A slightly later edition to our usual annual Roadmap, largely due to the start of the month being absolutely manic for most of the team - both personally and with our various projects. This will be a fairly short report and roadmap, focusing on the big picture rather than individual dates and locations too specifically. The main reason for this is that we did hit most of our targets last year... but we were maybe too specific in what we promised - and we would rather get the scenery right than rush to meet a deadline.
2023 Summary:
2023 was one of our best years yet, with exciting releases such as Faro and two Paris Airports. As well as this, we focussed heavily on product updates - upgrading 8 of our airports to full XP12 compatibility whilst also adding lots of exciting new features to each one.
Inverness was one of our airports to receive significant upgrades during 2023.
At the end of 2023, we have 35 locations available on our store, a fairly significant increase from 2022. If we include individual helipads within the 'Helipad Packs' as separate locations, that total increases to 50. Of which 14 are compatible with XP12 through updates or being new releases.
XP12 Locations (January 2024)
2023 also saw us continue to look outside the UK for new destinations to create. Although we have been, and will continue to release UK and Irish scenery, we have covered most major airports. With the release of San Sebastian, Faro, Paris Beauvais and Paris Vatry, we have really added to our mix of locations. We are planning for 2024 to be no different.
As well as this, we listened to your feedback from our Customer Survey which we conducted early in the year. We made our website clearer than ever before, and product pages on the store now have more information, helping you to make the right decisions. We also invested in a dedicated customer support email system which can be monitored by most of the team. We think this is pretty unique as more often than not, your support question will be answered by the developer who actually made the airport you have downloaded. The most direct support, and we are responding to almost all questions on the same day. This was a big step in our mission to offer the best customer support of any sim developer.
2024 | New Releases
You will likely know about some of our more imminent plans for 2024. As far as new projects go, we are looking forward to releasing:
Prestwick Airport
North Weald Airport
UK Helipads Pack 2
Wick Airport
Prestwick for XP11 & XP12 will be one of our next releases... We are currently working on at least 3 other major projects at this time, some will be announced in February and will generally continue our trend of developing European airports.
2024 | Product Updates:
2023 saw our biggest batch of product updates to date. With over 8 airports upgraded to XP12 (at zero cost to existing XP11 users) we really boosted the quality of our locations, whilst being able to make the most of XP12 features such as dynamic weather.
2024 will be no different. We are hoping to release fairly imminent updates to London Southend and Pembrey Airports, and we have plans for some more major upgrades after this. In terms of priority, Birmingham and Shannon are quite high on the lists. We don't have any specific dates yet but we are definitely beginning to look into how much work needs to be done, which will determine timeframes etc. As always, we hope to keep these upgrades completely free, but Birmingham will likely receive a ground-up rebuild, which will take just as long as developing the airport originally... meaning a small upgrade fee may be needed. As always, we will keep you in the loop with our plans.
2024 | XP11 Support:
We have no plans to cease support for XP11 during 2024. Despite XP12 now leading in sales, many of our customers are using XP11 as it remains a solid platform. All new releases from January 2023 have been Dual Compatible, meaning they work in both sims. We are now using the same files for both (rather than creating separate XP11 and XP12 variants). This saves storage space for users, as well as being much simpler when downloading airports.
Products being upgraded to XP12 will also still work in XP11, and our team are keeping both sims active during the testing of all scenery.
2024 | General View:
2024 looks set to be another exciting year for us. We are really mixing up the locations we are bringing to the sim. You can expect further XP12 upgrades, new airports and most likely, a few surprises along the way. As our customers, your opinions will continue to guide us. We will be releasing our 2024 Customer Survey shortly. If you have any suggestions for scenery, or anything we can improve, you're always welcome to email us at info@boundlessdirect.com All the best to a great 2024! The Boundless Team