Robert,

I know it's great news regarding the recent 747QOTS release coupled with P3Dv4 from Lockheed Martin, but can I just pop in a question and ask why, oh why, did you decide to remove the MD-11 from your product range.

All the hard work by yourself and the associated developers has now been lost to the flight sim community, and I know quite a few of us who deeply regret not being able to purchase and fly this great aircraft.

Time marches on, and new aircraft take pride of place, but the MD-11 is one of a kind and will remain so for quite some time to come - at least in the hearts of quite a few of us.

Ron

 

8 minutes ago, Kerrydancer said:

Robert,

I know it's great news regarding the recent 747QOTS release coupled with P3Dv4 from Lockheed Martin, but can I just pop in a question and ask why, oh why, did you decide to remove the MD-11 from your product range.

All the hard work by yourself and the associated developers has now been lost to the flight sim community, and I know quite a few of us who deeply regret not being able to purchase and fly this great aircraft.

Time marches on, and new aircraft take pride of place, but the MD-11 is one of a kind and will remain so for quite some time to come - at least in the hearts of quite a few of us.

Ron

 

I am pretty sure you are waiting for a PMDG-developer reply, but I am too very fond of the MD-11 and also would like to lobby for a P3D V4 version of the MD-11.

 

However...

Unfortunately they ceased the MD-11 as a product, because it was not commercially benificial for PMDG as in terms of profits. This is a niche aircraft, flown by a small selective group of simmers. The MD-11 never enjoyed the same adoration as the 737, 777 or 747.

The same goes up for the 757 and 767. There are simply some aircraft types that do not sell very good to a broader public. And JUST because they are not (much) simulated in the FS community, I too am craving for a nice 757,767 or an MD-11 to be modeled into P3D V4. It would be the cherry on the freaking FS-wedding-cake.

...unfortunately the reality is still painful as it always was. No more efforts into MD-11's by PMDG... for now.

That is the exact reason why I am keeping FSX on the drive and enjoy some outdated stuff from time to time. There simply is no other workaround for now!

20 minutes ago, Kerrydancer said:

Robert,

I know it's great news regarding the recent 747QOTS release coupled with P3Dv4 from Lockheed Martin, but can I just pop in a question and ask why, oh why, did you decide to remove the MD-11 from your product range.

All the hard work by yourself and the associated developers has now been lost to the flight sim community, and I know quite a few of us who deeply regret not being able to purchase and fly this great aircraft.

Time marches on, and new aircraft take pride of place, but the MD-11 is one of a kind and will remain so for quite some time to come - at least in the hearts of quite a few of us.

Ron

 

 

 

Hi Ron,

I am not a PMDG staff member (as much as I wish I was though) but I will give my assumption as to why the MD-11 from PMDG suffered a similar fate as the real bird. :( 

I heard that it was an aircraft that PMDG staff really loved along with a niche breed of flight simmers at the time (remember that our hobby has increased in size dramatically since then) and suffered from far fewer sales than expected.  RSR also stated that it was a wake-up call PMDG to stop making aircraft that they [PMDG staff] wanted to see in FS and start making aircraft that a majority of customers wanted to see on their hard drives and credit cards.    Due to the product being released in 2008 and it being nearly a decade old, I presume that continuing to provide support for new customers on a product suffering from very advanced ageing and used inferior/obsolete technology would be financially unviable/a waste of resources on a dying product.  That is what I presume caused PMDG to discontinue support for the mighty tri-jet from Mc Donnel Douglas.

Please note that I stand to be corrected and am not RSR or a staff member who can give you the absolutely correct answer. :)

Edited June 6, 20178 yr by Guest
minor grammatical errors.

I can give you one reason why as a customer I can understand that. 

I did buy the MD-11 for FS9. It was an awesome aircraft. The best thing they did. 

But I am a real world mimicker. This means I look at flightaware and pick real world flights and fly them with the real aircraft. So when the last companies started to disuse the MD-11 as a passenger aircraft, there was nothing left for me to fly but Cargo-hauls.

And that is when I stopped using it.

The 747-400 is about to suffer the same fate since more and more operators stop using it. There may be a few more years left for the 747-800.

The future is in the 777 (and even here I rarely fly the 200 because PMDG chose to model a variant that almost no one uses in the real world), various Airbus variants and the 787.

I think part of the reason is that the MD-11 was not on the same "production line" as the NGX, 777 and 747 are on. As Zach pointed out, it is 8 year old software. You don't companies like Microsoft selling 8 year old software.

Interesting thoughts, but it's actually a lot simpler...

You'll note that the original 747 for FS9 and FSX is gone, too, so that takes care of a few of the ideas. The reality is that the code for the 744 and MD-11 was getting so old that it was not working on newer OSs and hardware. Selling a product in that case isn't exactly the best decision since it not only increases the support required, but also places support and the customer at somewhat of a dead end: "sorry your plane doesn't work - your computer is too new and there's not much that can be done." Realizing that people purchasing it could be placed in an awkward bind if their comp had a newer OS or hardware, the planes were pulled from the store.

I have never understood the "wanting to only fly routes that a real aircraft uses" mentality. A massive advantage of flight simulation is that you can fly any aircraft on any route at any time in any colour scheme that you like!

18 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I have never understood the "wanting to only fly routes that a real aircraft uses" mentality. A massive advantage of flight simulation is that you can fly any aircraft on any route at any time in any colour scheme that you like!

 

They have to put money to good use. Their Pilots Uniform cost an arm and a leg on ebay.   Might as well.   

2 hours ago, Piotr007 said:

I am pretty sure you are waiting for a PMDG-developer reply, but I am too very fond of the MD-11 and also would like to lobby for a P3D V4 version of the MD-11.

 

However...

Unfortunately they ceased the MD-11 as a product, because it was not commercially benificial for PMDG as in terms of profits. This is a niche aircraft, flown by a small selective group of simmers. The MD-11 never enjoyed the same adoration as the 737, 777 or 747.

The same goes up for the 757 and 767. There are simply some aircraft types that do not sell very good to a broader public. And JUST because they are not (much) simulated in the FS community, I too am craving for a nice 757,767 or an MD-11 to be modeled into P3D V4. It would be the cherry on the freaking FS-wedding-cake.

...unfortunately the reality is still painful as it always was. No more efforts into MD-11's by PMDG... for now.

That is the exact reason why I am keeping FSX on the drive and enjoy some outdated stuff from time to time. There simply is no other workaround for now!

You are wrong about the 757 and 767. Half of the reason was out of respect for LEVEL-D sims and now the 767 is being replaced by the 787

58 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I have never understood the "wanting to only fly routes that a real aircraft uses" mentality. A massive advantage of flight simulation is that you can fly any aircraft on any route at any time in any colour scheme that you like!

It's a as real as it gets thing. For some like me I hate to say, the thrill and "fix" is being able to do it like the pros. 

In any case, there are two MD-11's being developed for X-Plane. All the cockpit shadows you want!

 

3 hours ago, Piotr007 said:

The same goes up for the 757 and 767.

I beg to differ, I think if PMDG ever makes a 767 it would be a HUGE hit. 

Almost every flight simmer talks fondly of the MD-11, so people saying "it didn't sell" does not ring true. I'd love PMDG to modernize this for P3D. My understanding is former team members did the work on this and no longer are part of the team, making it hard for PMDG to continue supporting it, and if they tried to create a P3D version they'd have to start all over again. As a freighter the aircraft is still going strong and not going to disappear from the skies for a long time. - David Lee

13 minutes ago, yorgosGK said:

I beg to differ, I think if PMDG ever makes a 767 it would be a HUGE hit. 

A modern day Boeing/Airbus such as the 787/A350/A380 would probably outsell a 757/767. Majority of simmers want to fly the newest aircraft in the sky, it’s probably only a small proportion of diehard fans that would want to fly a 757/767. 

But I digress, only PMDG know what’s coming after the 747-8/DC6 for FSX/P3D. Personally, I’m still hoping for the 777-200ER family.

57 minutes ago, yorgosGK said:

I beg to differ, I think if PMDG ever makes a 767 it would be a HUGE hit. 

Let us hope the opposite of what I say will happen!