Yea thats true it seems like every year you all have to pay for a update. Which i dont get why.
The updates are free. They are called Service Packs. Feature add-ons and great changes mean a new version. It addition, it appears that you've come a long quite late in the game here. However, let me say that this practice is not uncommon in the software industry. When a developer works on an SP versus a new version, there are really two things happening. The SP is used to take care of immediate problems that were noted during beta-testing or afterwards, but were never included in the software release. These are considered non-issue problems that won't cause the program to crash completely, but are more annoyances and bugs that can be solved later. Thus, the service packs.
While the SPs cover the interim need, the group is also working on a new version that includes the bug-fixes and adds on new stuff. Hopefully, while doing this, it doesn't break something else at the same time.
When a full version of a program comes out, such as Trainz TS12 versus TRS2009, or TS2010, there are many changes that have gone into the program including major feature add-ons, major bug-fixes, new interface designs, and other under-the-hood changes we never may see, but are there. This is what happened essentially with TS2009 to TS2010. There were many under-the-hood changes that went into the program, and when the final release of TS2009 was supposed to be the Engineer's Edition, the marketing guru's thought they'd call it something else TS2010, and they through in Speed Treez. This maybe how it went, maybe not, but usually this is the case. I've lived through this process many times in the support world.
The other thing too, you say that the code is the same from version to version. This is true with any software program. Microsoft for example, has used the same codebase for NT as it did for Windows 2000, Windows XP, and so-on. There have been improvements over the years, but the programs under there are still the same. You don't believe me? Open a command prompt and type chkdsk and hit enter. Look at the copyright information. Chkdsk has been around in its current form since about 1994. The commands are still the same, and the screen still looks the same, although the latest versions of the program have some additional information on them.
As I said in the beginning, this is not unusual in the software industry. Adobe does it with their CS Suite, so does Microsoft, Corel, Bryce, and numerous other programs we use and purchase. Sometimes, as time goes on, it is necessary for a complete rewrite of the base code because there are now so many add-ons, patches and fixes that the underlying probably looks like an old alley cat that just came in from a fight! This now becomes an even more drawn-out process where the program is written from scratch. The developers may take some old stuff, perhaps an interface design, but much of the code is rewritten. This is a
very long and very expensive process, and this is probably why, if N3V is doing this, we haven't seen a new game engine yet.
You see this as a money maker for the company. Why not? N3V has salaries and benefits to pay out, the utilities to cover, taxes to the state and government, unemployment benefits into the pool, rent on the office, and other fees that go into running a business. They are not a group of developers sitting in a garage writing code for the fun of it. Although, writing the code for Trainz maybe fun for them while they get paid.
John