PMDG puts up template page for 777

[micstatic 4,338]

1 hour ago, JBDB-MD80 said:

That was a last resort of PMDG for $$$ from P3D users as they had said and moved on to MSFS after 2019 E3 trailor. Do they even update P3D aircraft anymore. Same for the 772ER where they charged 77.72 for one variant and still needed to have the $140 base pack where users found it unacceptable. Glad they honored their $99 gift cards for users who bought the NGXu (by surprise)  though when they had clearly stated the were moving on. No hate here for PMDG but If that is not the truth than I would love to be corrected.

I admit.  The 772ER was perhaps one of my most regrettable purchases ever for p3d.  Particularly because the VC update never came.  But at this point I've moved on.  I mean why would they update the p3d one at this point?  Most of their customers have moved on.  Even the ones who were super angry they didn't update them.  I personally would rather see them focusing 100% of their development time on MSFS now. 

[carlanthony24 578]

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/274949-08dec23-friday-tablet-and-737-news
 

plot thickens look right at the bottom.

[chapstick 2,760]

6 minutes ago, carlanthony24 said:

https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/274949-08dec23-friday-tablet-and-737-news
 

plot thickens look right at the bottom.

tl;dr maybe previews of upcoming projects around Christmas time

[carlanthony24 578]

Other Stuff!:
While we have had you distracted with progress and rapid updates on the tablet and the 737NG series airplane- there are a few other projects that are rolling up on critical stages of their development and release cycles. Previews are being prepared- and I'm looking forward to welcoming you into the hangar with a glass of egg-nog in hand.

Thank you as always for your enthusiasm for our work- we hope you are having a great December thus far!
 

[lwt1971 7,447]

RSR also responded on that new forum thread about the template page going up: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/274949-08dec23-friday-tablet-and-737-news?p=274953#post274953

We do this at some point in every development build up in order to test back-end systems. 😉 -RSR

So I guess they're at *that* point in the 777 dev cycle :), very likely at a point where they show previews (by xmas as RSR says) and probably very close to entering beta. I'd be immensely surprised (and happily so) if they were close to release but that's very likely not at least 3+ months after they enter beta (unless they've already been in beta without mentioning it which is unusual for them).
 

Edited December 8, 2023 by lwt1971

[Bobsk8 12,826]

19 minutes ago, lwt1971 said:

RSR also responded on that new forum thread about the template page going up: https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/274949-08dec23-friday-tablet-and-737-news?p=274953#post274953

We do this at some point in every development build up in order to test back-end systems. 😉 -RSR

So I guess they're at *that* point in the 777 dev cycle :), very likely at a point where they show previews (by xmas as RSR says) and probably very close to entering beta. I'd be immensely surprised (and happily so) if they were close to release but that's very likely not at least 3+ months after they enter beta (unless they've already been in beta without mentioning it which is unusual for them).
 

PMDG will soon market a PMDG Crystal  Ball, so customers can figure out the exact  date and price of the release of the 777. 

[ErichB 3,647]

My money is still on a release. Maybe.  If not, oh well....

[Christopher Low 5,377]

Juicy previews of a Boeing 757 project development would go down very well with my turkey and roast potatoes

Edited December 8, 2023 by Christopher Low

[Farlis 2,300]

21 hours ago, Konterhalbe said:

As PMDG is a Vegas based company, I'd like to place my bets:
777 entering beta somewhere in JAN24 or FEB24.
First Release Date will be annouced for autumn 2024.

Various delays will cause a release in JAN25.

 

Normally I'd agree with you. I have been around long enough to know how long PMDG usually takes from first pictures to release, with Robert miscalculating the release window quite considerably every time (on average I believe he usually is off by 10 months) 

But maybe with Mathijs Kok on board they changed their communication policy and finally learned to keep it quiet until they are progressed a little bit into Beta.

The optimist in me says: March 2024. But the realist in me agrees with your bet.

Edited December 8, 2023 by Farlis

[Ianrivaldosmith 5,317]

1 hour ago, carlanthony24 said:

glass of egg-nog in hand.

No thanks, advocaat for me. 

[Fiorentoni 4,302]

1 hour ago, lwt1971 said:

So I guess they're at *that* point in the 777 dev cycle :), very likely at a point where they show previews (by xmas as RSR says) and probably very close to entering beta.

My memory might betray me but from what I remember these "product site test runs" happened usually when the product was already (long) in beta and a couple of weeks away from release. But yeah that doesn't mean they do it like this every single time.

[threexgreen 3,152]

6 hours ago, Konterhalbe said:

Oops, you're right!

I had the feeling that PMDG released the NGXu just because the announcement of MSFS caught PMDG by surprise and they tried to milk the P3D market one last time before the majority moved on to the new sim platform.
Hence the sudden and rushed release.

The NGXu was de facto just an additional EFB and split scmitar winglets.

Letting customers pay 100 USD for an unplanned and half finished version of the 737 and giving a credit for the 737 version is one of the greatest business moves I've ever seen:
1) PMDG saved interest charges, because they got an interest-free loan from the customers for a product, that was released three years after the inital payment. If you had invested 100 USD in an MSCI World ETF in NOV19 and sold it at the release date of the 738 for MSFS in AUG22, you would have made a +36% profit before taxes. People rather chose to fund PMDGs development instead...

2) If people didn't want their 100 USD credit to expire, they had to buy 2 variants of the 737. Let's say they've spent 70 USD for the 737-700. Customers still had 30 USD of credit and many decided to get the 738 aswell, which had a price tag at 70 USD aswell.
Quite some people who originally just wanted the B738 for MSFS had spent 140 USD in total (+ 36 USD for the missed profit on the stock exchange) because of this smart business model.
As statistics show, the B737-700 doesn't get flown much. The 738 is by far the most popular variant.

If PMDG would not have given the 100 USD discount on MSFS purchases, many simmers had chosen not to buy the NGXu and the 737-700 for MSFS but to just wait for the 738 to be released.

Fair enough for PMDG to do so. I just wonder why so many people do not care about a good cost benefit ratio and seem to not care how much they spend.
But each to his own 🙂

Sorry but this is one of the most bizarre ways of saying 'I don't like PMDG prices' I've ever seen. The conclusion is... you're going to lose money if you spend it on stuff instead of investing? That's kinda how money works, whatever PMDG specifically has to do with this I don't know.

Besides, you're focusing so much on the money side like people don't get anything in return. The NGXu is more different from the legacy NGX than you're trying to imply. I remember trying it out for the first time and it felt like a new plane, especially in VR since it has correct cockpit geometry instead of the grossly distorted windshields in the NGX. It also has a new sound system, new VC, new exterior model, EFB, dynamic lighting, scimitar models (including the actual performance changes), proper taxi physics, improved engine behavior and the 900ER variant. I also don't know what was unfinished about it.

Of course we could debate about a discount for existing NGX customers, but regardless of that I flew the NGX for years, then a vastly improved NGXu for roughly 2 years until MSFS was mature and the 737 available for it and then got the 700 for free and the 800 for half the price, which I'm probably going to fly for years to come. This might be different for someone who doesn't fly it much, but for anyone who flies it plenty I wouldn't consider a single cent wasted. All you need to do is put the price in perspective to the hours spent using it for a few years.

One may call it milking, but if you factor in that Randazzo said PMDG was running out of money after dire P3D sales and that 1 1/2 years had to be spent developing for MSFS until they could actually start making money off of MSFS with P3D sales plummeting to near zero, it suddenly seems more like a necessity rather than a milking.

Edited December 8, 2023 by threegreen

[ianb2469 55]

5 hours ago, Christopher Low said:

Juicy previews of a Boeing 757 project development would go down very well with my turkey and roast potatoes

That would probably make my decade! 

[Zangoose 1,633]

Here’s the first preview

 

Edited December 9, 2023 by Zangoose

[Stearmandriver 2,324]

19 hours ago, carlanthony24 said:

there are a few other projects that are rolling up on critical stages of their development and release cycles. Previews are being prepared- and I'm looking forward to welcoming you into the hangar with a glass of egg-nog in hand.

I'd be thrilled if instead of a 777, it was a clip of a 737 flying an RF leg perfectly stable, with no wing rocking and dead centered flight guidance.  😁