1 hour ago, Farlis said:

Let's face it the 787 would have been a better choice. 

I tend to agree, but that may be just reflecting my preference; I have absolutely no interest in a 74-1, but I suppose PMDG believes the market is large enough to justify the investment of resources, so it is their choice.

 

23 minutes ago, EGLD said:

who are the freeware developers "smoking" PMDG??

Yea, that seems a little strong. FBW has done great work but I would not categorize their aircraft at the same level as PMDG's 777. That said, I have also become disappointed in PMDG's offerings; they are certainly no longer on my "must buy" or "purchase without much research" categories. And their history of charging full price for updates...

3 hours ago, Cognita said:

I have absolutely no interest in a 74-1, but I suppose PMDG believes the market is large enough to justify the investment of resources, so it is their choice.

I'm speculating a bit here but aren't they a very small privately owned company that has been around for almost 30 years now?

How old is Robert Randazzo? How long does he want to continue before he retires. And isn't it likely that the company will then be simply disolved instead of being sold?

Considering how small it is, this would probably be in the realm of possibility. 

Maybe they are as a company slowly approaching those final years and at this point marketability is not the main concern any longer, but personal passion and connections to aviation history become more important to them at this point?

In this case considering how they started as a company the 747-100 is a very obvious choice for a project.

Edited November 2, 20241 yr by Farlis

1 hour ago, Farlis said:

Maybe they are as a company slowly approaching those final years and at this point marketability is not the main concern any longer, but personal passion and connections to aviation history become more important to them at this point?

Yea, good points. Robert has always talked very fondly of the 747s and maybe this is his passion project. I could not agree more that not everything is driven by market conditions.

12 hours ago, Farlis said:

With the stress on "some". 

The same who bought - or would buy - the JustFlight Fokker F28, the Bae 146, the PMDG DC6, the Black Square analog planes, the B727, the upcoming Aero Dynamics DC10, the future FSLabs Concorde and so on. That's "some".

That often goes with age! (and the type of planes you have flown in the past IRL). It is far easier to get disorientated with analog gauges than with screens, the former require some mental work that the later don't . So it contributes to preserve "some" of your grey cells when the natural trend goes the opposite way.😅

Edited November 3, 20241 yr by Bernard Ducret

Hmmm. I'm not sure I buy PMDG's excuse for not delivering the B777F to MSFS 2020. I mean, the knowledge that MSFS 2024 was coming and a rough idea of when, suggested the 777F was always going to be near the transition yet they were still targeting October for release to 2020. 

I really don't understand their comment "better not to add a product to the active product line if it isn't entirely clear what the pathway forward looks like."  I mean, that didn't stop them  releasing the 777-300ER even though it was only some 4 months before they knew they had to transition it to MSFS2024 with even less knowledge of what that pathway forward looked like! Something just doesn't ring true.

The point is that it would appear they now have no intention of releasing the 777F for MSFS2020 so it will only be available in MS2024 and even then it will be well down their list as they transition their current released products first.  If it was going to be available in both versions, then why can't it be released in 2020 now? Surely they have done the work to achieve the deadlines of a  'mid October' release as they indicated all along? Perhaps because (despite what they say) it will never be available for 2020. Why would they build a new aircraft for an old sim? 

Yes, we understand that there are 'unknown' work requirements to transition to 2024 but why does that stop the product build for the 2020 version? Well, I suppose an obvious answer might be the reference to sales and marketing and the potential to extract a few more dollars for the product under the guise of MSFS 2024.   I have a gut feel there are lot of people hanging out for the 777F, and moving to the new sim may be the only way to get it but, at a higher price.

Well, whatever the true meaning of all this is, I for one am very disappointed and actually put off purchasing the MD11 in preference to the 777F. On top of all this, it now appears that some of us won't have the bandwidth requirements for the new sim and Jorg has suggested we may simply need to remain with 2020. So be it, but it looks like it will be sans the 777F. So again, I wonder what the real reason is that they can't release the 777F to us MSFS 2020 guys?    

Cheers

Terry

a port to 2024 with none of the new 2024 features, making it so it actually works in 2024, should be free.

But taking advantage of all the new 2024 features? That will take months of work, you expect them to work for free?

Edited November 3, 20241 yr by Tuskin38

3 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

a port to 2024 with none of the new 2024 features, making it so it actually works in 2024, should be free.

But taking advantage of all the new 2024 features? That will take months of work, you expect them to work for free?

Best answer so far imo. There is a level of precision with your answer that I respect. 

The decision about the 777F makes sense, what doesn't though, is why could not they not make this call a month ago, at a minimum.

Is it easier for PMDG and other developers that plan on releasing products to make a bird for 2024 and have it work "backwards compatible" than vice versa?  Will the 77F be able to be modified to use in 2020 or are they effectively stopping production for 2020 all together?