Is Prepar3D an end of life sim?

[hervesors]

According to the recently published Navigraph FlightSim Community Survey (2024), only 1.9% of respondants (around 23,000 answers) reported that they (still) use Prepar3D (all versions) as their primary flight sim software. The figure was 4.6% in the 2023 survey. Does it suggest that P3D is almost an end of life sim, at least on the non-military side?  Are there any other statistics you know that could contradict this disappointing current state?

Regards

Hervé  

 

[ywg256]

Even I hate to admit it, but P3D at the moment is dead. By some miracle V7 maybe brings it back to life but that remains to be seen. With that said, I am still enjoying v5.4.

[Ray Proudfoot]

Hi Hervé,

A reduction is to be expected. We’re probably down to a hard core now who will still fly P3D even if they switch over to 2024 occasionally which might or might not be replaced by 2028.

I gave my reasons for sticking to P3D in this post and one of the reasons was your excellent service and utilities.

With so much 3rd party scenery available plus many excellent aircraft it’s far from dead for me.

Plus of course many P3D users may not have completed the survey. Given they’ve not gone into any detail about P3D it’s likely I’ll not bother in the future.

[simfan1983]

Yes probably, but it's still got the best aircraft and a working weather radar so I'm happy flying it. Most of the people using MSFS are gamers not simmers.

[Blasb]

I still fly p3dv5 as my main sim! Not really feeling an urge to switch as there are so many good addons (+ I have X-plane 12 for the addons that p3d doesn't have) 😁. Please also note that the survey isn't that representative (didn't like 20% of respondents claim they have 4090s). The numbers are hence likely worse considering XBOX players, etc.

I still see new scenery coming for P3D so I havent lost all hope but did suck a bit that p3dv6 never really got any developer support (as the sim looks even better than p3dv5).

[G-RFRY]

 LM will continue developing P3D for their own use they have no commercial pressure, it`s a product that supports their industry for training. It`s your choice if you want to use it.

[jymp]

20 minutes ago, G-RFRY said:

 LM will continue developing P3D for their own use they have no commercial pressure, it`s a product that supports their industry for training. It`s your choice if you want to use it.

Hopefully they develop a version 7 with the Unreal Engine ?, could breathe new life, LM isn't worried about pretty scenery though, but who knows.

[Bob Scott]

The loss of significant third-party add-on development due to the migration of developers to MSFS, and compatibility issues that prevent or complicate moving existing add-ons to v6 has definitely impacted P3D's viability going forward.

Some of us have built-up extensive configurations that are still quite usable, but there aren't many reasons I would recommend P3D to a flight simming newcomer.  There are still acft (e.g. 747-400, DHC-8-400) and geographical areas (e.g. Alaska, Africa) where MSFS leaves voids, and P3Dv5 or v4, as well as XPlane v12 and v11 are still workable flight sim alternatives for people located in places lacking sufficiently solid broadband connectivity to run MSFS reliably.  For general use, however, P3D's future looks more and more limited with each passing day. 

[Boomer]

1 hour ago, simfan1983 said:

Yes probably, but it's still got the best aircraft and a working weather radar so I'm happy flying it. Most of the people using MSFS are gamers not simmers.

Dunno about that...what killed p3d for me is no more pmdg in the latest version.

[BostonJeremy77]

If I had PMDG and FSLabs in v6, I would still be using P3D. (ALONG with XP and MSFS2024)

[Daube]

1 hour ago, simfan1983 said:

Yes probably, but it's still got the best aircraft and a working weather radar so I'm happy flying it. Most of the people using MSFS are gamers not simmers.

Thank you for not missing an opportunity to insult the msfs users.

[Ray Proudfoot]

With P3D everything is on my own computer. I wouldn’t be happy with everything streamed from remote servers. How can users tweak AFCADs to correct issues. Nothing is on your own computer is it?

[Reader]

FSX is far from dead and really, P3D is much the same thing in a fur coat.
There are some superb addons that only work in FSX, such as the Project Tupolev Tu 154
and for that alone it's worth keeping.
Surveys only report what the contibutors say and there must be thousands, if not tens of thousands,
of simulator users who don't contribute for myriad reasons, which makes it a niche survey of a small
part of a niche. 
Other simulators might do other things better but each one has its own benefits and
none of them are either dead, or dying, just no longer mainstream.

Edited April 19 by Reader

[Patco Lch]

19 minutes ago, Boomer said:

Dunno about that...what killed p3d for me is no more pmdg in the latest version.

That's a disappointment to be sure but those study level aircraft are still as immersive as they were the day they were released in P3DV5, and I see no reason to dive to another platform and buy them all again. The ones that are even available up to now in other platforms. They're just dang expensive for one thing.  

[DavidP]

16 minutes ago, Daube said:

Thank you for not missing an opportunity to insult the msfs users.

To be fair, it is probably true.

When you have the "gamey" aspects like careers etc. you are reaching into the gamer's world, and there would be a lot who would play the game to fly under bridges and get their kicks from flying "stunts".

I hope they keep maintaining the SDK to give developers what they need for the best fidelity for actually making and flying aircraft.