Aerosoft A320/A321 Professional - Delayed again

[edpatino 1,964]

In a move that's not surprising to anyone, Aerosoft announced a new delay of his A320/A321 Professional which has been under development for a long, long, long time. Needless to say their A330 is getting his time too, and will probably be out by next year. Anyway, that's part of Aerosoft slow product development cycle.

Cheers, Ed

[JoeFackel 760]

Sure ... they're preparing the first 8 updates in advance and that will take some time 😉

[Chock 17,769]

No great surprise as you say, this is an A320 and Aerosloth we're talking about. In fact this is exactly why I bought the full package with all four of their Airbuses when that went on sale; I knew I'd have to do that to get hold of at least one of 'em without some kind of delay. 😄

I regard both Aeosloth's release dates and release dates for any flight simulator A320, as being a bit like when someone says: 'the cheque's in the post' lol. How long has that BBS prologue A320 been under threat of actually being finished? Although the fact that it and their 340 and 330 were actually released certainly is a reason why I bought them! The FSL A320 was released, what was it? about two years after they originally projected? I gave up looking at the projected completion dates and news on the FSL forum for their A320 it was so long a wait.

So anyone who's been around flight simming for more than about ten minutes knows that flight sim A320s are always delayed. I think it might actually be a law lol. I'm sure the Aerosloth A320 will be fine when it comes out, but if anyone was expecting it to arrive on time, they must be new to the way Aerosloth does things and certainly new to the notion of an A320 for their flight sim.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Chock

[AnkH 2,262]

No surprise to me neither. Glad I can at least move their A319 around. But really, this company needs a communication expert badly. Or at least some in depth training in communication skills and how to react to us customers...

EDIT: ok, I checked the corresponding thread in the AS Forums, the delay is until Monday, 10th. Not that critical, no? I feared it is longer...

Edited September 4, 2018 by AnkH

[nealmac 260]

offensive initials not allowed? They were meant to be releasing it on Thursday. I did see Mathijs' saying in a post yesterday that they had found an issue. And I just knew it was going to get delayed.

[HighTowers 1,434]

This is the very reason why the vast majority of developers never give release dates.  Its pretty much guranteed to be delayed again and again and again , but if no one knows the real release dates, that delay can happen without  many knowing about it. Its just soon to be released.  AS on the other hand stick their neck out in this dangerous and highly critical game of hoping to release at such  and such a date. Its nice to know, but there are too many in our community that complain and criticize even if its 1 hour late. 

[nealmac 260]

Ok, I just read the update. They're pushing the release until next Monday. Hardly a deal breaker. We waited long enough for this, a few more days isn't going to kill us. I get why people are upset by Aerosoft, bad experiences with the CRJ, long waiting times for the new busses etc, but this thread just looks like the OP was just looking for a reason to bash them again. Get over it, people. We are a world of moaners. Let it go. It's only another few days to wait.

[David Roch 1,982]

17 minutes ago, nealmac said:

 the OP was just looking for a reason to bash them again.

Not at all Neal.
Ed is not moaning, just informing us.

[edpatino 1,964]

18 minutes ago, nealmac said:

but this thread just looks like the OP was just looking for a reason to bash them again

Don't think so. Good criticism is the only way things could be improved. Do you think it's a small wait after the buses were initially announced to be ready by August 2017?. Anyway, I do respect your point of view.

Cheers, Ed

 

[Jude Bradley 659]

With the written word, it's hard to keep it in context. The delay is simply so that they can include a few more files. Nothing serious by the sound of it. Plenty of other aircraft to play with, nothing to see here, move on. 

 

[nealmac 260]

12 minutes ago, David Roch said:

Not at all Neal.
Ed is not moaning, just informing us.

"In a move that's not surprising to anyone"

"which has been under development for a long, long, long time"

"and will probably be out by next year"

"part of Aerosoft slow product development cycle"

 

Looks like a moan to me.

[nealmac 260]

10 minutes ago, edpatino said:

Don't think so. Good criticism is the only way things could be improved. Do you think it's a small wait after the buses were initially announced to be ready by August 2017?. Anyway, I do respect your point of view.

Cheers, Ed

 

They aimed for August. They missed the deadline by 10 days. I don't think it's worth being critical over. I do see why people have an issue with them, but not for this reason. Personally I never had any issue with them. Yes, I'd like to have seen the busses and the CRJ released a lot earlier, but y'know, sh*t happens, as a wise man once said. I think a 4 day delay is not worthy of a moany thread though.

[AnkH 2,262]

32 minutes ago, nealmac said:

They aimed for August. They missed the deadline by 10 days.

10 days? Or maybe one year plus 10 days? Initially, a Release in 2017 was planned, we have now 2018, just if you missed this one ;-)

[Paul Golding 92]

2 hours ago, Chock said:

Aerosloth

For some reason, I didn't expect this kind of thing from you Alan.

1 hour ago, AnkH said:

But really, this company needs a communication expert badly.

I can't imagine any company communicating better than Aerosoft.

[Chock 17,769]

1 hour ago, Paul Golding said:

For some reason, I didn't expect this kind of thing from you Alan.

Just a bit of a laugh, to be honest, but a salutary tale nonetheless. I cheerfully bought the entire Aerosoft Airbus Pro family whilst being entirely aware they'd probably miss the deadline, so it's really not a big deal to me and certainly no surprise, but having bought the thing I think I'm at least entitled to have a bit of a laugh about it and point out something I think they should address, they can grant me that much when I paid the price of admission.

Most flight simmers know deadlines for software slip a bit, it happens so often that it's almost become the norm, but just because it happens a lot doesn't make it acceptable to keep on doing it. Aerosoft do have a bit of a legendary status with that sort of thing, as evidenced by their CRJ, which reached stratospherically comical levels as far as delays were concerned, and whilst it did eventually get released and is a good product, they really only have themselves to blame for a reputation for delays when it stems from them making announcements about release dates which they cannot adhere to, and it doesn't matter what the reason for the delay is, if you can't make that date or suspect you may not, then don't make an announcement committing to it. This is not a difficult concept to understand.

Personally, I actually like Aerosoft a lot as a company, some of their stuff is among the best you can get, and in the grand scheme of things, a toy aeroplane arriving a bit late is not a big deal to me, but they and other companies don't do themselves any favours by announcing deadlines they can't stick to, particularly for products which they've already taken the money for, as is the case with the A320 and A321. One thing which was sacred in newspapers when I worked in them as a writer was a deadline, or right from the off you said what would be possible in the available time, there was no such thing as 'not making it', you did whatever it took to hit that deadline, and that was that. The software industry could do with a bit of that attitude, or if not, then they shouldn't make such deadlines public. PMDG have got that bit right, all they ever say is it'll be ready when it is ready, and so they never let anyone down in that regard.

As I say, such a short delay is not really that big a deal, but it is nevertheless a common trend in the software industry which should be addressed either by being a bit more professional about doing what you say you will do, or not saying you will do something you cannot be certain of. This is a product with 'pro' in its title after all.

Edited September 4, 2018 by Chock