A few thoughts about the price

[Avimimus]

35 minutes ago, Elf said:

imho the price is affordable for both editions, especially in comparison with DCS )

the problem (for me) is whether 'Korea''s damage-model shall resemble BoS in any way... I really don't like such in BoS, and hope devs won't make the same in new sim

 

[Elf]

I've seen this part of diary, though its hard to say definitely what we'll gonna see after the release )

[Avimimus]

1 hour ago, Elf said:

I've seen this part of diary, though its hard to say definitely what we'll gonna see after the release )

Definitely, we'll need more footage or to experience it ourselves... but the dev diary does discuss in depth the limitations of the early approaches and where improvements are taking place - it is our best source of information.

[Aapje]

 

[Woody]

I watched the above video earlier today and I agree with him. The price is quite reasonable compaired to other flight sims. I didn't think the price was bad in the first place compared to other flightsims.

I also play World of Warships, which is exspensive compared to Great Battle 

[BlitzPig_EL]

I gave up on World of Warships some time ago.  It may be free to play, but it is certainly pay to win.  The "whales" ruined that game.

[sevenless]

24 minutes ago, Woody said:

I watched the above video earlier today and I agree with him. The price is quite reasonable compaired to other flight sims. I didn't think the price was bad in the first place compared to other flightsims.

I also play World of Warships, which is exspensive compared to Great Battle 

Exactly. I bought all GB family modules at full price when they came out over the years and since then have played for way over 2000 hours total. Can´t get a better deal worth your money. GB and Korea offers a combat environment you can get immersed in, not like others only an overpriced cockpit simulator.

[dryheat94]

My main concern is will my system be able to run it as it develops. My 4080, 5800X3D, 64GB DDR4 will start showing its age at some point. Being retired on a fixed income, a new PC is out of the question for me. I hope to see some more gameplay footage with a system comparable to mine before I purchase. The omission of DLSS concerns me.

Edited December 21, 2025 by dryheat94

[LuftManu]

58 minutes ago, dryheat94 said:

My main concern is will my system be able to run it as it develops. My 4080, 5800X3D, 64GB DDR4 will start showing its age at some point. Being retired on a fixed income, a new PC is out of the question for me. I hope to see some more gameplay footage with a system comparable to mine before I purchase. The omission of DLSS concerns me.

Looks like a 4080 was in Igromir with VR settings. Luke commented that the team used a 4080 and a 4090 with VR:  https://forum.il2-series.com/topic/789-игромир-2025/page/2/#findComment-4369

I don't think your system will have any trouble with Korea, but I hope they keep the performance as good as in GB!

Kind regards,

[Avimimus]

8 hours ago, LuftManu said:

I don't think your system will have any trouble with Korea, but I hope they keep the performance as good as in GB!

Well, with 2.5 times the detail for all of the aircraft, and something like 4 times the detail for the terrain elevation map etc. We should probably expect some increase in demand.

That said, I was able to run Great Battles in native 4k using a GTX1660 (6GB card, over five years old)... with almost the maximum image quality - it just took some time to dial in the graphics settings to get a sufficient balance. If I were to drop back to 1440p or 1080p it would probably more than compensate.

Anyway, we really don't know at this point - but I'm neither expecting it to get the same FPS as Great Battles does, nor am I expecting a catastrophic increase in system requirements - something in between seems more likely.

[LuftManu]

53 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

Well, with 2.5 times the detail for all of the aircraft, and something like 4 times the detail for the terrain elevation map etc. We should probably expect some increase in demand.

That said, I was able to run Great Battles in native 4k using a GTX1660 (6GB card, over five years old)... with almost the maximum image quality - it just took some time to dial in the graphics settings to get a sufficient balance. If I were to drop back to 1440p or 1080p it would probably more than compensate.

Anyway, we really don't know at this point - but I'm neither expecting it to get the same FPS as Great Battles does, nor am I expecting a catastrophic increase in system requirements - something in between seems more likely.

I agree, there will be more detail, but also more usage of our hardware. Multithreading and a more revised engine will probably manage to get less hit into our PCs (and wallets 🙂 )

But everything will be revealed once we test it in our homes.

For GB I also played with 8gb of RAM and a RTX3050 no issue in 4K a few years ago on a second machine, so I hope they are as conservative as they were with Pc req.

Kind regards

[Avimimus]

Speaking of which - this does raise another consideration: Most of the actual cost is going to be hardware and electricity. In one year, the electricity to run an even moderately powerful video card will cost more than it costs to purchase a flight sim (and there is the up-front cost of buying the hardware). So, the system requirements do impact the overall price much more than even a large increase in the software price would.

That said, the price of the sim hasn't really gone up noticeably (at least compared to BoS at launch), compared to sale prices it is higher.

[Juri_JS]

At the moment I am more worried about the prices for newer hardware going through the roof. If the predictions for 2026 are correct, many people just won't have the money to buy the hardware needed for the latest games. In the longer run this could cause some serious problems for the gaming industry.

[Catch]

Have you seen the price of cigarettes and whiskey! I can't afford to upgrade.

2 hours ago, Avimimus said:

That said, I was able to run Great Battles in native 4k using a GTX1660 (6GB card, over five years old)...

Same. I guess I'll stick to GB. And by that, I mean FC. Still runs well on a modest machine. 🙂 Although they still have to finish it.

[Avimimus]

1 hour ago, Catch said:

Same. I guess I'll stick to GB. And by that, I mean FC. Still runs well on a modest machine. 🙂 Although they still have to finish it.

You and I both know it can never be finished: Even if they gave us a couple more 1916 two-seaters, and the Venice/Isonzo front, we'd probably be asking why we can't do gunfire correction from a navalised Caudron G.III!

[BlitzPig_EL]

It's quite the conundrum isn't it?

We ask, cajole, and beg for more detail, bigger better maps, more "immersion", and when the devs deliver it, there is wailing and gnashing of teeth because it won't run on a 2xxx or 3xxx card, in a machine with 16 gigs of old ram in VR.

You can't have it both ways guys.

[Catch]

2 hours ago, Avimimus said:

You and I both know it can never be finished: Even if they gave us a couple more 1916 two-seaters, and the Venice/Isonzo front, we'd probably be asking why we can't do gunfire correction from a navalised Caudron G.III!

Dammit Avi, you're right. You're always right. It's hopeless. My dreams are shattered. My life is over. I hate the world.

[JFM]

On 11/30/2025 at 1:52 PM, Avimimus said:

Wait... so you are saying that you would only fly American aircraft because of the gauges? Because you don't want to learn to read a dial in German, Russian, or because a British trim tab might be spelled 'centre' rather than 'center'? Is this an aversion to metric or something like that?

I'm just trying to wrap my head around this... it seems like a very specific reason to never have the experience of flying a Fw-190 or a Spitfire etc.

P.S. I suspect that the aircraft in the DLC will all be American, with the exception of maybe one or two British designs.

Hey, Avimimus. I didn't say I only fly American planes, I said I don't fly Russian planes. I've flown a million German and RAF planes. Although upon reflection, I've flown the I-16 and the Polikarpov biplane.  

[Dash,Polder]

I thought about it for all of two seconds, than selected the founders edition.  Fact is it isn't $180, yet.

[Aapje]

7 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

At the moment I am more worried about the prices for newer hardware going through the roof. If the predictions for 2026 are correct, many people just won't have the money to buy the hardware needed for the latest games. In the longer run this could cause some serious problems for the gaming industry.

And not just for 2026, but SK Hynix expects constrained supply even through 2028. 

[Panzerlang]

4 hours ago, Aapje said:

And not just for 2026, but SK Hynix expects constrained supply even through 2028. 

And when the AI bubble bursts they'll all come crawling back to us gamers for their obscene income. And we'll fall over ourselves to hand it over. Lol.

[Merlin]

On 11/29/2025 at 8:29 AM, Avimimus said:

So, I reflexively flinched at seeing $139.99 for the Founders edition. Someone else commented that the price seemed a lot higher for the 'founders edition' than the 'standard edition'. So, I thought I'd do a quick breakdown.

The price works out to:
- $10 per aircraft for the standard edition.
- The founders addition averages $10.77 per aircraft - or we can think of it as $10 per aircraft and a final $10 for the "new layer of interaction with the game world".

In any case, not a huge change in price between the standard edition and the founders edition.

In contrast, the original Il-2 Battle of Stalingrad, correcting for inflation, worked out to:
$9.4 per aircraft (Standard edition)
$13 per aircraft (Premium edition)

Considering that aircraft in Korea have about 2.5 times the detail (systems modelling, physics, graphics) - this is a pretty impressive price point in comparison.

Given the potential for years of gameplay... it is still one of the cheapest forms of entertainment, and is pretty fascinating from an artistic and historical perspective - compared to travelling to another city to visit an aviation museum... it gives one a lot more... I mean, they don't usually let me disassemble aircraft or fly them at aviation museums (especially ones where I'm visiting from out of town)

P.S. It is worth noting that competitors currently sell at $15 to $80 per aircraft, and doing so without also providing a comprehensive historical theatre or historical map.

I partially agree

We are all very much looking forward to the release of this simulator; however, I hope the sales team will take regional pricing into consideration. The current price for Brazilian consumers is very high: the cost of the game is equivalent to about half of a minimum monthly wage, and our country (Brazil) has some of the highest taxes in the world. I hope the development team and the sales team consider this point of view. Brazil is just one example of the reduced purchasing power of the population. I believe that for Russian players this price may also be somewhat high. In any case, I hope I have contributed constructively for everyone.

Kind regards, strength and honor to all. My best salute!

Мы все с большим нетерпением ждём выхода этого симулятора, однако я надеюсь, что отдел продаж примет во внимание региональное ценообразование. Текущая цена для бразильского потребителя является очень высокой: стоимость игры эквивалентна примерно половине минимальной заработной платы, а наша страна (Бразилия) имеет одни из самых высоких налогов в мире. Я надеюсь, что команда разработчиков и отдел продаж игры учтут эту точку зрения. Бразилия — лишь один из примеров сниженной покупательной способности населения. Полагаю, что для российских игроков эта цена также может быть несколько завышенной. В любом случае, надеюсь, что смог внести конструктивный вклад для всех.

С уважением, сила и честь всем. Моё наилучшее воинское приветствие!

[Reisen]

I'm glad I got 64 GB of DDR5 RAM for a new build. I plan to put a 5080 with the latest AMD processor in it and pair it with my Quest 3. Here's hoping the VR performance is good! 

 

The gameplay is looking good, but my current rig couldn't hope to run it well in VR.

 

As for the price of the game, it is reasonable but I'm not getting Founder's. I've been happy to support Great Battles for years, but I'm not comfortable with throwing down the money for mystery planes especially before trying the new game engine. If the game launches in a good state and the plane roster for the DLC is revealed, than I will probably go for it.

[Aapje]

I wouldn't wait too long with getting that 5080 if you don't have it already, because leaks suggest that Nvidia is cutting production a lot, so prices are bound to rise.

[Woody]

On 12/21/2025 at 12:31 AM, dryheat94 said:

My main concern is will my system be able to run it as it develops. My 4080, 5800X3D, 64GB DDR4 will start showing its age at some point. Being retired on a fixed income, a new PC is out of the question for me. I hope to see some more gameplay footage with a system comparable to mine before I purchase. The omission of DLSS concerns me.

Your system should be good for a while yet, you have the best gaming CPU on the AM4 platform and 64GB of DDR 4, I'm guessing it's speed is some where between 3200 and 3600 and about cl16. With a 4800 GPU you good for a few more years and should run this new SIM OK.