Usually just a lurker on Avsim these days but I’m genuinely interested in the opinions of the ‘crustier but wealthier’ user base here!

P3D 5 seems a big improvement on previous versions in some areas and not others, but given the strong competition from XPlane and especially Microsoft coming up in the home sector, and shrinking budgets / acitivity / investment in aviation around the world likely after the covid dust settles, does P3D still represent a viable business for LM?

I have it on good authority that despite the fact Covid 19 is a virus, it is apparently not a computer virus. Which is presumably why the W.H.O. have not been asking Norton Utilities to see if they can come up with a cure for it.

So to answer your question, no, P3D will not be affected by it. But not for that reason, it will survive it because Lockheed Martin has an annual revenue of $59.812 billion and made $6.23 Billion profit last year, so they can afford to ride it out. They are also one of the few companies who could actually dispatch a jet fighter/bomber to deal with people who pirate their software if they wanted to. This is also why you can't download a torrent of an F-16D off the Pirate Bay without having to constantly keep an eye out for drones overhead. 🤣

Edited April 10, 20206 yr by Chock

P3D is the least thing I would be concerned about currently, reading the news about possible great depression in the whole world past Corona world makes me wonder about our jobs at first place rather than P3D 🙁

Edited April 10, 20206 yr by omarsmak30

5 minutes ago, scotchegg said:

does P3D still represent a viable business for LM?

P3D is a drop in the bucket for LM.   And as Al/Chock alludes -- we are not the revenue drivers of P3D.  Likely -- their military and commercial customers are.  Plus LM no doubt gets tremendous value out of P3D by internal for testing and research -- that's one reason why they bought the license all those years ago.

What does corona have to do with it? And no both P3D and Xplane will not survive in the long term. They are ancient sims and finally get the much needed replacement 

LM don't need the us to survive, however MS do with MSFS if after 5 years the numbers don't add up it could be in trouble, it`s not going to get the numbers that the top XBOX games will get, and MS sunk a few billion into mobile phones then pulled the plug after a few years, they right off millions every year on failed projects.

Oh Look everyone, David Niven is back! 🤣

36 minutes ago, Quasimodo said:

Oh Look everyone, David Niven is back! 🤣

Raaatheeer!

2 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

LM don't need the us to survive, however MS do with MSFS if after 5 years the numbers don't add up it could be in trouble, it`s not going to get the numbers that the top XBOX games will get, and MS sunk a few billion into mobile phones then pulled the plug after a few years, they right off millions every year on failed projects.

Exactly, what will happen when the MS2020 servers go dark? Yeah I’m not holding my breath... 

In an environment of severely constrained budgets, simulation becomes an attractively cost-effective alternative to training expenses that are already staggering even in normal times.  Given that P3D is intended to be a training platform that is part of larger systems that are LM's primary market, it will be the success of the platform there that makes or breaks it, not how many home flight sim users adopt it.

I think simulation is headed for a real renaissance because of the shattering crunch about to hit national defense budgets the world over.  An Army unit in a ground combat simulator can practice its 9-line coordinating request for close air support with an F-35 pilot in a flight simulator hundreds or thousands of miles away for pennies on the dollar compared to putting that unit on the National Training Center and moving the F-35 to Nellis.  Because of that economy I'd pick P3D as the most likely to find itself the last man standing if any of the "big three" in our little world (P3D, XPlane, and MSFS) were to go down in flames during the looming economic bleepstorm ahead.

 

Sounds to me like what some people thought would happen at midnight in 2000 lol. Nothing will happen to our flight sims. Just keep with the ones you like and all will be fine. Remember cough in your sleeve. Stay safe and together but "apart". k

1 hour ago, Quasimodo said:

Oh Look everyone, David Niven is back! 🤣

Yeah, that's pretty much the only interesting thing in this thread. I think the social distancing is getting to some people.

the question you have to ask is what happens to MSFS when their public servers get hacked or xbox live is hacked. Its not impossible just ask sony

3 hours ago, G-RFRY said:

LM don't need the us to survive, however MS do with MSFS if after 5 years the numbers don't add up it could be in trouble, it`s not going to get the numbers that the top XBOX games will get, and MS sunk a few billion into mobile phones then pulled the plug after a few years, they right off millions every year on failed projects.

LOL...you really think MS will depend on how their flight sim goes...? LOL...

3 minutes ago, jeansy said:

the question you have to ask is what happens to MSFS when their public servers get hacked or xbox live is hacked. Its not impossible just ask sony

Where do you get this nonsense from? If that ever were to happen (if it possibly already happened even), nothing happens... (I’m also curious to know what exactly you call “public” servers...)