Fenix A320: The End of a Beta

[johnnycaptain 165]

Fantastic news and I wish Fenix all the best, and I already know it’s going to be a massive success. Their approach has been refreshingly different. Big shout to Aamir, I don’t think many people on Avsim knows much about him, and his more mainstream audience of literally hundreds of thousands of fans, the communication and humor was great for us common peasants😂. All jokes aside keep up the good work and enjoy the fruits of your labour soon. 

[nbhall68 106]

I would like to congratulate the Fenix team on what appears to be a job well done.  I will be buying it for sure despite the fact that I'm not a huge Airbus fan.

I would also like to share my distaste for the PMDG bashing that's gone on in this thread.  PMDG has been innovating for decades.  I think one of the reasons we're even here today is because of them.  They had the courage to envision something more way back when it was barely even possible.  And I disagree wholeheartedly that they're "not innovating" anymore.  The product they released this week is amazing.

I look forward to more amazing products from all the 3rd party developers.  It's an exciting time to be here.

[Amon1973 1,421]

What fantastic news to get up to regarding the imminent release of the Fenix A320 @ only £49.99,  as I'm going in early at work (RR) @ 6am for my last day of overtime, I've put the hours in at work and I feel justified in spending so much money on all these study level aircraft lately, all rather good timing 

[Tuskin38 6,491]

I wonder of they’re going to lift the NDA on those who currently have it for early previews, or if we’ll have to wait for the release.

[abrams_tank 7,413]

4 hours ago, DaWu said:

They buried pmdg with this one. Not only is the prices reasonable for the market it will be released it also comes with 50x the features. I also love the sidekick about the simbrief integration: no need for manual file copying lol

pmdg needs to step up their game. Times are over where selling us the same product for the 5th time is enough 

PMDG was always in a position to price higher because they are not really competing against another 737 in MSFS.  Yes, the Bredok 737 is PMDG’s main competition in MSFS, but the systems modelling and cockpit textures of the Bredok 737 are nowhere close to the PMDG 737. The Bredok 737 never threatened PMDG 737’s market share in MSFS.

The Fenix A320 actually has a competitor in the FBW A320 in MSFS. Yes, the FBW A320 is not as high fidelity as the Fenix A320, but for a free plane, it’s pretty good.  The quality of the FBW A329 is much higher than the Bredok 737, plus the FBW A320 is free, whereas the Bredok 737 was some $30 USD, the last time I remember the price.

If you are the owner of PMDG, you don’t leave money off the table in your pricing.  $69.99 USD is the right price, which maximizes the profit of PMDG. Since the demand for the PMDG 737 was so high, it broke the PMDG servers for almost 24 hours after release, and on VATSIM, the PMDG 737 has overrun the VATSIM network as the most popular plane to fly.

Besides, there is a cheaper version of the PMDG 737 coming in, at $50 USD.  Randazzo said the 600 variant will be $50 USD. So the cheapest price for a PMDG 737 variant is $50 USD. BTW, I’m talking about people purchasing a single variant only, I am aware that for people purchasing multiple variants, they can end up paying more than P3D, which they are probably worse off in MSFS, if they really want all the variants.

This isn’t to say PMDG shouldn’t up their game.  I think PMDG should still seek to be even better.  But price wise, $69.99 USD makes a lot of sense from the perspective of maximizing PMDG’s revenue for the 700 variant (and then people that want a cheap PMDG 737 variant can get the 600 variant for $50 USD).

Edited May 15, 2022 by abrams_tank

[abrams_tank 7,413]

4 hours ago, bendead said:

FSLabs right now :

If the Fenix A320 is as good as what we expect it to be, I don’t know why FSLabs is still trying to port their own A320 into MSFS, How is FSLabs going to beat the price of 49.99 pounds. Assuming Fenix makes the A319 and A321 after this, and also prices the A319 and A321 similar to this price, FSLabs is just wasting time and money, in my opinion, on making an A319/A320/A321 for MSFS. FSLabs is better off accelerating their A330 or Concorde for MSFS.

[captain420 3,099]

When do you guys think it'll be available for purchase? I'm assuming within 7 days? I hope!

[MikeyOnTheFlightDeck 192]

4 hours ago, Hatch76 said:

Also not an Airbus guy, but this looks like it will be awesome for all of those who are! Just wish someone like this would come along for either a heavy Boeing or even a heavy Airbus... Can't wait to see the videos on this one!

Well I am an airbus guy and it’s like Christmas come early for me!!

[FAZZ3 815]

How is it that you guys always find a way to argue about pointless things and derail good topics? It’s no wonder AVSIM has the reputation it has. Please take your ‘my crayon is bigger than yours’ to PM’s.

Having said that, a huge congrats to FENIX and team. I’m really excited for them and I hope they get success beyond their own forecasts. 

[Amon1973 1,421]

1 hour ago, Tuskin38 said:

I wonder of they’re going to lift the NDA on those who currently have it for early previews, or if we’ll have to wait for the release.

I think it will be streamed today, didn't Fenix say they would do some promotional videos/streams before release?

[blueshark747 1,843]

The A320 isn't even out yet and the cheerleaders are already PMDG 737 bashing and drawing comparisons as if both products can't be enjoyed alongside one another.

The latest Concorde, 737,146, and MD82 releases have revealed some absolute toxic disturbing behavior from folks on both forums. 

I don't recall any of the 3rd party developer companies asking any customers to carry out biased anti product bashing campaigns against one another.

You resident PMDG cheerleaders are just as guilty of doing such parade raining in everyone else's official product release threads also.😒

It's almost as if some users can't stand to watch other's enjoy a product they don't care to root for nor support.

Get over it!

 

[AGuther 187]

1 hour ago, abrams_tank said:

If the Fenix A320 is as good as what we expect it to be, I don’t know why FSLabs is still trying to port their own A320 into MSFS, How is FSLabs going to beat the price of 49.99 pounds. Assuming Fenix makes the A319 and A321 after this, and also prices the A319 and A321 similar to this price, FSLabs is just wasting time and money, in my opinion, on making an A319/A320/A321 for MSFS. FSLabs is better off accelerating their A330 or Concorde for MSFS.

I also think with their attitude on MSFS they messed it up and lost so much time that porting it doesn’t make sense anymore from a economic perspective. The time they would be able to enter that market (and that will be quite sure in years), the Fenix will be strong in the market (maybe having multiple variants and improvements for from the start issues) and you can expect the A32NX to strongly evolve as well. So the cake is eaten. Even their most loyal customers will move away when it’s clear what they can get now and there are no reasons to hold it back. Same story they did with P3D. They were late in the show for kind of same reasons but luckily there was no one else. So that time it worked out for them.

What can work is a really high fidelity A330 and the Concorde. That should be the main focus for them right now IMHO. There are really high numbers they can sell for those if done right.

But back to the Fenix: great to see the progress and I’m really looking forward to try it out!

Edited May 15, 2022 by AGuther

[Riah069 157]

26 minutes ago, FAZZ3 said:

How is it that you guys always find a way to argue about pointless things and derail good topics? It’s no wonder AVSIM has the reputation it has. Please take your ‘my crayon is bigger than yours’ to PM’s.

Having said that, a huge congrats to FENIX and team. I’m really excited for them and I hope they get success beyond their own forecasts. 

NO ONE expects the Avism Inquisition. But yes you are VERY correct. It boggles the mind 😞

[Fiorentoni 4,224]

Wow. Just wow. All of it.

[Makinen11 184]

May I say something not stressed here enough about Fenix: 

It's very refreshing to see someone so down to earth, pricing absolutely reasonably and making sure it performs well with older hardware (at least that was shown during development). There is a cost of living crisis that we all feel, and not all of us are retired in Florida driving around in Corvettes. I for one sure appreciate that I will be able to hold on to my 7700k and 1080ti a little longer if it performs like the pmdg, at a time when new graphics cards require a small mortgage (even at msrp) and a power station to keep them running. 

Edited May 15, 2022 by Makinen11