The timeline on this is interesting, and is fun to read some tea leaves on.

The original embargo date was 11/29, but got pushed to 12/1. Either they had some last minute issues, or realized dropping the embargo on the Thanksgiving long weekend wasn't a good idea.

So, on Monday the previews come out to a mostly muted response. Given how much people love to pile on PMDG this is to be expected. Chewy noted on a stream the communication they got as part of the release was they were shooting for a Thursday (12/4) release. That didn't happen. CptCanada streamed the heck out of it, but I didn't really catch much of it and I have no idea how chat was. I did hear it was kinda spicy at times. But his chat is like that. I often joke if I had to deal with his chat, I'd be stoned all flight too.

Thursday comes and goes and no word salad from RSR. Matthijs posted that "we are still working on the exterior model, but we felt it was good enough to let the streamers have it." Now, I am I in the camp if it is good enough for steamers to make money on, it's good enough to release to the general public. However, as we see if the where-is-it-now "soon" on the 777 sounds, the general public would have reacted poorly to "new models soon."

My guess it they intended to release last week, but the muted response set them back. There was a general vibe of "you want to charge money for THIS?" while also fighting a public perception battle where the Fenix and JustFlight offered free updates.

Edit: I also think PMDG doesn't do long preview periods. The exception to this is the 777-300ER. But that period fell during Expo so they gave extra time for creators who travelled to the event.

Edited December 9, 2025Dec 9 by BrammyH

3 hours ago, BrammyH said:

My guess it they intended to release last week, but the muted response set them back. There was a general vibe of "you want to charge money for THIS?" while also fighting a public perception battle where the Fenix and JustFlight offered free updates

Pretty much. PMDG forgot they don’t exist in a vacuum anymore. 

I reckon the plane will come just before Christmas...... and the EFB will follow next Easter 😄

4 hours ago, JYW said:

I reckon the plane will come just before Christmas...... and the EFB will follow next Easter 😄

Still waiting for the 777 sounds that were so close to release 😄. Thank goodness for the Boris Sounds. 

Edited December 9, 2025Dec 9 by Wise87

 

I wasn’t expecting a miracle. A 737 is a 737. All I really wanted was a functioning transponder, especially since most of this already worked perfectly well in ‘24.

It’ll be interesting to see if they even manage a 2025 release. Mathijs is currently explaining the gap between the streamer version and the public release, apparently because of the Asian market. Presumably it takes four weeks for YouTube to load over there. Even if that were remotely true, it’s hard to see why this strategy was necessary for yet another 737.

It sounds less like a he’s marketing guru and more like something invented after the fact to justify the delay.

Still, maybe by Monday we’ll get a release date and a sub $20 price tag and all will be well. I’m not holding my breath.

17 minutes ago, MikeV1 said:

it takes four weeks for YouTube to load

Same in rural Germany.
Lived there few years ago, I'm not joking.

1 hour ago, MikeV1 said:

Mathijs is currently explaining the gap between the streamer version and the public release, apparently because of the Asian market. Presumably it takes four weeks for YouTube to load over there.

Mathijs and RSR really match up. It just had to happen.

3 hours ago, NovemberUniform said:

Mathijs and RSR really match up. It just had to happen.

I completely ignore anything they say now. Whenever they release, I’ll evaluate it then. 

To add more drama to this release: A YouTuber leaked a beta build to a pirate, so now it's out on the web for anyone to grab. Not ideal for PMDG. 

I’m trying to understand, is PMDG delaying release of something that’s otherwise ready to go due to a combination of people not giving a glowing reception to pre-release streams and because it takes 4 weeks to upload YouTube videos in Asia?

That might also be the strangest sentence I’ve ever typed on these forums.

Have PMDG accidently slipped into the Stranger Things addon, this all seems rather weird?

23 minutes ago, chapstick said:

To add more drama to this release: A YouTuber leaked a beta build to a pirate, so now it's out on the web for anyone to grab. Not ideal for PMDG. 

I've seen mention on their forums of people having their PMDG accounts just shut down due to copies that "fell of the back of a truck." OC3 now handles the authentication so a lot of people could be finding out.

30 minutes ago, chapstick said:

To add more drama to this release: A YouTuber leaked a beta build to a pirate, so now it's out on the web for anyone to grab. Not ideal for PMDG. 

Wow, what a moron....

I really love their products, but their business strategies and communication are like a low-budget drama series. 

Cheers, Pete