LONG LIVE PMDG- their Ideas, their spirit and the passion, who is visible and feelable in every product they

Can you imagine the amount of blood, sweat and tears that go into simulating system upon system of a modern airliner on a PC almost identical to its real-world counterpart? Not to mention working within the constraints of FS itself. Add that to making a living for yourself out of it. People can't always do things for free, and this mentality that can be found fairly easily on the net that everything ought to be very cheap/free is neither ethical or realistic. It's the most basic concept - giving something in exchange for something else. There just seems to be an overwhelming "take" mentality on the internet, with no "give". I have met more than a few airliner pilots that have said the PMDG planes are excellent, and help them revise things before a simulator session - which is indeed quite a credit. They make wonderful aircraft, and to be honest, ask a very fair price for their efforts, especially considering how small their market probably is.Cheers,Rudy

Here's another perspective...most people buy a game like Halo or something, "beat it" within a week or so, then all but stop playing it. There's 50 bucks paid for about 40 or so hours of enjoyment (and thats on the high end). Now look at how most of us are with these planes. I bought the 747x the hour it came out and have flown thousands of hours with it. At the same ratio as the halo game, I should have spent at least one or two thousand dollars on the 747.I've said it many time..I would gladly pay triple what PMDG charges for their planes.

Actually Noah, a lot of big name games coming out now are only like 10 or so hours of gameplay - there's a recent 360 game called Alan Wake that's around there, $60 for 10 hours of use. There's still a few companies making really deep, long and engrossing games (Bioware, Rockstar, (Red Dead Redemption is amazing, I've been playing that the past week), Bethesda, and a few others) but the trend is definitely toward making games that are very short and very expensive.

PMDG, please continue to develop high quality add-ons, I will gladly pay the price.Considering that a 747-400 costs over a 1/3 of a BILLION dollars in real life, I was extremely satisfied to get the PMDG version from Best Buy for $30. Also, what PMDG charges for the 747 is not even .01% of the cost of the actual airplane, but it sure simulates the aircraft to a much higher accuracy percentage than .01%. Without a for-profit developer like PMDG, I would never have had the chance to experience to a high degree what it is like to operate a 747. Thank you PMDG, I own all of your FSX releases, and I will most likely purchase anything you ever release for FSX.

Actually Noah, a lot of big name games coming out now are only like 10 or so hours of gameplay - there's a recent 360 game called Alan Wake that's around there, $60 for 10 hours of use. There's still a few companies making really deep, long and engrossing games (Bioware, Rockstar, (Red Dead Redemption is amazing, I've been playing that the past week), Bethesda, and a few others) but the trend is definitely toward making games that are very short and very expensive.

That one looks pretty good but too bad I dont have a PS or XBox. It's too bad about the trend to make PC games that are just ports from console games though. PCs can do so much more than a console so they should let them. I was so excited for the new Operation Flashpoint to come out, being a huge fan of the old one, but so disappointed when it turned out to be just another, follow-the-arrow-to-the-next-"checkpoint" game. I'm old school, give me a map of the area, and objective to find and a gun with iron sights. The first Ghost Recon was one of my all time favs too.What I really miss is Janes Combat Simulations. I loved pretty much everything they made. Or games like Fleet command, sub command, dangerous waters by Sonalysts. Now the strategy games that come out are like Command and Conquer 4 which made me want to barf...We need more games that test your intelligence, rather than games that test your ability to repeatedly press a button.

Here's another perspective...most people buy a game like Halo or something, "beat it" within a week or so, then all but stop playing it. There's 50 bucks paid for about 40 or so hours of enjoyment (and thats on the high end). Now look at how most of us are with these planes. I bought the 747x the hour it came out and have flown thousands of hours with it. At the same ratio as the halo game, I should have spent at least one or two thousand dollars on the 747.I've said it many time..I would gladly pay triple what PMDG charges for their planes.

Actually Noah, a lot of big name games coming out now are only like 10 or so hours of gameplay - there's a recent 360 game called Alan Wake that's around there, $60 for 10 hours of use. There's still a few companies making really deep, long and engrossing games (Bioware, Rockstar, (Red Dead Redemption is amazing, I've been playing that the past week), Bethesda, and a few others) but the trend is definitely toward making games that are very short and very expensive.

You two bring up a very important point too. With the amount of time it takes to "beat" a game, the "enjoyment" factor costs more per hour for a game verses what a PMDG airplane costs the end user. I think I beat the original CoD (not my usual type of FPS either) years ago in about 10 hours (I received it as a gift). I took me several months to beat to beat Rogue Spear (I prefer the RSE made FPS games to the typical Doom/Quake/Half Life/CoD type shooters) after I first got it, but then RSE had an innovative feature that you actually had to wait real time for the operatives to "regain" health after being wounded or just exhausted. If one actually planned the missions, you could have played for more than 20 hours. When RSE released Ghost Recon, you have 15 levels that you could spend as little or as much (probably the most preferred way mind you) time as you needed to complete a mission and could have spent 25 or so hours playing it. Add in the total conversions that added what seemed to be additional mission packs like Desert Siege and you got much more gameplay from the $40 spent originally.

PMDG, please continue to develop high quality add-ons, I will gladly pay the price.Considering that a 747-400 costs over a 1/3 of a BILLION dollars in real life, I was extremely satisfied to get the PMDG version from Best Buy for $30. Also, what PMDG charges for the 747 is not even .01% of the cost of the actual airplane, but it sure simulates the aircraft to a much higher accuracy percentage than .01%. Without a for-profit developer like PMDG, I would never have had the chance to experience to a high degree what it is like to operate a 747. Thank you PMDG, I own all of your FSX releases, and I will most likely purchase anything you ever release for FSX.

wait the 747-400 is $30 at best buy? wow! why is it so expensive online than?

wait the 747-400 is $30 at best buy? wow! why is it so expensive online than?

It is cheaper at Best Buy because they agreed on a price that would move the product in stores, and it brings more exposure to PMDG. I bet PMDG saw this as an opportunity to expose more people to their products, and I don't see a software product on store shelves selling for $80. The $30 price tag gets the product moving, and this is probably also seen by PMDG as an investment, even at the lower cost, that will lead to increased sales down the road. People who see the PMDG products at Best Buy might just go online and look up the PMDG website, and that is how I see this as an advertisement endeavor as well.

dang i'd like to buy that! id buy the NGX at best buy of they had it there.

How does one spell TROLL?

How does one spell TROLL?

"b-7-3-7-l-v-r"

I am outraged, I just bought a new porsche, and somebody wants almost half the price of it for a new turbo charger and body kit! Don't they know that teenagers mod their $10k civics dirt cheap? I can't believe the porsche modders don't base their prices on something completely irrelevantIn other news I spent over 4 times the amount of FSX on a yoke, pedals, and throttle quadrant. RIDICULOUS I say

I am outraged, I just bought a new porsche, and somebody wants almost half the price of it for a new turbo charger and body kit! Don't they know that teenagers mod their $10k civics dirt cheap? I can't believe the porsche modders don't base their prices on something completely irrelevantIn other news I spent over 4 times the amount of FSX on a yoke, pedals, and throttle quadrant. RIDICULOUS I say

I have spent around $2700 to run a program that cost me around $40. :(

I can't believe I have missed this highly entertaining thread until just now. One other thing to remember with MS and the cost of FSX is that MS has many other products and well-established distribution channels, and can spread costs over these many products as well. Further, they can absorb loss (if there is one) on one product in other products. I can't speak to mods for the pure gaming community, but in my experience, you often get what you pay for in add-ons in the FS world. Without naming names, I have purchased a handful of terrible, terrible aricraft in the $25-40 range. But, as others have mentioned there are plenty of free mods, especially files, or airport repaints that are out there.