Captains,

This weekend's roundup of news-worthy items:

PMDG 777-300ER Coming to Marketplace for PC/XBOX:
Later today (Thursday) Microsoft will make the 77W available in MSFS Marketplace for both PC and Xbox customers. This is the first of the 777 series to be launched in Marketplace, and we are excited to bring our flagship long-hauler to the Xbox platform, giving our Marketplace users the full range of our fleet from DC-6 to 777-300ER. As of this writing, we believe the Marketplace distribution of liveries for 77W will not be available until 15AUG24, but our contacts at Microsoft told us that they are still trying to get the liveries released with the airplane today. (Worst case: next week, which is still pretty good!)

We are working with Microsoft on some special pricing for the liveries release, and if we succeed in putting that together- you'll be able to scoop them up for a song.

For our Marketplace PC users, please don't forget that you can use the PMDG Operations Center (available for download from our site/downloads page!) to get liveries for free!

PMDG 737 Further Updates Coming:
While our primary development focus is on the 77F, we are preparing to put a new 737 build into testing that will add in a few more "freeze" fixes that have already been released in the 777 stream- and we think this should put that chapter to bed for nearly all cases that we have seen reported. We anticipate this update coming to you during the 3rd week of August after the testing program.

As 77F goes into beta testing, we anticipate moving the new navdata functionality for 737 into beta testing as well. This will have the new functionality and capabilities rolled out to 737 operators in September, we think. (big asterisk here...just in case 77F suddenly gets problematic or we discover problems in the 737 migration that require more effort...september is an estimate...)

One 77F goes into testing, our tablet dev effort will shift focus to bringing all of the new updates backward into the 737 as well. Those will roll out to you in pieces, as I have mentioned before. We 'll move through the change list item by item and then roll them through testing and to you as soon as they are ready, rather than waiting and giving you one grand update later on.

Once we have completed this process, 737 will officially move out of her Early Adopter phase... For those who were keeping track. Once that happens, the pricing will adjust upward- so if you are on the fence with 737, I'd dive in before we get the navdata and tablet released! 


PMDG Birthday!
07AUG24 marks 27 years that PMDG has been an operating entity! To celebrate, we are going to run a birthday sale for three days only beginning at midnight UTC and running through Friday/Saturday/Sunday! As is our tradition, you will get 27% off any of our products except 777in celebration of our long term success as a developer in the simming community. What have we done during this period of time?

- 62 product releases
- 1300+ product updates
- 700+ free liveries for PMDG customers
- $650,000+ loyalty bonuses given to our 737 customers

Nobody knows how many millions of flight hours customers have enjoyed in our products, but we continue to be amazed by the enthusiasm and support you provide to us and our work. Thank you- and Happy Birthday PMDG!

PMDG 777F Development is Nearing Beta Testing:
Freight Dogs Rejoice! The 77F is nearing the end of development and is being prepared to enter into beta testing. Much like we did with 77W, we have packed this new airplane full of features to bring you a feature rich simulation experience for one of the worlds most capable freight haulers! She is fresh out of the paint shop and ready for the test flight program, so start studying the arrival and departure procedures to the world's leading cargo hubs- because 77F is nearly ready to enter service!

For those that stuck around to read the credits at the end: Keep paying attention and you might just see something you didn't expect to see about a project you didn't know anything about. 

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by Alaska738

Is that 747 scenery or...?

What’s that green thing in the far background?

 

52 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Is that 747 scenery or...?

looking to far into it...

 

PMDG has been using the Paine field scenery a lot. It's the empty position from this screenshot;

https://secure.simmarket.com/drzewiecki-design-kpae-paine-field-msfs.phtml

55 minutes ago, Tuskin38 said:

Is that 747 scenery or...?

I think that’s scenery. Right about now RR is basking himself with the curiosity he planted of others. Makes you wonder why does he enjoy doing this so much? 

When I fly in online close, since many months, the other online PMDGS 777s 737s always have the landing gears out all the time and phases, nobody more have this bug?, no other aircrafts have this issue. And close to a 777 in the ground is then the worst framerate of all and very noticeable. No mentions of this in notes never?. In VR always, if that important and different?.

1 hour ago, Alaska738 said:

you will get 27% off any of our products except 777

Soo.seeing as the ONLY product other than the 777 for sale on their site is the....737, THAT's the sale. Except..it's not live at the moment. Only a $5 off on a couple versions.

How nice it would be to celebrate by offering their customers what they have asked for, a sale on P3d planes! 

Once again you can buy ANY of their planes for 27% off, any being the 736/7/8/9 for MSFS. 

44 minutes ago, bigifooti said:

looking to far into it...

 

PMDG has been using the Paine field scenery a lot. It's the empty position from this screenshot;

Thanks

  

2 minutes ago, sloppysmusic said:

Soo.seeing as the ONLY product other than the 777 for sale on their site is the....737, THAT's the sale. Except..it's not live at the moment. Only a $5 off on a couple versions.

How nice it would be to celebrate by offering their customers what they have asked for, a sale on P3d planes! 

Once again you can buy ANY of their planes for 27% off, any being the 736/7/8/9 for MSFS. 

Also most their products are always listed as being discounted for some reason, even outside of sales.

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by Tuskin38

So presumably, this will be RF legs in the 737 when that patch comes out?

$650,000 in loyalty to 737 customers?  I’m guessing that is referring to the $99 credit for those who bought the ngxu?

Edited August 8, 20241 yr by okupton

1 hour ago, mspencer said:

So presumably, this will be RF legs in the 737 when that patch comes out?

Yes.

28 minutes ago, okupton said:

$650,000 in loyalty to 737 customers?  I’m guessing that is referring to the $99 credit for those who bought the ngxu?

Yes, I think so. I am not sure why they make it sound like they were doing us (those who bought the 737Nxu in the dying days of P3D) a favor.  Had they not said they would give us a credit in MSFS I would never have bought that plane and I suspect many, many others would not have either.

I'm kinda thinking the "un-spoken of" project has to do with ground crew. Maybe ground services, mx, or something like that. If you look at the screenshot from the DD KPAE scenery, there's no dude in a blue shirt - but in the PMDG image, there's one in the shot. I'd imagine that given GSX just released the passengers in seats, they wouldn't want to step on their toes...but I've got a feeling it's something to do with ground crew.

It will be a classic airliner but not a 747-400.
I reckon a 747-200 maybe, or something else entirely.

Source: In one of V1's streams for the 727, Robert Randazzo showed up in the comments saying to the effect of "If you like dino-jets like the 727, wait until we announce something very soon."

2 hours ago, Georgleboui said:

It will be a classic airliner but not a 747-400.
I reckon a 747-200 maybe, or something else entirely.

Source: In one of V1's streams for the 727, Robert Randazzo showed up in the comments saying to the effect of "If you like dino-jets like the 727, wait until we announce something very soon."

Can confirm..that's what RSR said!!

I thought his presence on the chat sort of endorsed FSS's B727 release while also being quite telling that PMDG are not thinking about a B727. "if you like dino-jet's like the B727 pretty well rules the B727 out as their next project.    

So....😏

A B707 perhaps? AH's 707-320C has been delayed I presume because it's just not ready for public release..or did it get captured by something/someone else? 

Then there is the Boeing Douglas crossover B717. Not particularly dino or necessarily charismatic or atmospheric aircraft so I dont think this would add kudos to the PMDG fleet. Although a C-135 or C-135K Stratotanker (I know they do commercial, not military) are more 'dino' and were designated by boeing as 717-100's.    

If we go to military (because who knows?), we could look at the B-17. After the war, these were used in research and development, weather reconnaissance, search and rescue and fire bombing. Let me see...? wouldn't it be good if MS2024 had some ...ohhh I don't know...search and rescue and fire fighting missions that such an aircraft could be used in?     

Cheers

Terry