Hey PMDG. Here's an idea

[hohum 14]

As with the direction of many other industries,  I assume you're making a push into a more stable revenue stream through monthly subscription pricing with things like the Global Flight Operations, vs what I presume is currently very cyclical revenue correlated with airplane releases.

Rent me my airplane too.  

Don't make me fork over $130 if I'm only interested in testing one of your products or flying one of your planes just a handful of times.  

I'd happily fork over a couple of bucks to go up in a 747 on global ops.   Call it whatever you want to add to the immersion.   Tell me I'm paying for fuel.   

Edited June 10, 2018 by hohum

[kingm56 1,031]

Pretty creative idea; however, I think the implementation, specifically the protection from piracy, would be a nightmare to implement.  Besides, I can't remember disappointment from a single PMDG release....

[untoweechja 35]

55 minutes ago, kingm56 said:

Besides, I can't remember disappointment from a single PMDG release....

True, but I can see two very useful scenarios where this makes sense:  First, an interested buyer could find out if his or her hardware is up to spec.  Second, I haven't bought the 747.  I'm sure it's a stellar product, but I know I won't fly it much.  I might take it for a couple spins if I could rent it, though.

[G-RFRY 1,711]

They could do that terms and conditions minimum rental 24 months $10 a month.😁

[scandinavian13 5,192]

What are you guys even talking about...?

[pete_auau 1,158]

3 minutes ago, scandinavian13 said:

What are you guys even talking about...?

Kyle if  you  dont  know  than how  the  heck the rest of us know  what they on about:)

[MattS 45]

1 hour ago, scandinavian13 said:

What are you guys even talking about...?

I think he wants to lease/rent your product, rather than purchase. Like a U-Haul....

[hohum 14]

13 hours ago, kingm56 said:

Pretty creative idea; however, I think the implementation, specifically the protection from piracy, would be a nightmare to implement.  Besides, I can't remember disappointment from a single PMDG release....

At the risk of being told once again that my serial numbers are going to be revoked for discussing piracy here on AVsim, their DRM scheme is already ineffective.   I won't post links or name names, but there's already cracked copies of all of PMDG's products out in the wild.

[Ephedrin 418]

47 minutes ago, MattS said:

I think he wants to lease/rent your product, rather than purchase. Like a U-Haul....

I think it was a „dafuq, no?!“ 😂

Edited June 10, 2018 by Ephedrin

[pracines 823]

With this idea I would likely have spent more than $100,000.00 on rental fees flying the NGX alone!🤑

No PMDG, please DO NOT even listen to this idea! 🙏

[pete_auau 1,158]

19 hours ago, hohum said:

At the risk of being told once again that my serial numbers are going to be revoked for discussing piracy here on AVsim, their DRM scheme is already ineffective.   I won't post links or name names, but there's already cracked copies of all of PMDG's products out in the wild.

well  that  goes  to  say  that  for  all  addons  that are  out  there

[ErichB 3,642]

On 6/10/2018 at 3:21 PM, scandinavian13 said:

What are you guys even talking about...?

I think they want (paid for) demo versions of PMDG aircraft (sounds boring) tarted up under the banner of 'wet leasing' (sounds cooler)

[rsrandazzo 6,353]

Daniel,

I'm not sure if it was you, but *someone* posted last week that they wondered if we would ever go toward a SAS (Software as a Service) model, charging a monthly subscription in favor of a set price.  The post caught my eye because it was on a conference call agenda that very day, and it made me wonder if it wasn't only the Lovely Dr. Randazzo who is listening to the live feed via the transmitter in my right, bottom wisdom tooth. 

Honestly I do not know how I feel about it.  There is certainly arguments to be made for and against it- and like everything we do at PMDG it will be evaluated to death.  I cannot conceive of scenario in which we would go to that as a sole solution- because there is an intrinsic fairness in the value equation to selling you the license as a one-time transaction. 

As a software consumer, I have products in both genres, and the main differentiator between SAS solutions that are fair and SAS solutions that are userous boils down to continual development process and outstanding support.  We would need to change the methodology we use in a number of development areas and support areas in order to provide a SAS solution that is fair- and I refuse to provide a SAS solution that is unfair.

For example, I cannot currently see offering a SAS solution for each product individually.  I think that to provide value to you it would need to be bundled or an "all access" pass type of approach to licensing in order to keep it simple for the user and the support team that has to manage it.

Who knows where we will be in five years but for now it really isn't anything I expect to see us do...

 

 

[rtodepart 761]

this method works for other software why not here????  hell i pay for video and photography software in the month to month basis  (adobe lightroom/ and premiere pro ///  to be honest i love it ...  

[aentwis 61]

I have hated the concept of software as a service for years. I like to pay once for the base and I will only use a subscription-based model for added value. I virtually tore my hair out when Adobe went to their creative cloud monthly package stuff... it totally screwed with my workflows to the point I had to scrap any ideas of upgrading and look for potential replacements...

Navigraph-like packages I can understand, as I also understand new releases on totally different platforms or "reloaded" re-visits to addons that bring noticeable improvements to functionality, performance and so on, but "renting" addons I do not. I also believe the administration of such a service might well prove to be too much for many of the smaller design teams or single-person setups common to our niche. I have a number of addons I have bought over the years and hardly ever use or used. I bought them in some cases purely to support the smaller fish in our community who do grand work at fair prices. I wouldn't single out any of the developers I am talking about, as there are quite a few and I wouldn't want to leave anyone out of my list...

If this were to go to a ballot, I would vote clearly against such a move.

Andrew

Edited June 13, 2018 by aentwis