They already know the plane appeals to a limited audience and the success of the project - and porting of future planes - does not depend on how well the DC-6 sells.

 

I'm somewhat sceptical of that. If it's a sandbox purely for a learning exercise, then why not release it as freeware? Why release it at all? It's so far off the beaten path of PDMG products - no glass, no FMS, not even a jet - it seems like a very curious choice of aircraft to cut their X-Plane teeth on.

 

Remember what happened with the MD-11. Also remember the MD-11, like the DC-6 is a project that was brought into PMDG by an outside developer.

 

I don't doubt PMDG's market and development savvy, but I do doubt the claim that the sales of the DC-6 (or lack thereof) will have no bearing at all upon future PMDG XP development.

 

 

 

Everyone shouted 'but it's not what I wanted', while missing the fact that ultimately it would of been great for the wider flight sim community as a whole.

 

Exactly. The idea of flying an aeroplane or helicopter is appealing to lots of people, but they are put off by the complexity of products demanded by a community dominated by the elitists who dismiss anything that doesn't measure up to their expectations as worthless. As you quite rightly point out, this was painfully evident with the release of Flight.

I don't doubt PMDG's market and development savvy, but I do doubt the claim that the sales of the DC-6 (or lack thereof) will have no bearing at all upon future PMDG XP development.

 

Why?    Sorry, but I'm not seeing the logic here.  PMDG are clearly an astute group, they'd have to be complete and utter fools not to understand the niche appeal of the DC-6, they've said all along that it was a labor of love and a project to occupy developers during in-between time on higher priority projects and finally they've made clear why they decided it was to be their entry project for XP and that they understand its more limited appeal.  I don't know how they could be clearer that they know what they're doing.

 

And why should they make the project freeware?  No, it won't sell at the levels of something like the NGX (and again, they know this) but it will sell, helping to defray the costs of the effort.

 

Scott

***Let's not begin to argue over PMDG, plain and simple***
 
Okay, to continue with what everyone's saying:
 
Flight simming, as many of us have already come to know, is quite a niche market. I was exposed to Flight Sims at a rather young age, and that helped me adapt to the product market that I could expect. But as my perspective began to drastically grow on the seemingly never-ending market of add-ons, my expectations for Flight Simulators only grew.
 
Then came the time Microsoft Flight came out. At first sight, I was pleased with the improved graphics, slightly modified flight engine, and the user-friendly interface. But the big picture soon began to dawn on me when Microsoft released the DLCs... payware.
 
Reflecting upon it now, I can't believe I had not realized it sooner: As Flight Simulation expectations increases, the market only becomes narrower, and producers need to spend more, raising the prices for the Simulator and add-ons, displeasing the current market, and further narrowing the community.
 
It's really a bit of a glitch, if you ask me. But what confuses me most is why it has turned out this way. There were so many other markets that started out small, and needed to meet similar, if not greater, demands. But they continued to grow, and soon prospered. For example: any video game or/and console. Most car games. Minecraft.
 
I mean, some of these products (not necessarily listed) started out small, but blew up to unsizeable proportions in an unset amount of time.
 
But most unfortunately, the producers of Flight Simulation either failed or over exceeded... For at the true peak of Flight Simulation, the Sims that were released were either (in my opinion) somewhat bad, or waaay ahead of their time. This evidently became a problem, since the market dwindled.
 
But we still remain. It is only hope now to consider whether or not a company will be able to grasp the inner workings of Flight Simulation and pull it out of the dark. 'Tis an unfortunate situation, indeed. But nevertheless, there is no need to lose hope that the community will grow. 
 
After all... "The Aircraft touches the ground in its most graceful manner. But even the pilot knows: it is destined to take back to the skies once again."

 

 

Would it be a good idea to hire an experimental community of coders (with previous flight simulation experience) to help these companies add to the sims?

 

People who want to code flight sims can become involved with FlightGear, which is open source.

Xplane long term gonna be for vfr flying as it setup and interface has the feel for it, but it lacks visuals and eye candy that will take time for incremental improvements. I think Xplane focus is not carter to fsx users anyways as the future is younger group that was not around 10 to 20 years ago. Dovetail likely make fsx replacement but it be years away I figure as fsx and add-ons sales will be levied to fund the project. General Avitation is variable long term but PMDG style flying is questionable long term as most don't want level that level of realism and micromanaging a 737. PMDG planes cost is not the issue its the fact have to spend 200 hours reading about how planes system work before you can bother flipping a switch on.

I believe DoveTail said they'd have a new release to market "by December of 2015." By judging by the grammar mistakes they made in that exact sentence (I'll show you the link), it leads me to believe that this might be a typo... which is unfortunate, since such a line of text is extremely important. Here's the link I saw it at, right there on DoveTail's website:

http://www.dovetailgames.com/products

"We are currently investigating new concepts in this area and have brough a release to market in December 2015."  - DoveTail Games

 

I'm not sure if "brough" is a word. And judging by the word "have," it seems as though the article writer was trying to write in past tense. But I am frustrated that the above sentence, of all sentences, seems to be grammatically incorrect, which, as I stated, leads me to believe that it may or may not be unintended false information.

 

I suppose we just have to wait for further word on the development of 'Microsoft's' Flight Simulation Genre from DoveTail  <_<.

 

And just because I like this Emoji:

 

I'm not sure if "brough" is a word. And judging by the word "have," it seems as though the article writer was trying to write in past tense. But I am frustrated that the above sentence, of all sentences, seems to be grammatically incorrect, which, as I stated, leads me to believe that it may or may not be unintended false information.

 

I suppose we just have to wait for further word on the development of 'Microsoft's' Flight Simulation Genre from DoveTail  <_<.

 

Their initial press release is a little better, grammar-wise.

 

 

The company is currently investigating new concepts in this area and is expecting to bring a release to market in 2015.

 

http://www.dovetailgames.com/news/2014/jul/9/dovetail-games-licensing-deal-with-microsoft-takes-flight

DoveTail updated their stance on the next simulator in their series. Just go to their "Our Products" page. They say they expect to have a release to market sometime in 2016. They allegedly are bringing in a Lead Artist to collaborate with their aviation team in producing the Simulator... exciting indeed ^_^^_^ ^_^

 

The following, word for word, was posted on Facebook by DoveTail Games:

 

"""

Dovetail Games is currently recruiting for a Lead Artist to work as part of our Aviation team delivering the next generation of flight simulation.

 

Find out more [at] http://www.dovetailgames.com/vacancies/2014/sep/15/lead-artist

 

 

 

The Aviation team are now ramping up to deliver the next generation of flight simulation in order to create an immersive experience for the PC flight hobbyist.

 

 

dovetailgames.com

 

"""

 

 

Exciting, indeed.

Cynical of Dovetail intentions as FSX is high hurdle to replace without 3rd party help. 2016 release date sounds unrealistic.

Paraphrasing Star Wars:

 

"That sim is our last hope"

 

"No. There is another...."