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Talk to the management? Here's your chance...


Aerosoft Team

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  • Aerosoft

You should know by now that at Aerosoft we feel a very high degree of transparency and interaction with our (potential) customers is of the greatest importance. And that goes from top to bottom, you see the students that take an internship at Aerosoft on these forums but also the management.

If there is anything you would like to tell the top of Aerosoft, this is the topic to do so. Our CEO, Winfried Diekmann, will read what's written here and will, where needed, respond. Just be patient and asking him anything technical is useless as he is not involved with the products directly. His simulations are all financial and in Excel!

Wenn du alles lieber auf Deutsch besprechen möchtest, klicke hier.

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I would like to know how both of you, Winfried and Mathijs, got yourselves into the simulation business, particularly Aerosoft, and where you see it going.

I can only speak for myself and Sascha (Managing Director)

I came into Aerosoft in 1991 as one of the companions founding Aerosoft.

Bernward Suermann, the main founder, was a classmate of myself.

In 1995 I moved into the management and in 2000 we decided to stop professional development because it was wasting a lot of money every year.

After that decision Bernward founded a new company for professional training software based on the Aerosoft department and I was the only managing director left at Aerosoft.

I am not a pilot and I was not a flight sim enthusiast. I have studied business and worked in the banking area and in marketing & pr before.

Sascha came into Aerosoft in 1996 as an apprentice. After that he was responsible for the Aerosoft logistics and the warehouse for a few years. In 2003 his responsibility was increased to purchase and later he became director purchase & sales at Aerosoft. Since 2011 he is managing director of Aerosoft. He was and is interested in all kind of computer gaming.

I hope this answers your question.

I would be interested too in knowing your thoughts about the future of flight simulation.

For hundred thousands of people worldwide, perhaps for millions, flight simulation is more than a game, itis their hobby.

This means that there is a strong interest in keeping this kind of 'games' alive.

So, I am positive to the future.

While Microsoft has shown no interest in the FS community for the last 10-15 years, I believe that the developers of newer flight simulators, like X-Plane, Aerofly, ... will keep their ears much closer on the needs of the community.

I prefer to work with small companies like Aerosoft instead of multinational corporations like Microsoft.

I see FSX and X-Plane for a number of years side on side in flight simulation, but on the long term a new simulator will move into the steps of MSFS.

I don't see the end of our hobby in the near future.

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....

For hundred thousands of people worldwide, perhaps for millions, flight simulation is more than a game, itis their hobby.

This means that there is a strong interest in keeping this kind of 'games' alive.

I don't see the end of our hobby in the near future.

..

so there will be new plans for "bigger" projects like the Airbus X Extended? Maybe even a "60-Euro-Project"?

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so there will be new plans for "bigger" projects like the Airbus X Extended? Maybe even a "60-Euro-Project"?

Yes, there are high quality airliner projects coming from us but also from other FS developers in the next time.

Better PCs allow mor detailed aircraft and sceneries.

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  • Aerosoft

I would like to know how both of you, Winfried and Mathijs, got yourselves into the simulation business, particularly Aerosoft, and where you see it going.

I started simming on the Atari ST when my hair was not as white as it is now, long time ago, and I made my career in hospital IT. Was nice but it became boring. Before Aerosoft I was working at LAGO, one of the finest FS add-on companies of that time. Winfried asked me to join Aerosoft and to work on making Aerosoft more international and to organize the download sales. I have never looked back and apart from the frustrations that come with some projects (like the Airbus X Extended at this moment) this is the best job I ever had. Aerosoft is really a great company to work for. LAGO has closed though, lol.

Adding to the comments of Winfried about the future of simulation I like to say that Aerosoft has been growing every year as long as I can remember. We do know other companies have (had) problems but we simple do not see any decline of customer demand. We see a different kind of customer with different needs and we need to work bloody hard to keep up with those changes. But we are simply confident because all the signs are positive. The fact we were able to buy Simware recently shows that the overall market potential of serious simulations 'games' looks very healthy from our point of view. You just need to communicate with customers a lot more then 5 years ago. And for some companies that is hard. It's hard for us as well but we are learning!

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From a management point of view there are roughly two aspects to Aerosoft products: quality and quantity. While quality is an ever raising line, Aerosoft keeps improving itself, I'm under the impression that the quantity of products is slightly going down. If you look at the number of products released per year, I think 2004 and 2005 were the top years. I remember lots of products from those days. Maybe I'm wrong, but if you compare that to 2011 and 2012 I think Aerosoft has produced less quantity. Again, nothing to complain about quality but that's not what this question is about.

I don't have the exact numbers but I'm sure you do, and this leads to two questions. First one of course, is my impression right? Has the number of released products indeed gone down? Or is it just an image in my head? Question number two, are you planning on increasing it? Turning the downgoing line of quantity around and producing more products again? Maybe hire some more developers? Or do you satisfy in the current level of quantity?

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From a management point of view there are roughly two aspects to Aerosoft products: quality and quantity. While quality is an ever raising line, Aerosoft keeps improving itself, I'm under the impression that the quantity of products is slightly going down. If you look at the number of products released per year, I think 2004 and 2005 were the top years. I remember lots of products from those days. Maybe I'm wrong, but if you compare that to 2011 and 2012 I think Aerosoft has produced less quantity. Again, nothing to complain about quality but that's not what this question is about.

I don't have the exact numbers but I'm sure you do, and this leads to two questions. First one of course, is my impression right? Has the number of released products indeed gone down? Or is it just an image in my head? Question number two, are you planning on increasing it? Turning the downgoing line of quantity around and producing more products again? Maybe hire some more developers? Or do you satisfy in the current level of quantity?

@ fenriz

I think, you may ask Mathijs because he is managing our support.

The numbers per product are much lower today, because the box market is nearly gone in many countries, like UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Sweden...

So today there are more product releases per year, especially if you count all the download products into this.

An important decision for us was the move from addons to stand-alone products.

We are still selling much moreflight sim addons than other products, but we now have alternatives, if important products are delayed, like Airbus Xt, Düsseldorf and CRJ. ;-)

8 - 10 years ago business was all in all easier than now, because the structure of the game market is changing very fast.

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I remember quite a while back an Idea regarding "Pilot Flying Airlines" for some reason the idea was shelved. It really seemed like a good idea. Same with the Aerosoft simulator. Now that we are seeing these declining numbers, is it possible Aerosoft will attempt in-house developments in the future? What is the current plan to adjust to the changing market and remain on top flight simulation wise?

Now with Microsoft gone, is it really the best idea to hedge bets on X-Plane?

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

I see FSX and X-Plane for a number of years side on side in flight simulation, but on the long term a new simulator will move into the steps of MSFS.

Thank you for your explanation.

You do not mention LM Prepar3d. You do release installers for P3D with some of your new products however. What is your view on the future of P3D and the role of Aerosoft in that?

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I have many, many Aerosoft Products, Almost all USCITIESX, 10+ Sceneries, numerous airplanes, numerous Mega Airports and have been a loyal customer of Aerosoft for many years. I have ordered from Aerosoft in Germany and the USA office.

I had a problem with an order that I placed yesterday on Aerosoft.com which I will not get into detail here about since it involves serial numbers etc. for a Aerosoft product. I made a very dumb mistake in the order and am trying to get it straightend out.

I sent an detailed email to info@aerosoft.com describing the order number and problem and asked how to fix it.

This morning I got a very short, terse response (I will not name the person here who sent me the email) basically saying "tough", we have your money. It is very obvious the person who responded to me did not even read my email and did not understand the problem of my own making.

I would appreciate an email address of someone at Aerosoft that I could get to read and understand my email. I have sent the email to info@aerosoft.com and sales@aerosoft.com

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Hi to all.

Mathijs I think that this topic is another way to show the way you take care us, a loyal costumers that for many years have make the aerosoft sitie our start page every day, reading the forums and buying the best add ons of market, I consider to aerosoft as a principal developer in our hobby, probably some people are not agree with me, but as I say at first, your constant concern for meeting the demands of information has been the main keys to your success.

Mr.Winfried, I'm from Mexico, and I would like to know how you see the latinamerican market on your numbers, could it be some potencial to develop products to this target group? could it be in a future from aerosoft take care as some prospect beside an asian or other part of the world to make an bussines worth?

Thanks for the oportunity.

mario

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Hi,

at first, I think all new Aerosoft releases should include a Prepar3d installer. I never made friends with X-plane after trying 4 evolving versions over the last 20 years, but that might be just my fault.

However, there's an idea that occurred to me. Newmanix mentioned the Aerosoft Simulator which may have been a project too ambitious. As far as I understand, Microsoft's ESP engine is still around. I don't know it LM got an exclusive license for P3D, but I doubt it. Anyway, LM's license conditions explicitly exclude usage for the game market in general (please, no argument here). Besides they well might have plans for developing it into a direction further deviating from the MSFS Franchise (e.g., by including native weapon systems, favoring commercial usage etc.).

Now, that Flight! crashed, wouldn't there be an option for Aerosoft to try to get an ESP license from MS and developing it into a civilian simulator for dedicated game/private use with a wide distribution, including boxed versions, localized versions etc. in parallel to P3D? This still would be an ambitious project, however much less ambitious than starting from scratch. The both of them, i.e. P3D and this future AS, might well coexist and be compatible using some or all of the same add-ons which both might benefit from.

There is certainly more than one loophole in this approach, and I foresee a few of them, but it well might deserve thinking about.

Just my 2c, Michael

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jfail1, while waiting for an answer from the boss, a better address might be support@aerosoft.com. I wouldn't be surprised if the other two aren't covered on the weekend.

Thanks for the suggestion Herman. I just sent them an email and hopefully they will correct the problem.

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  • Deputy Sheriffs

Thanks for the suggestion Herman. I just sent them an email and hopefully they will correct the problem.

Did you get a response and a resolution?

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Did you get a response and a resolution?

Yes, I got a response from their sales department via separate emails (I never got one here via this forum) and resolved it but not easily. I also never got a response from support@aerosoft.com other than the standard email acknowledging my original email to support.

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  • Aerosoft

I have many, many Aerosoft Products, Almost all USCITIESX, 10+ Sceneries, numerous airplanes, numerous Mega Airports and have been a loyal customer of Aerosoft for many years. I have ordered from Aerosoft in Germany and the USA office.

I had a problem with an order that I placed yesterday on Aerosoft.com which I will not get into detail here about since it involves serial numbers etc. for a Aerosoft product. I made a very dumb mistake in the order and am trying to get it straightend out.

I sent an detailed email to info@aerosoft.com describing the order number and problem and asked how to fix it.

This morning I got a very short, terse response (I will not name the person here who sent me the email) basically saying "tough", we have your money. It is very obvious the person who responded to me did not even read my email and did not understand the problem of my own making.

I would appreciate an email address of someone at Aerosoft that I could get to read and understand my email. I have sent the email to info@aerosoft.com and sales@aerosoft.com

jfail1, I will check out why the reply you got from info was not correct, but the reply you got from support was and they also solved your issue. One of the orders you done (the one paid by bank) has been cancelled and you have not been charged for that. Check the update on your support ticket for details.

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  • Aerosoft

Yes, I got a response from their sales department via separate emails (I never got one here via this forum) and resolved it but not easily. I also never got a response from support@aerosoft.com other than the standard email acknowledging my original email to support.

On October 22, 2012 23:29 this was send to you:

Dear Customer,

You ordered the Katana 4x but one was with a Bank Transfer so you still only paid for one, I will delete the bank transfer order.

With kind regards,

Shaun Fletcher

Aerosoft GmbH

Flughafen Paderborn/L.

D-33142 Bueren

HRB1989 Paderborn

GF: Winfried Diekmann

Get your best FS products at http://www.aerosoft.com

Our support forums at http://www.forum.aerosoft.com

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I would like to ask, do you plan do give a discount for the X-Plane sceneries when the customer already own the FSX version of the airport? I would like to buy some of the new scenerys for X-Plane but to pay again the full price is a bit much, as I still fly with FSX and only sometimes with X-Plane.

Thanks for your answer.

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We've come a long way since the Atari ST, I owned two Atari ST1040's in order to play Falcon head-to-head. It was fun but was nothing compared to what we have now.

Companies like Aerosoft make the experience a pleasure.

:)

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