PMDG PMDG Announces the 600 and other updates.....

[Steve Dra 7,588]

As the title says.

Link:
https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/194517-04jun22-pmdg-737-600-dev-update-the-short-body-wonder-twin-of-full-sized-airliners

I'm hoping someone will copy/paste the content for those who don't want to venture there and participate in the discussion in their forums. 🙂 

[Gilandred 690]

interesting tidbit on pricing.  I think they realize they are too high, and I suspect we’ll see discounted pricing for the -800 too relative to the -700.
 

Also look for some updated guidance on pricing between now and release, as we have a better scope of the finished package and what it entails- we think initial guidance on the 600 package trended a bit higher than is probably appropriate for the product scale.

[Christopher Low 5,354]

I think he probably means that there is effectively only one version of the 600, so the price may need to be lower than originally suggested. I am not so sure that this will translate to the 800/900.

[Gilandred 690]

14 minutes ago, Christopher Low said:

I think he probably means that there is effectively only one version of the 600, so the price may need to be lower than originally suggested. I am not so sure that this will translate to the 800/900.

That was always the case - only one -600, so that isn’t new information. What is new is the realization of how much (or little) work goes into developing a model variant, and probably new and more favorable competitor pricing data (aka Fenix).  If they can make a killing with $75 -800 pricing then all the power to them.  I don’t think they will though.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Gilandred

[Fiorentoni 4,234]

Captains,

In keeping with my update from last weekend, I'd like to introduce you to our new Wonder Twin, the PMDG 737-600 for MSFS

This is our third product for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and our second of four PMDG 737 Next Generation for Microsoft Flight Simulator. She happens to be a favorite of the team because she is a bit unique, highly over-powered, performs like a can-do-anything performer and will get you in and out of short, hard to reach places with poise and sports car handling.

The bigger 737s can at times because trolly cars, but the short bodied 600 remains a thoroughbred, no matter how many of your friends you bring with you.

Pictured here at an insecure undisclosed-unless-you-happen-to-walk-by-Atlantic Aviation at KLAS location, we find our trust 600 at the ready for another day of proving runs. The 737-600 is near and dear to my heart because she was the logical replacement for the 737-500, which joined my airline's fleet very early in my career when i was a wee young ramper still hoping to make his way to a pilot's license and happy to do any task around a brand new Boeing airliner. (You have no idea how hard one-trial learning can be when emptying the lav on a 737 when you are officially 1" too short to do so while balanced properly on your own feet.)




The 500 was a workhorse of our fleet, and by all measures was popular among North American carriers, but was less-so in Europe. In much the same way, the 737-600 really didn't catch on for carriers who by the late 90s were looking for longer and higher capacity derivatives like the 800 and 900 series that are still to come in our series. But still neaerly 70 were built with many of them still happily in operation mostly in North America.

I have always considered myself a "long body" guy who falls in love with 707-300s, DC-8-68/73s, MD-88s and 727-200s, and 757s of all variation but there is something about this squat, powerful little rocket of an airplane that I have always loved- and we think you will enjoy her immensely as a fun, no-excuses power-sled to take you off on your simming adventures.

Fortunately, in the simming skies we don't worry as much about such things as capacity and we can let our adventures take us where they will, and this image was captured as Jason launched out on yet another test flight as we tune and tweak the behavior of the 600 so that she matches the book values just so.




The PMDG 737-600 is preparing for beta testing entry and is running about 7-9 days behind our originally planned schedule, but there was already some slop in there so she may still roll out right on time in the middle of June. (Because someone will ask, the delay in the 600 does not impact the 800, they are decoupled, we just needed a bit more time for something in the 600 systems integration since I was out sick for a week.)

Now for a few bits of fun news to give you something to look forward to as we prepare this airplane for you:

PMDG 737-600 Release and Marketplace Release:
We are exploring a few changes with the PMDG 737-600, one of which is rapid-entry to MS Marketplace. We are working out the logistics of how this can happen with an eye toward a rapid transition from PMDG release to MS Marketplace release for this product. We are also looking to see if we can do a concurrent release between PMDG and Marketplace- but neither of these have a clear pathway just yet. It is under exploration. Also look for some updated guidance on pricing between now and release, as we have a better scope of the finished package and what it entails- we think initial guidance on the 600 package trended a bit higher than is probably appropriate for the product scale.

PMDG Lateral / Vertical Path Module:
For a few years now, we have been at work conducting a full rebuild on the lateral and vertical path modeling capability for the PMDG FMS used by all of our Boeing airliners. This project has been a bit of a "ship in a storm" in that successive planned rollouts under Prepar3D got sidelined by larger market dynamics. The good news is that we are preparing to insert it into testing within the PMDG 737 for MSFS, and it will then roll out to you in the forum of a free update. This modern path modeling has been something we have been building toward for some time and it will dramatically improve the accuracy of how PMDG airliners move through the sky in a 3D pathway. It is a thing of beauty and while we thought it would be sidelined unless/until Asobo finally delivers on their promise to give us modern debugging tools, we have continued to hammer away at this because it is important- and thus far it looks like the fruit of our labor will pay off handsomely in spite of the lack of support of modern tooling.

PMDG Autoflight Director Module:
Concurrent with the Lateral/Vertical Path Module we have been working to build out a proper flight director roll and pitch module based upon input from some of the industries leading flight control logic engineers and our in in house mathematical wizzard. This has been under initial iteration testing and will also roll out as a free update shortly. One of the problems we have been trying to crack is "how to damp out the massively violent and unrealistic Asobo Atmospheric Shifts" without upsetting the control logic- and feel we finally cracked that nut once again based upon our in-house expertise in the use, operation and design of flight director control law.

It is always nice to have actual engineering degrees in house so that we can crack right into code and adapt it to make the entire simulation experience nicer for you- and we have been at this exercise for nearly fifteen months. It will be nice for you to see how it fundamentally changes the character of the airplane and it's relationship to the lateral and vertical path, restrictions and the like. It is some really great stuff and it is already ready-made for the 777 and 747!

PMDG Universal Flight Tablet:
This beauty is humming right along. Not quite ready for prime-time, but I am betting you have it in your flight deck sooner than later. The team is working diligently to get the core functionality in place and we'll put together a nice preview of it when the time is right. (I got a stern warning about telling you too much about it last week... hence few words other than to say it is coming along really nicely with some cool features!)

Next Update Cycle for the 737:
We are planning another update cycle for the 737 next week. That will get handed off to testing on Monday, I expect. We are working on a few larger issues with animations and control axis inputs that aren't behaving in the manner we like. We are also re-shuffling some priorities around based upon the news that Asobo has had to push the SU10 update out into August. This has an impact on our workflow because there are a few things we needed in that SU10 update in order to clear up a couple of nuisance items, and it appears we will be waiting on those fixes- so some shuffling will be in order to keep the development workflow optimized.

Adding New Features to 737:
I suspect this question will come up in the thread below- so let me try to answer it here: Once the PMDG 737-600 releases, we will be updating both the 600 and 700 airplanes concurrently and individually as needed in an ongoing bases. You will not need to purchase one or the other in order to have access to any new functions that we add to the product line, as those functions will be added to the entire fleet concurrently. The PMDG Universal Flight Tablet, for example, will go into the entire fleet so you will have it no matter which airplane(s) you own. The goal is simplicity and transparency.

PMDG's $350,000 Community Investment-to-date:
You'll recall that back when we launched PMDG 737NGXu in November of 2019, we all thought the PMDG 737 for MSFS would a straight forward drag/drop/modify/release cycle that would take about six months. With that in mind, we offered a rare one-time special to all PMDG customers that gave 8,934 of you a $99.99 purchase credit to use toward the MSFS version of the 737 when it released. We built out our ecommerce system to make that process simple, easy and honest for all of you who participated, and as of 31MAY22, approximately 5,000 PMDG customers have redeemned nearly $350,000 in those store credits toward the purchase of a their new PMDG 737 or DC-6 for MSFS.

Back when we made this offer, nobody could possibly have predicted that bringing the 737 into MSFS would be a true rebuild taking years to get done properly, or the impact that our incredibly difficult 737 development cycle would have on PMDG as a company. Nor could anyone have guessed the impact Covid would have on so many of you, your families, workplace, employment and personal savings. We have gotten a number of very kind, very thoughtful emails and messages from PMDG customers who were surprised to find that we stuck by our program and our promise to make sure those credits were present, on time and easy to use.

We are proud of the work we create and we are proud of the bond that we share with all of our customers. You invested your confidence in us back in November 2019, and we are beyond pleased that your confidence in us can be repaid in such a measurable fashion.

For those who purchased the PMDG 737NGXu in November/December 2019- you have $99.99 in credit automatically inserted to your PMDG ecommerce account. Please do feel free to use it for any PMDG product you like between now and December 31, 2024. You earned it and we hope you enjoy!

As always thank you for your enthusiasm for our products- we happy to be hitting stride within the MSFS environment finally- and looking forward to great simming ahead for all of us!

Please enjoy your weekend!

[ryanbatc 12,857]

Wow impressive they sold about 9k copies of the p3d 737.  That's good sales for FSX p3d days.

[Nyxx 6,993]

Can we stop having all these PMDG 737 topics....its slowing down the Fexin ones.....come on! 😉

[TomCYYZ 215]

If my “Blind Ambitions” don’t get the best of me, I’m going to skip the 600 and wait for the 800.

 

[VBHB 298]

Why even bother with the -600 or the NG3 series they could of had the MAX in the air by now.

Edited June 4, 2022 by VBHB

[TomCYYZ 215]

16 minutes ago, Nyxx said:

Can we stop having all these PMDG 737 topics....its slowing down the Fexin ones.....come on! 😉

I’m with you keep the FENIX topics alive.

[VBHB 298]

2 minutes ago, TomCYYZ said:

If my “Blind Ambitions” don’t get the best of me, I’m going to skip the 600 and wait for the 800.

 

I'm skipping to the 777-300 ER. My credit doesn't run out till Dec 2023.

[lwt1971 7,417]

The 777 and 747 are the birds I'm really anticipating and waiting for... by that time all the base technologies like new EFB, new LNAV, new autoflight director, etc would've been hammered out and be ready for full prime time hopefully on the long haulers. Sounds like the initial release of these should be ready in time for the 737-800 or inbetween the -600 and -800 releases even.

[Barnes 192]

1 hour ago, VBHB said:

I'm skipping to the 777-300 ER. My credit doesn't run out till Dec 2023.

Actually, in Rob’s announcement above he gives a date of Dec 31, 2024.

[sidfadc 1,344]

Written like a frustrated storyteller as usual 😀

[JYW 2,981]

When I read the "$350,0000 Community Investment" paragraph title, I honestly thought it was going to be about a charitable donation to the aviation community.  You know, getting under-privileged kids flying and stuff.  Lol!  The investment was the fact that those that bought the NGXu for P3D got the $99 credit for the MSFS version - which PMDG thought would be an easy transition but involved a lot of work.

I mean, is that really a community investment?

Is a 5% off sale at Orbx also a community investment?

I love my PMDG 737 but boy, he is a strange fella.