confusing. Then I think it is unnecessary because contrary to all your other videos there is absolutely nothing to conclude from this one, you spent a portion trying to, probably incorrectly, estimate the amount of money CS is making in the MS marketplace, what is the point of that? Yes, they are probably getting a lot of money, yes they have a horrible reputation and yes they probably don't care and the people buying their planes don't care either so why do the analysis? Finally we have a lot of outstanding devs in the flight sim community, many of them living from making awesome high-quality products for all of us, wasting time in a vid about CS is quite difficult to process.
@@LuisArgerich Showing the livery and calling them genius is exactly what it is about: The confusion among the community. Many call them scammers, in my opinion that makes the *actual* scammers look good. There are scam developers in this community. However a scam is what you advertise or sell something that you don't deliver. CS doesn't do that. They deliver what they promise. Now that's not a lot, no doubt about that. But as a consumer you can inform yourself prior to the purchase and you get what they tell you you'll get.
The maths I put into the video to show people why they do that kind of stuff and that it makes total economic sense.
That's where the genius comes in: From a monetary point of view what they did was probably the best they could have done to fill their pockets. And as long as the customer knows in advance what he'll be getting I honestly don't see too much of a problem with that.
What IS a problem is what CS did with the livery thing and their non existant customer service. But that's a different story.
The overall intent of the video is to clarify what they are and what not. Too often I hear incorrect statements and assumptions posted about them which just make the true scammers look better than they actually are.
The last thing we need in the flightsim community is an apologetic message about CS. Sorry if I disagree with your view but it really doesn't look good coming from you. Again love your content but lets skip this subject if we drink a coffee.
@@LuisArgerich I guess we'll agree to disagree on this one. I agree: Let's move on!
Why didn't you do a flight with the CS 777 plus the freeware improvement mod? It would be cooler to actually show us the plane instead of analyzing buisness, which is not your job.
Must be the one guy left running the show at Cap Sim....lol
Are you his boss? Weird comment given he does reviews with the flight sim community. The fact that it needs a freeware improvement mod says a lot on the on how limited is as an add on. Just because you enjoy flying low system junk doesn't mean we are all pleased with it.
@@TheKezsimpson 1. I don't fly the play.
2. This is not a politics channel.
3. I did not ask for your opinion.
@michisvet2922 we didn't ask your opinion either but you posted in a public forum so it fair game for critique. This has nothing do with politics. If you don't fly the plane then your opinion is of 0 relevance.
Again, I did not ask you for any advice.@@TheKezsimpson