PMDG DC-6 to be released on Friday, June 18th

[devgrp 1,233]

25 minutes ago, GoranM said:

All the more reason to hike up the price.  Higher demand.  Wider audience.  

And if they lower it, X-Plane DC6 owners will go mental.

Your logic makes no sense. Who cares if xplane owners will go mental? That ship has already sailed, and shouldn't you be in the xplane forums hyping up your posse about XP wind modeling being the most accurate? 

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

I think it is sensible to estimate 70 USD for the DC6, which is equal to the p3d version at the moment. Then you can either be pleasantly surprised if it goes lower, or ... A little bit grouchy if it goes higher. It probably wouldnt go much higher though. The 747-400 QOTS sells at around 140 USD if I remember correctly. Which is about the same league as FSLabs A320. These two developerhouses are considered the best available for the private market. We pay premium for the best, but we also get stuff that is way beyond what other houses offer in their products. 

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Who plays xp10 these days anyway? 😄

[737_800 434]

22 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

From what I understand, the CRJ by Aerosoft is equally as complex, if not more complex than the DC-6.  And I think the CRJ is priced at around $50 USD.

However, I think PMDG want to establish their brand as the "Rolls Royce" or "Louis Vutton" of flight sim developers. In other words, they want to position themselves as a "premium" brand.  So even if the amount of complexity and work is not more than the CRJ, PMDG may still refuse to budge on their pricing, if they price the DC-6 at over $70 USD.

In economics, for a general demand curve for a normal product, the higher the price of the product, the lower the demand.  However, there are some weird situations for premium products where the demand increases when the company raises the price of the product.  This applies especially for fashion products where some companies will not lower the price of the fashion product too much if they are targeting the premium market (ie. dresses, jeans, etc).

I can't say how much the demand behavior in the fashion industry applies to the flight sim industry.  But I get the feeling that PMDG is kind of following the path of some fashion companies where they know their product is a premium product, they want to protect their brand recognition, so they also deliberately price the product at a premium too (despite like I said, the DC-6 may not be more complex than the Aerosoft CRJ but the CRJ is about $50 USD).

Honestly, if they continue their P3D pricing, it will be hard for them. Maybe not hard, because they will still have quite a lot of sales, but I guess they could just get more revenue, when lowering the price. If they continue doing this, I need to be very selective which aircraft I really need and want dive into the systems. If they would just lower the price, I would buy every aircraft they produce, simple as that. I could imagen many other people would do the same.

However, I am not an economist and this is not based on science, just how a normal guy would make his decision when buying products. 70 USD for the DC6 were just too much, IMHO.

Edited June 16, 2021 by 737_800

[Nyxx 6,993]

26 minutes ago, Carts85 said:

To me it would be a bad idea to not lower it given the much wider market in MSFS. $50 for instance would attract a lot more customers and probably make them a higher profit margin.. Just my opinion.

 

2 minutes ago, Carts85 said:

Good post. I think your right.. In regards to demand to the DC-6 I just can’t see it being on anywhere near the same scale as the 737/777/747 where they probably can go down that Rolls Royce pricing route

I think pricing in the MSFS payware market so far has been pretty sensible, I don’t want to see any over inflated ego pricing occurring potentially pushing other future products up.

Selling a product at a low price does not give you a higher profit margin its the complete opposite. I think you ment if they sell it at a low price, they will sell more. But thats a balance of stack them high, sell cheap or sell fewer and have a much higher profit margin. MSFS should give far more sales than Xplane but, the NG will be $140, it has to be becasue if you bought the NGu for P3D for $100 you were told the $100 goes towards the $140 of the MSFS version. So they have given themselve zero reason to drop the price unless they start giving refunds! No...

Also since the DC-6 has been $75 I think for P3D and Xplane, I see no reason why even with high sales them droping that price. PMDG charge the same price again for the P3D version of the NG as the FSX version etc. Even for people that owned it, it was at the time of release 90% the same code. But to be far they did not charge for keeping it updated to even v5 P3D. So in light of all that and what has come before I would be surprised and pleased if its less that $75 but imo I think not. 

Also they know Asobo with take 30-50% cut when on there market place. So imo it would not suprice me at all if it was a bit higher price to keep a good profite margin when losing upto 50% of the RRP.

[ca_metal 2,024]

4 minutes ago, 737_800 said:

Honestly, if they continue their P3D pricing, it will be hard for them. If they continue doing this, I need to be very selective which aircraft I really need and want dive into the systems. If they would just lower the price, I would buy every aircraft they produce, simple as that. I could imagen many other people would do the same.

However, I am not an economist and this is not based on science, just how a normal guy would make his decision when buying products. 70 USD for the DC6 were just too much, IMHO.

They can always have the tag price and do sales eventually. This way they can please people on the fence because of the higher prices.

Edited June 16, 2021 by ca_metal

[737_800 434]

4 minutes ago, ca_metal said:

They can always go the tag price and do sales eventually. This way they can please people on the fence because of the higher prices.

Yes, but they never have made that in the past, expect when corona started, when I am informed correctly. Yes, they would give people a change who are not able going always for premium. Almost all the developers offer sales, PMDG is one of the few who doesn't. I think it must have any benefit to do that, otherwise they wouldn't.

 Don't forget, that they rise their prices because of licesing for P3D, MSFS is supposed to be an entertainment product.

Edited June 16, 2021 by 737_800

[kaha 205]

Discussions about the price are probably useless. Either buy it or not. PMDG will be fine anyway.

I'll buy it. 

Karl

[DavidP 1,410]

I usually buy PMDG on release day but something is telling to take a seat in the gallery and keep my powder dry.

[737_800 434]

6 minutes ago, DavidP said:

I usually buy PMDG on release day but something is telling to take a seat in the gallery and keep my powder dry.

Reason?

[McDaniel 48]

DC6 needs a 6 as starting number in the price tag 👍🏻😎

[ca_metal 2,024]

1 minute ago, McDaniel said:

DC6 needs a 6 as starting number in the price tag 👍🏻😎

Us$ 699.99 is too much in my opinion.

[DavidP 1,410]

5 minutes ago, 737_800 said:

Reason?

Just to see how it all goes and whether the expectations are met on the new platform.

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

Arguably, the CJ4 from WT is more complex than the CRJ, or at least it flies better and follows LNAV and VNAV like a boss. I dont see your point, @abrams_tank 😉

There are different complexities with the CRJ and the DC6. The DC6 is simulating having old radial engines that may blow up if you get hydrolock ie. They wont start if you dont pay attention to the needs of the engines, or they will fail in flight. 

Having LNAV or VNAV is not the only parameter for complexity, although she can comfortably fly on GPS track with her old gyropilot. The DC6 has many more buttons, knobs and axis that operate realistically than the CRJ. It also have simulations going on in the background in regards to oil, fuel, and other dynamic processess that Aerosoft admittedly said they are not simulating because "most users will not care about that". 

In the PMDG, you will have simulation of how the fuel slushes around in the tank which will have an impact if you fly it low on fuel and with something other than straight and level flight. This is just one of so many systems that is actually simulated that most of the other houses simply skip because their audience mostly appreciate whats going on on the surface. 

Edited June 16, 2021 by Andreas Stangenes

[psolk 3,040]

The discussions (speculation) around price always intrigues me.  As if people posting here that it's too much (hasn't even been announced yet) and they can get two gamepasses and still have money left over is going to impact PMDG's pricing direction.  If I walk into Ferrari and tell them they would sell more if they just dropped their prices to something I can afford they aren't going to care.  PMDG is no different.  If it's out of your budget you weren't the target audience to begin with and adjusting prices to accommodate the people who "want" to pay less is not a business model.