14 minutes ago, Noel said:

Whatever--overrated plane and had it had poor performance would not have done well at all so I stand by my original statement.  That being said the Saitek yoke was the wrong tool to manifest subtleties in flight behavior so probably influences my opinion of the "Crash 8".

I never found a yoke that was worth anything, notchy, not smooth, etc.. I switched to a hall IC joystick years ago and never looked back. Of course today there are better quality yokes, but I am not going to spend hundreds of dollars for one, and besides that, have it take up half my desk. 

Edited September 13, 20223 yr by Bobsk8

This is what I am using:
https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-3D-Pro-Joystick-Windows/dp/B00009OY9U/ref=asc_df_B00009OY9U/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=242012519199&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=4456374174086529574&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027664&hvtargid=pla-365326647739&psc=1

For $30, it cannot be beat, though I think I paid $50 at the time. Perhaps I could switch to a more expensive stick, but I've had 6 or so sticks, and this one is really good and very solid and takes up less space. My only complaint is the rudder control is a bit tight on the twist axis and can tire wrists with MSFS default planes that are always trying to run off the runway.

I couldn't even use a yoke because I am doing dev stuff most of the time, so it would be in the way.

2 hours ago, jarmstro said:

What I do not understand is why exact sales figures are never divulged? Neither for the sims themselves or any addon?  There must me a commercial reason for this but I cannot think what this may be? If something sells well surely this should be trumpeted to the fooftops?

If they were, then people such as yourself would then feel entitled to see all the sales figures and thus the bad as well as the good.
My view is that the sales figures are of no use to the customer, unless the customer is unable to form their own opinion and needs
to follow lemmings to find out what to do next.

 

2 hours ago, jarmstro said:

What I do not understand is why exact sales figures are never divulged? Neither for the sims themselves or any addon?  There must me a commercial reason for this but I cannot think what this may be? If something sells well surely this should be trumpeted to the fooftops?

Exact sales figures are no one else's business and are considered commercially sensitve data for a whole host of reasons, this applies to most any business that doesn't want to be disected publicly.

They told you it sold well above expectations, they are celebrating.

This is good news.

Embrace, unless you really just want to calculate just how much income they gained out of us simmers.

Does being interested in how much money PMDG makes with the 737 really make me a bad person? 😋

2 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

never found a yoke that was worth anything, notchy, not smooth, etc..

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/623895-sales-of-pmdg-737-700-exceeded-even-most-optimistic-forecast/?do=findComment&comment=4840640

https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/tca-yoke-boeing-edition/

Really special feel, smooth, full range pitch and roll, sweet progressive resistance and the price was right for magnetic sensors, all metal internals, quality switches (save the gear switch which is a bit tacky but works fine).  $299 from Dell.com last week.

7 minutes ago, rka said:

Does being interested in how much money PMDG makes with the 737 really make me a bad person? 😋

Depends whether you or anyone else might use that information against PMDG in any of a 1001 ways to...

We are all nosey buggers, speculation is all we will be left with, and no doubt will create much fodder for the forums for years to come.

20 minutes ago, Noel said:

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/623895-sales-of-pmdg-737-700-exceeded-even-most-optimistic-forecast/?do=findComment&comment=4840640

https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/tca-yoke-boeing-edition/

Really special feel, smooth, full range pitch and roll, sweet progressive resistance and the price was right for magnetic sensors, all metal internals, quality switches (save the gear switch which is a bit tacky but works fine).  $299 from Dell.com last week.

You edited out the rest of my post where I said I didn't want to spend hundreds of dollars for a yoke. 😉 My T 16000M with hall ICs cost me around $60

5 hours ago, Noel said:

  Majestic's Dash 8 was hugely overrated in this regard, IMO.  That plane got the majority of its accolades from how frame-rate friendly it was.

Why? Where did it go wrong? pitch/power curve? drag curve? stall figures?

1 hour ago, rka said:

Does being interested in how much money PMDG makes with the 737 really make me a bad person? 😋

I'm sure a lot of people would be interested, the reason they don't do it is psychological and releasing the info as a private small company can damage sales by people thinking they are over-charging when you know how much profit they make.

It's different with big companies, because we all know they are gouging as much as the market will allow, the big companies didn't get big by being boyscouts, the majority of them either had govt help + shady overseas labor deals (not all, just most). 

Edited September 13, 20223 yr by Alpine Scenery

Interesting comments about the Flight Sticks, I was looking today for a new stick, and am now considering the more expensive Gladiator for $165. Everyone says how great the Gladiator is. Some guy just said stick with the Logitech, if anyone wants to weigh in on my thread, let me know here: 

@Others
I understand how a Yoke can be much better, but being a DEV, I don't want to keep moving it out of the way. I have to say it's difficult doing both DEV and using the SIM for fun, because I sometimes need to get back to work. 

1 hour ago, rka said:

Does being interested in how much money PMDG makes with the 737 really make me a bad person? 😋

No it doesn’t. But if a company is not publicly traded (and required to publish financial reports), asking a private business to reveal their revenues is simply not done. It would be like asking a married couple to talk about the intimate details of their love life. 

22 minutes ago, Alpine Scenery said:

It's different with big companies, because we all know they are gouging as much as the market will allow, the big companies didn't get big by being boyscouts, the majority of them either had govt help + shady overseas labor deals (not all, just most). 

I disagree here. Smaller businesses are no different, maybe even worse. Probably worse actually in my experience. But that's not the point 😉

5 minutes ago, rka said:

I disagree here. Smaller businesses are no different, maybe even worse. Probably worse actually in my experience. But that's not the point 😉

You mean like Apple charging $350 for a keyboard that cost them $3.50 to make in Taiwan, 100x gross markup is not gouging? Or the Video Card manufacturers when they had a shortage, not gouging?
Or Chase taking 1 billion dollars out of the stock market by using trade spoofing, they got fined for it, but then the fines are always "secretly" reduced later without being reported back to the media. Even Tuna Fish is suceptible to it, forgot which brand, but the CEO of a big tuna company had underhanded inside deals directly with the fish markets and he had secretly price fixed the market, I think he went to prison for a short time period. I could go on with 1000 more examples, but I will stop. 
 

Edited September 13, 20223 yr by Alpine Scenery

5 minutes ago, Alpine Scenery said:

You mean like Apple charging $350 for a keyboard that cost them $3.50 to make in Taiwan, 100x gross markup is not gouging? Or the Video Card manufacturers when they had a shortage, not gouging?
Or Chase taking 1 billion dollars out of the stock market by using trade spoofing, they got fined for it, but then the fines are always "secretly" reduced later without being reported back to the media. Even Tuna Fish is suceptible to it, forgot which brand, but the CEO of a big tuna company had underhanded inside deals directly with the fish markets and he had secretly price fixed the market, I think he went to prison for a short time period. I could go on with 1000 more examples, but I will stop. 
 

That's not what I said (or meant) at all, I disagreed with the statement that smaller businesses need protection and would not price gauge.

Edited September 13, 20223 yr by rka