After a long hiatus from FSX, when I got back in flight simulation with MSFS, I was reading how people were paying over $100 USD for study level airliners. I was thinking that's pretty expensive, but if it's the norm for flight simulation, I guess I will have to pay if there is a study level airliner that I want really badly, especially a newly released study level airliner.  Now you can buy a newly released study level airliner for $35 USD!

But the PMDG 737-600 is not the only cheap study level airliner on its release.  The Fenix A320 is way cheaper than the FSLabs A320.  Just Flight's BAe 146 is cheaper in MSFS than the XP and P3D counterpart.  The Maddog in MSFS is cheaper than the P3D 5.3 version. And also, the CEO of TDFi taking notice of the lower prices for study level airliners in MSFS, and then stating for their MD-11 in MSFS:

Quote

 The price we initially decided on for the MD-11 would have been fine in the P3D-only market days, but the curve is changing. We'll keep reviewing to make sure we put it at the right price.

Mind you, I am talking about the prices of newly released study level airliners.  Prices do go down after the release, especially if a publisher wants to get some last minute money from their add-ons on a platform, before that platform will become phased out by a newer version (ie. iniBuilds putting their aircraft on sale for XP 11, because XP 12 is coming out, and iniBuilds probably won't port their aircraft to XP 12, now that they are in a partnership with MSFS).

But for newly released airliners at least, I am really loving the prices of them in MSFS 👍

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

I only used the stock aircraft that came with the sim decades ago, and i was shocked to see the cost of some of the addons in previous sims. I guess it is one bonus of MSFS being available to not only PC users, but also Xbox etc, it's the sheer numbers of buyers has made it possible for devs to still make a good profit ( Which is good for everyone, as it leads to more investment, and further addons created).

Hold the phone a sec.  I don't keep up with the details because I'm not an airliner guy but i thought the PMDG 737 variants that were coming out after initial release of the 737 were add-ons to the base package?  Is the 736-600 offered as a stand-alone product for $35?

If so I might have to get a pair of aviator sunglasses and shave my beard down to just a mustache only so I can purchase it and try it out properly. 🙂

22 minutes ago, Stoopy said:

Hold the phone a sec.  I don't keep up with the details because I'm not an airliner guy but i thought the PMDG 737 variants that were coming out after initial release of the 737 were add-ons to the base package?  Is the 736-600 offered as a stand-alone product for $35?

Quote:  The 737-600 is offered at $34.99 which represents a fantastic entry price for simmers who may be new to high-fidelity DLC for Microsoft Flight Simulator, new to PMDG, or are currently enjoying GA flying but curious to see what feature rich airliner simulations are really like in the beautiful environment of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

6 minutes ago, Bert Pieke said:

Quote:  The 737-600 is offered at $34.99 which represents a fantastic entry price for simmers who may be new to high-fidelity DLC for Microsoft Flight Simulator, new to PMDG, or are currently enjoying GA flying but curious to see what feature rich airliner simulations are really like in the beautiful environment of Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Thanks - time to get out the clippers I guess. 🤙

The whole PMDG 737 package for MSFS will not be cheaper than the full package for P3D thats for sure. Zibo 737 for X-Plane is considered study level and don't cost nothing.

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by jbdbow1970

7 hours ago, Car147 said:

I only used the stock aircraft that came with the sim decades ago

Your choice but you missed some remarkably good aircraft simulations.

4 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

Zibo 737 for X-Plane is considered study level and don't cost nothing.

which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either a payware addon or Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The Project Tupolev Tu 154 for FS9 was "study level" before the term study level was invented and was and is entirely free of charge.
It is, however, also utterly irrelevant to this discussion.

 

11 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

The whole PMDG 737 package for MSFS will not be cheaper than the full package for P3D thats for sure. Zibo 737 for X-Plane is considered study level and don't cost nothing.

Zibo is freeware though. That's not a fair comparison.  You're better off comparing the Zibo to the FBW A320.

As for the PMDG 737 series, if you only want one variant (ie. I only want the 800), it's much cheaper for people like me, that only want the one variant.

8 hours ago, abrams_tank said:

But for newly released airliners at least, I am really loving the prices of them in MSFS 👍

The low price of airliners in MSFS is especially impressive when considering we live in a period of hyperinflation, where everything else in the world is going up in price.

11 minutes ago, Reader said:

Your choice but you missed some remarkably good aircraft simulations.

which has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with either a payware addon or Microsoft Flight Simulator.
The Project Tupolev Tu 154 for FS9 was "study level" before the term study level was invented and was and is entirely free of charge.
It is, however, also utterly irrelevant to this discussion.

 

The topic did not state payware it stated to be the cheapest airliners in sims which I pointed out so it is relevant. Don't sound so bitter.

16 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Zibo is freeware though. That's not a fair comparison.  You're better off comparing the Zibo to the FBW A320.

As for the PMDG 737 series, if you only want one variant (ie. I only want the 800), it's much cheaper for people like me, that only want the one variant.

FBW is no where near the level of Zibo but Zibo has been out since 2017 I believe so FBW may catch up to that level eventually. Zibo is also the reason no one in the payware department even attempts to deliver a 737 800 for Xplane thats how good it is.

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by jbdbow1970

5 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

The topic did not state payware it stated to be the cheapest airliners in sims which I pointed out so it is relevant. Don't sound so bitter.

The topic title does indeed state

Quote

are so much cheaper in MSFS

so both your recommendation of a freeware in XPlane 11 and mine in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 are equally out of place in this topic.
Selective reading is rarely better than full comprehension.
See that your fellow XPlane 11 users have now been attracted to this MSFS topic to bang their drums.

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by Reader

7 minutes ago, jbdbow1970 said:

FBW is no where near the level of Zibo but Zibo has been out since 2017 I believe so FBW may catch up to that level eventually.

Oh yes, of course.  The Zibo is much more advanced than the FBW A320 at this point.

I think my main point in my original post though, was that MSFS is lowering the cost for us. I don't have to pay over $100 USD for a study level airliner when it releases.  That's a perk of using MSFS, if you ask me. The money we save from MSFS on study level airliners, we can spend on other things, like better hardware, peripherals, other add-ons, maybe buy another study level airliner, etc.

 

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by abrams_tank

2 minutes ago, Reader said:

The topic title does indeed state

so both your recommendation of a freeware in XPlane 11 and mine in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 are equally out of place in this topic.
Selective reading is rarely better than full comprehension.
See that your fellow XPlane 11 users have now been attracted to this MSFS topic to bang their drums.

Lol i'm not even a Xplane user I tried Xplane 10 twice. Im a MSFS user coming from FSX mind you but im not cheerleader like you probably are. I do follow what goes on in the flight community though and payware and freeware Zibo is up there.

The fact that all of the 737 variants would cost more for MSFS vs. P3D is the only fair comparison. Otherwise, we would be comparing apples to oranges. The cheaper stand alone prices are a great option, but the fact there are no bundle discounts is unfortunate. PMDG has the right to charge what they want, but in my opinion, the current pricing structure is a bit of fool’s gold. I bought the 700, but once I buy the 800, I will already have exceeded the price I paid for the FSX and P3D packages. I’m still on the fence about getting the 800, since the 700 seems to do the job for me. 

Cheers, Pete

Edited July 30, 20223 yr by PilotPete99