For Once And For All...who wants to pay for a new PMDG MD-11?

[scandinavian13 5,192]

1 minute ago, rheinis said:

The No-sayers are completely irrelevant in this thread. It's about letting PMDG know how many people DO want to buy it.

If it ends up in 500.000 "No" vs 10.000 "Yes", then it's up to PMDG if they are willing to produce it for those 10.000 

Logical break.

The yes/no split does matter, and would factor into a bit of an analysis of the attrition of those who claim that they would buy it, but don't end up buying it. There's a lot that goes into a business decision, and a simple list of 'yes' votes alone ain't it. Granted, a yes/no isn't too much better. 

All the same, I can nearly guarantee that we're not going to make a business decision off of a random forum thread/poll. The forum is a remarkably small segment of our overall userbase, and we have much better data.

[Patco Lch 1,465]

22 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

Please read the post I linked to.

I swear...the next person who says "well the DC-6 [...]!" is getting the banhammer 

(The above is a joke, but that's not to say I'm not tired of the point that is not a point.)

Please see my apology following my post.

[rheinis 105]

 

30 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

The yes/no split does matter, and would factor into a bit of an analysis of the attrition of those who claim that they would buy it, but don't end up buying it. There's a lot that goes into a business decision, and a simple list of 'yes' votes alone ain't it. Granted, a yes/no isn't too much better. 

 

Fair enough, I'm no businessman 

Still...if it ends up being 500.000 "Yes" votes, I would be very surprised if PMDG is still contemplating the "No's" in the equation...

 

However, I would be more surprised if we reach 500.000 "Yes" votes...

 

[davecessna 9]

18 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

All the same, I can nearly guarantee that we're not going to make a business decision off of a random forum thread/poll. The forum is a remarkably small segment of our overall userbase, and we have much better data.

With the amount of threads popping up about the MD-11, it might actually be cost-effective for you guys to update the MD-11 for P3Dv4 as well. 

[Evan 12]

Yes

[stephenbgs 169]

As I often suggested in posts like this. I wish PMDG would consider selling the product base code and textures/model to a trusted partner such as aerosoft so they could perhaps redo some of the vc and update it to 64bit ,we in the community would always know it was an original PMDG aircraft, Also as well as initial sale Of the code PMDG could get a percentage of each sale.

Support would have to be handled by whoever adopted the product

I know people will say it might be giving away trade secrets but it's an old product.

Long shot....I know

[SpeedbirdA320FO 27]

1 hour ago, rheinis said:

 

 

The No-sayers are completely irrelevant in this thread. It's about letting PMDG know how many people DO want to buy it.

If it ends up in 500.000 "No" vs 10.000 "Yes", then it's up to PMDG if they are willing to produce it for those 10.000 

 

I think PMDG know, they already have sales data for it...I'm not sure you're letting PMDG know anything.

[DaveCT2003 1,820]

But to put it bluntly, there have been many, many threads on this very topic and in all those discussions PMDG has been resolute in their position of not updating the MD-11.  They even went so far as to remove capability of anyone new purchasing the product by removing the MD-11 from their sales page. That I'm afraid makes the answer all too clear.

A Reasoned Response?

A few possible reasons why PMDG has firmly put the MD-11 in their wake and declared an end to their interest in the MD-11:

1. This is of course very speculative, and PMDG has never said or even insinuated this, but it is possible that there may be business related reason(s) behind their decision that have nothing to do with marketing or or potential sales. For instance, the product was created in the very early days of PMDG development/sales of aircraft (in fact their initial business might have had nothing to do with aircraft models (HINT: check what PMDG actually stands for) and in those days we often saw lose collaborations between programmers and graphics artists coming together to produce an end product rather than one entity paying for and owning them outright. So you see, PMDG might not be able (contractually speaking) for them to modify the product.a product for another sim platform - and I don't believe anyone would disagree that while there are some of us who absolutely love flying the MD-11 the numbers wouldn't support developing the product from scratch - not for a PMDG level product.

2. Far less speculative is that any developer has limited people and resources, and in order to maximize profit they simply must allocating their resources to those areas that will be the most profitable. Even if they could modify/update the MD-11, I don't think anyone would disagree that future sales would be far less than their working up a new product.

3.  It's mentioned very rarely (for good reason), but many developers in our hobby also provide their aircraft to companies in aviation, news, training, and media, and this also serves to channel the direction of their business.

4. I don't have any real numbers, but based purely on my interaction with others in my 30+ years in our hobby, I'd wager that the Leonardo MD-80 "Fly the Maddog" has a following that is significantly larger than of the MD-11. Moreover, there aren't too many people with in-depth knowledgeable of most/all payware aircraft models and their real world counterparts who would argue that the Leonardo MD-80:

a. Was not only many, many years ahead of it's time but is still today one of the most completely modeled sims in our hobby,

b. That still today, both systems wise and functionally, the Maddog is rivaled by only one or two aircraft in our hobby, including recently released aircraft.

Yet even with such a complete and incredible aircraft already programmed (most of the research and non-graphics work already done), even with the large and devout following, even with the extensive amount of in-depth documentation available (a major hurdle of any developer), Davide at Leonardo wasn't interested in updating this incredible aircraft (he had very good reasons), and no other developer I could find was interested in doing so. (Thankfully TFDi Design picked up the DC-9 family with the Boeing 717).

If one is really serious about working towards PMDG updating the MD-11, then I'd like to respectfully suggest that they first find out why PMDG isn't interested, and then do what they can to change their (Rob's) mind (then again, he might just respond like THIS!). But I'm afraid that while a poll and associated forum post isn't likely to accomplish any more than the ones that came before this one, and will fall short of inducing Rob into changing what seems to be a well thought out decision to put the MD-11 in the bone yard.

I'd like to add that the B717 is extremely similar to the MD-11 and TFDi Design is doing a really good job in bringing their model up to snuff!

My very best wishes to my fellow MD-11 fans!

[B747tebs 80]

4 hours ago, scandinavian13 said:

This has been explained quite a number of times, from the very outset of the DC-6.

Of course, since the MD-11 crowd loves to use it as some sort of "proof" for some unknown reason, let me address it yet again:

 

The DC-6 was maybe a bad example.. What i wanted to say with this was, that there are still old aircraft being developed on (CS L1011,..)

[JYW 2,980]

I think I'd rather see PMDG facing forward, to their exciting new, forthcoming projects.

...and TFDi to produce a MD-11, seeing as they now have a rather well functioning 717/MD-11 avionics deck*

 

*I know they're not the same - eg. overhead is very different, plus 3 engines .... but there are a number of assets that would be of use to them in a MD-11 development;  FCU is identical, FMGC is very similar, many EIS screens are similar, etc.

[DLWbluues 17]

I'd 1000% buy it. Would I get a discount? I'm kidding, I'd pay the going rate if it was up to par with the latest releases. I miss that plane, a lot.

[MattS 45]

I voted no, sorry guys. It's hard to think about buying a new aircraft while I'm flying some near perfect ones now, and still trying to master them. 

But.....since we're talking about hypotheticals while flying off to fantasy land, my vote goes to the Boeing 2707 SST. 

[evaamo 549]

I'd love to have the MD-11 in P3Dv4!

 I know I'm dreaming here due to potential licencing issues with MD/Boeing and other 3rd parties, but it would be nice if PMDG sets a price for the code and art assets so a community-driven project - through a crowdfunding effort - resulted in an updated MD-11 for us "romantics".  

For now, the sanest choice seems to be waiting for the XP11 A.T.S or Rotate Sim version.

cheers

-E

 

[jfriz 27]

Quote

 

I am in,, would buy,  sure, miss the 3 holer.,. 

 

Jerry Friz

[signmanbob 592]

I believe I would rather see PMDG do a full line of 787s and leave the MD11 for TFDi, if they are willing to do it.