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Why does SimSig now charge?

For years SimSig relied on the generosity of those who donated towards simulations and from advertising revenue. All developers had full time jobs and families to attend to, so fixes, updates, improvements, and new simulations were slow to appear.

Geoff Mayo now dedicates part of his working week to developing and maintaining SimSig. This means that he needs to make a modest income to replace the income that would otherwise be gained by working for another company. Put simply, he needs to feed, clothe, and house his family. But it also means updates are much sooner, and new features and simulations are introduced at a much faster rate.

While it's understandable that some people will not be able to afford all of the simulations they want (and similarly we can't afford to drive Ferrari but that's life), we are committed to maintaining at least some of the simulations as donationware - even releasing brand new donationware simulations like Aston. But also bear in mind that while most SimSig simulations are written from scheme plans, control tables and other real life signalling data, they're still cheaper simulations than products from companies that produce games which distinctly lack realism, have far fewer trains in the timetables, and cover smaller areas.

Pricing for each simulation depends on a number of factors including the developer's choice and the amount of work involved in producing the simulation.

Last edited by GeoffM on 15/09/2016 at 03:01