From their discord:

 

Howdy to all. (@everyone )

I am aware that we've not been very open about what's happening with the 80-R....  And that means, well, it's time to spill the beans:

At this time, after having invested significant bucks, we've decided that, for the moment, we're putting the project on hold.

The reasons should be obvious but in case they're not... I'm listing them below:

1) MS/Hans Hartmann are doing one and no matter what our price is, they can beat it.  Hands down and super easy. No matter the quality level of either, We'd never be able to compete in the same space.  

2) Spending another year on the project would've cost a huge amount of money that we'd never see.  (again, see 1).  

3) halfway through development, we realized that the 3D model was unacceptable in terms of quality (look/feel) so we junked it and started again.  Though we had finished modeling, painting had not yet commenced.  It would take another 20-30K and 4-6 months to get it done.  All the while, MS is doing theirs.

4) When the MS/Hans version comes out, we will assess and revisit this.  For now though, we've decided to put a hold on this till theirs is out.

We know you all were all looking forward to this, and we hate to bring you this disappointment, but we have to make decisions that best fit our business.

We continue to look forward to making wonderful products for you in the future.

I read that.  It's unfortunate, because they make high quality products, but it's understandable from a business standpoint.

Hans Hartmann is no joke.

4 minutes ago, ryanbatc said:

Hans Hartmann is no joke.

Ehh…

Edited January 10, 20233 yr by Chapstick

Well, they'd rather put out a good product right off the bat instead of the usual these days...where everyone beta tests their planes for them.

At least this way it will be cheaper for us and then we could wait for the modding community to fix the usual Asobo bugs.

 

 

So what are they working on? 

Even though the Asobo one is coming me and my friends were really looking forward to the Blackbird/Milviz ATR because we knew it would be top notch. Oh well.

12 minutes ago, Sonosusto said:

At least this way it will be cheaper for us and then we could wait for the modding community to fix the usual Asobo bugs.

The modding scene in MSFS has been impressive, though I would prefer my ATR study level/high fidelity in one package. We'll have to see what happens in March. 

56 minutes ago, Chapstick said:

Ehh…

Care to elaborate? I beta tested the old dreamfleet/Flight1/HH ATR for fs9.  It was a very in depth addon.  Hans is a good guy.  I guess my main point is that Blackbird thinks the HH ATR will saturate the market too much....  They're probably right.

 

 

 

Asobo have an unfortunate habit of bringing out cheaper versions of things already available. The PC6 and the Grumman Goose come to mind here.

Who announced the ATR first? Was it Milviz that announced first, or was it Microsoft/Hans Hartmann that announced the ATR first?

It's unfortunate that there is no collaboration between the top plane developers.  For example, FSimStudios and Roman Design were communicating about who would do CYYJ, as both companies wanted to do CYYJ. In the end, FSimStudio said they had a lot of projects in the queue and they wouldn't get to CYYJ anytime soon, so FSimStudio gave Roman Design their blessing to work on CYYJ first.

Despite being competitors, FSimStudio and Roman Design were communicating.  It's really sad when Mliviz and Microsoft are not communicating, because this is a huge waste of time and money, and the MSFS community stands to lose from all this (ie. if Milviz and Microsoft were communicating, maybe Milviz would have completed another plane by now, with the money & time they invested in the ATR).

Unfortunate news. Ms will not sell anything High Fidelity with a higher price and will cater to the general/casual market.

Edited January 10, 20233 yr by jbdbow1970

Really quite an understandable and reasonable decision. To be honest I think they have approached it well, let the MS one release and see what its quality and depth are and whether there is an apatite in the market for them to consider going forward. I agree it is too bad as the Blackbird one would have been high fidelity.

I think this kind of thing is going to happen more and more in MSFS. 

20 minutes ago, abrams_tank said:

Who announced the ATR first?

Milviz now Blackbird have been working on this ATR for at least 6 years, announced for FSX and P3D back in 2017. It’s unfortunate timing for them with MSFS coming out mid development forcing them to retarget the sims, but we can’t wait for them forever. 

Edited January 10, 20233 yr by NZ255

1 hour ago, NZ255 said:

Milviz now Blackbird have been working on this ATR for at least 6 years, announced for FSX and P3D back in 2017.

This is probably the reason why the 3D model is abandoned. MSFS can handle a much more detailed mesh than the former generation sims.

1 hour ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

Asobo have an unfortunate habit of bringing out cheaper versions of things already available. The PC6 and the Grumman Goose come to mind here.

There is something unhealthy when a giant company gives away products which are competing with those of small developers. We, as consumers, of course  benefit from this in the short term. Not sure in the long run that a quasi-monopoly working with subcontractors is the best for us. Thats why selling below cost is a no-no in some countries.

Isn't Hans Hartmann the guy who did the CRJ for Aerosoft?  That had problems from the start.  I didn't buy it myself but people never stopped complaining about it.