PMDG have withdrawn P3D products from sale.

[UrgentSiesta]

12 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I’m giving serious consideration to buying the PMDG777-200LR/F

I’m not familiar with the 777 family. I note PMDG are developing the 777-300 for MSFS. Is the 200 and specifically the LR/F an older model and if so how old?

Just noticed the 300ER Expansion Pack is available. Worth the extra?

Back when I was considering expanding my PMDG collection I ended up going for the 744 + the 8i expansion.

The 777 (to me) is just an up-sized 737, so I skipped it. 😁

Whereas the 74x has always been "the" super jumbo since 1969, with that distinctive upper deck offering an unparalleled view of the airfield, not to mention making cargo ops more interesting.

If the 777 strikes your fancy, though, I'd definitely say go for it as i've been very satisfied with my 73x and 74x in P3D.

I can't comment on the IRL differences beyond the obvious, and I'm not the kinda guy who cares much about "-XXX" variants since with few exceptions they all offer pretty much the same cockpit experience.

If you go over to fselite, they have a series of articles on the P3D versions, though you have to dig past all the hype over the MSFS release.

Edited August 11, 2024 by UrgentSiesta
Snipped to shorten

[tesza]

I have had the 777 family for some years now and get a great deal of enjoyment out of them the -300ER is the best while the -200ER is the better of three variants for reasons you will only find out when you have it yourself,I was surprised by its feel.

It pioneered the EFB in the family,  you need it alongside the 200 LR (base model) otherwise no EFB! Purchase 200LR first,then 200ER & then 300ER.

The EFB is still somewhat limited in use in my opinion but adds a layer of realism all the same.

Many great repaints on PMDG and Inbuilds sites for all three variants, you will get years of enjoyment from those three for certain.

 

[Scottoest]

On 8/10/2024 at 8:43 PM, Rogen said:

Heh, sounds just like a shill...

Cheers 🙃

I own zero PMDG products, and have no reason to "shill" for them.  I don't particularly like how RR interacts with criticism on their forum - or Mathijs either, for that matter.

This is me simply calling a spade a spade. If you bought a PMDG product, you can still access that product from them. You can still get support from them. What they aren't doing is taking on NEW customers, due to whatever on their backend has made it financially unviable at the volume they are selling. I have no idea what that would be specifically, but it also doesn't really matter.

If it makes no sense to sell the stuff at full price, it makes even less sense to sell it at a discount.  They also aren't going to borderline give their products away for free, in the event down the road they decide to start selling them again.  And again: There are still costs to that (server, transaction processing, whatever), even if they sold everything "as-is". They didn't want to give a bunch of advance warning of the decision, presumably to avoid a final flood of orders they've already decided make no financial sense for them.

As I said before, this really isn't complicated logic. They don't owe anyone doing business at a loss, and if their P3D business wasn't they would have no reason to remove everything from sale in the first place.

[fnav77]

13 hours ago, dave2013 said:

 

If PMDG is abandoning P3D development and removing P3D products from sale, then it costs them nothing to keep the planes on their servers and let people download them.  They could also sell them at a deep discount, like 70-90% off, and still make a few bucks off them.

This behavior is much like some other flightsim vendors who have product in stock but it just sits there unsold because they refuse to discount it.

Dave

I agree.

Given that even PMDG themselves have closed their P3D shop now, having to pay USD 100+ for a P3D addon PMDG don't care about anymore is (to remain courteous) not something I would do.

As for developers keeping P3D addon prices high when demand is so low, I don't get it....

Edited August 12, 2024 by fnav77

[sdirand]

21 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

I’m not familiar with the 777 family. I note PMDG are developing the 777-300 for MSFS. Is the 200 and specifically the LR/F an older model and if so how old?

Just noticed the 300ER Expansion Pack is available. Worth the extra?

https://www.aerosoft.com/en/shop/flight/p3d-fsx/prepar3d/aircraft/1351/pmdg-777-300er-expansion-pack-for-p3d-v4/v5

Well, the base pack is really expensive but when you swallowed the pill, the -300ER extension is only 27€ extra. It is the most popular version IRL so it is worth it.

 

18 hours ago, Luke said:

Their unit costs have never been lower. If they cannot make a profit now, then they have never made a profit at all.

Cheers

Well, I think we all agree here that this story about costs is B.S. They can brag what they want about server costs, bandwidth, I cannot see how you cannot make a profit when you sell a 6 years old product, fully amortized, for $120. 

IMHO, they don't want to deal with newcomers when they know their products are not officially compatible with 6.0. Or they expect the remaining P3D users or the newcomers to switch to msfs. We will probably never know.

 

5 hours ago, tesza said:

I have had the 777 family for some years now and get a great deal of enjoyment out of them the -300ER is the best while the -200ER is the better of three variants for reasons you will only find out when you have it yourself,I was surprised by its feel.

It pioneered the EFB in the family,  you need it alongside the 200 LR (base model) otherwise no EFB! Purchase 200LR first,then 200ER & then 300ER.

The EFB is still somewhat limited in use in my opinion but adds a layer of realism all the same.

Many great repaints on PMDG and Inbuilds sites for all three variants, you will get years of enjoyment from those three for certain.

 

Sadly, I can't see the 200ER package on sale anymore on Aerosoft. So at best he will have to deal with 200LR/F and -300ER which mean no EFB.

[Ray Proudfoot]

10 minutes ago, sdirand said:

Well, the base pack is really expensive but when you swallowed the pill, the -300ER extension is only 27€ extra. It is the most popular version IRL so it is worth it.

Given they never have sales it’s annoying they’re still charging full price but it’s a pill I’ll just swallow.

The EFB is not something I’ll use. I have Aivlasoft EFB on a second computer which provides all I need. Plus PFPX / TOPCAT for planning so all’s well.

Despite the tone of the main man over there it’s unlikely I’ll need any official support given how mature the product is. There are plenty of fellow members who help should it be necessary.

[sdirand]

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Despite the tone of the main man over there it’s unlikely I’ll need any official support given how mature the product is. There are plenty of fellow members who help should it be necessary.

You wil still receive official support from PMDG if you need it. Did they say something different?

[Ray Proudfoot]

1 minute ago, sdirand said:

You wil still receive official support from PMDG if you need it. Did they say something different?

No. When I’ve asked questions fellow members have provided the answers. I’ve never needed to request help over installation or related issues. Just procedural questions.

[Patco Lch]

@Ray Proudfoot Get the 747 instead. The 777 is a beautiful well done model inside and out but IMHO so automated it’s actually quite boring to fly. Easier than an Airbus. I know you’re a procedures man so I suspect you would enjoy the 47 more. At least you have to manage the fuel balance during climb and flight. Get Captain Mike Rays book on the 747.

[Ray Proudfoot]

25 minutes ago, Patco Lch said:

Get the 747 instead. The 777 is a beautiful well done model inside and out but IMHO so automated it’s actually quite boring to fly.

The 747 is being phased out. Here at Manchester, Virgin stopped flying them some time ago. There was much excitement amongst spotters when chartered 747s flew Man City, Man Utd and Liverpool squads over to the US. It appears to be disappearing from our skies.

So has Concorde of course but that’s an iconic aircraft which I love. I’m so-so with the 747.

How much hand flying do you do with these aircraft. Surely A/P goes on a couple of minutes after takeoff and off around 7 miles from landing.

I’m inviting a real-world 747 pilot to offer his views. Plenty of years on the 747 but not sure he’s flown the 777. Thoughts @jon b? 

[787flyer]

I think the 747 is in my view more rewarding to fly as @Patco Lch  also previously stated. I am currently flying the 777-300ER, but its pretty much an automated set up once you are in the air.

 

The good thing about the 777, there are plenty of liveries to choose from and repaints exist for the main operators that use them today.


The only nuances especially with the -300ER are that its longer than the other variants, so its a bit more challenging for manoeuvring on narrow taxiways.

Landing I would say is also a little bit more challenging than the 747 as it needs just the right touch of flare at the right moment to prevent floating. The FBW trim feature helps with this.

Of course it does feature the external cameras on the -300ER, but I find I am not using that feature so often since it tends to consume more VRAM.



 

[Patco Lch]

I’m more U.S. oriented than Ray so most of my 747 flights are Atlas Air and UPS which uses “Fat Albert” quite often and will be for many years to come. These RW flights are around the world and Atlas carries pax as well as freight including sports teams and live stock. A very interesting company. They fly to South America ,Asia ,Europe ,India and Australia with 747. Just about everywhere and have some 747-8 s. Quite adventurous.

[Ronda_sim]

I would suggest you take both, Ray. I enjoy all them Boeings because of the similarity of procedures. And honestly, a person can do enjoy all of them as long as knows how to start them and fly them. I really want to use them all in my world trip and the QW 787 as well. It is a bliss to fly them. 

[Luis Hernandez]

6 hours ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

Given they never have sales it’s annoying they’re still charging full price but it’s a pill I’ll just swallow.

Strange: in Euro, Aerosoft is charging €101,64 for the -200LR and -€22,65 for the -300ER, while in USD, they charge the full $135/$30. Unless the Euro is now 1,33 USD, I'm seeing a good deal here.

[Ray Proudfoot]

34 minutes ago, Ronda_sim said:

I would suggest you take both, Ray. I enjoy all them Boeings because of the similarity of procedures. And honestly, a person can do enjoy all of them as long as knows how to start them and fly them. I really want to use them all in my world trip and the QW 787 as well. It is a bliss to fly them. 

I’ve always been very selective with the aircraft I buy. I don’t have a hangar full of them. Current count is five. PC12, DA-62, XP Lear 25, PMDG737NGXu and Concorde. I only buy if it fulfils a need. A 747 and 777 are unnecessary for me. It’s one or the other. Leaning to the 777 as it’s still operational.

I briefly considered the QW787 but Steve of Pollypot hasn’t done a profile for it. That’s a fair bit of work.

30 minutes ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Strange: in Euro, Aerosoft is charging €101,64 for the -200LR and -€22,65 for the -300ER, while in USD, they charge the full $135/$30. Unless the Euro is now 1,33 USD, I'm seeing a good deal here.

Currently €1.0923 according to BBC.