Blackbird…*caugh*…Milviz puts ATR project on hold

[Dominique_K 10,149]

2 minutes ago, Donka said:

I wonder if the Asobo Porter had any bearing on this. Blackbird took their time to get Phase 2 released and wonder if that was due to an impact on sales.

It didn’t help to boost the Porter profitability, I suppose. Besides, the war in Europe has an impact on some dev including Milviz as they employ the talents of free lancers from Eastern Europe. 

[regis9 4,014]

That’s too bad, but understandable.  I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision with the sunk costs they’ve already incurred but probably the best business decision to at least wait and see before investing more.

[Lucky38i 1,095]

6 hours ago, jbdbow1970 said:

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

This is a pretty odd comment to make, bearing in mind the effort Asobo has gone through for a lot of what we see today. Yeah it's not perfect at the moment, but they sure as hell aren't half-assing it.

Anyway sad news from Milviz, but from a business perspective it makes sense. Why inject cash in a project you're not sure will pan out financially. We'll see what Hans puts out and Milviz can take action from there. Hell, even re-target to P3D if they need to.

[PWJT8D 446]

Thr ATR will appeal to a niche market. If Blackbird and Asobo release an ATR that are indistinguishable in fidelity, the winner goes to the first to release. The Asobo version has backing from ATR themselves which is huge. As Blackbird mentioned, the Asobo version will most likely sell cheaper than what Blackbird needs to make a profit and recoup high development costs.

By the time Blackbird would get their ATR to market, 90% of the customer base would have already bought the Asobo one. This is a smart decision by Blackbird. We will still get a really good ATR so not much to worry about. Now Blackbird can shift their resources to other aircraft from their lineup. 

[b1bmsgt 207]

8 hours ago, ryanbatc said:

Hans Hartmann is no joke.

Isn't he the one that took like 7-8 years to finish the Aerosoft CRJ for FSX/P3D?

[Twenty6 693]

42 minutes ago, b1bmsgt said:

Isn't he the one that took like 7-8 years to finish the Aerosoft CRJ for FSX/P3D?

That was 7 years to initial release. Add on another 3-4 years of different "versions" of the same plane into P3D and MSFS. After all that the CRJ still can't reliably make a turn without losing the flightpath.

I prefer regional jets to the longhaul types but immediately lost interest in this ATR when HH was mentioned as the developer. Should he ever figure out the CRJs I'll reconsider.

[ryanbatc 12,857]

4 hours ago, Nuno Pinto said:

I....er... uh... Yeah, nevermind (CRJ?).

As for Milviz, although it is sad to see it's nothing i wasn't expecting, they have a REALLY long development cycle (Yeah, B350i, i moved to MSFS a few months after finally being able to fly it).

Wait what?  He did the crj?  I thought that was aerosoft and not Hans.  Well heck...the crj isnt a great addon.  If that's the case it's most unfortunate that blackbird is on hold.

[TonyD 132]

Hans Harmann was one of the team that developed the Flight1 ATR - to date still the best ATR released for any flight simulator.  Even then it had a high level of system depth.

I am sure the upcoming release will not disappoint.

[bendead 1,085]

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

Wait what?  He did the crj?  I thought that was aerosoft and not Hans.  Well heck...the crj isnt a great addon.  If that's the case it's most unfortunate that blackbird is on hold.

I still have some hope on quality. The CRJ was a bit rushed, some elements ported from previous sims, and the SDK was still young.

I don't know if the modern ATR was released on P3D

Edited January 10, 2023 by bendead

[Abriael 952]

1 hour ago, ryanbatc said:

Wait what?  He did the crj?  I thought that was aerosoft and not Hans.  Well heck...the crj isnt a great addon.  If that's the case it's most unfortunate that blackbird is on hold.

He did the CRJ. Yes. But the hate I see for it is quite unfair. 

1: the ones calling the shots on it are Arosoft, not Hans, so they decided the kind of simulation depth they wanted and the features. Microsoft has said they want a high definition addon for the ATR, and looking at the A310, they're not afraid to deliver just that.

2: The CRJ was literally the first semi-complex airliner add-on for the sim. It wasn't perfect, but it was still very, very good for the time. How much updating it gets is again Aerosoft's call, not Hans'

[micstatic 4,319]

I personally quite enjoy flying the crj. I think it doesn’t get enough credit. Yeah it’s not perfect…

[GreyStone93 5]

You can listen to Hans talk about the ATR on the developers stream from a month ago (45mins in). They have been working directly with ATR and have full support from them 
 

[N9718 28]

Curious why we think two companies talking to each other to determine the products each company will sell to us is a good thing. That can lead to price fixing, bad products, etc. Competition is the key to innovation and lower prices.

Edited January 10, 2023 by N9718

[mrueedi 702]

20 minutes ago, N9718 said:

That can lead to price fixing, bad products, etc.

It can, but close or duplicated products are also not only bad for the devs (who have to share profit) but also for us, because it means an opportunity was lost to bring another highly wanted aircraft. There are so many more: how about an U-2, a DC-8, DC-9, 742, DC-10...? My dream would be a CV-990. These flew in times, when speed was not limited to 250 below 10000. The Swissair Coronado is told to have flown fake attacks on ships in the port of Piraeus.

[Tuskin38 6,506]

1 hour ago, Abriael said:

and looking at the A310, they're not afraid to deliver just that.

To be fair, the A310 was already in development before Microsoft came in and paid them to include it in the base sim. No idea if the ATR was already planned before MS got involved.