12 minutes ago, Johnny19 said:

Wow, what a moron....

Agree. With Flight Simulation being a bit of a niche hobby pirate's are ultimately hurting our very hobby we love.  

1 hour ago, BrammyH said:

OC3 now handles the authentication so a lot of people could be finding out.

OC3 just authenticates your access to download the products, the DRM on the product themselves hasn’t really changed

Maybe this will hold everyone until PMDG releases their 2024 product.
 

 

What the heck is that AI generated thumbnail? Are people really too lazy these days to find a real image?

Edited December 13, 2025Dec 13 by Tuskin38

2 hours ago, Amon1973 said:

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

Starring William Shatner as RSR and Mathjis as "the gremlin..."

 

If PMDG would only save face by announcing what the community wants.  Instead its how dare we want something different over what they are making and criticize them for it.

8 hours 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. 

so who was  the utuber who leaked it or is it for your eyes only 🙂

12 hours ago, pete_auau said:

so who was  the utuber who leaked it or is it for your eyes only 🙂

Who knows. But now people's PMDG accounts are getting banned.

40 minutes ago, chapstick said:

Who knows. But now people's PMDG accounts are getting banned.

Yeah, this is what I referred to earlier. A few months ago someone posted on the forums "My account was suspended without reason!" and Mathijs responded "You know what you did."

They routinely look for people in Discord who are members of piracy Discords and ban them from the PMDG one. Which made me think the reason PMDG accounts are getting banned is OC3 detected the presence of an unauthorized product.

30 minutes ago, BrammyH said:

Yeah, this is what I referred to earlier. A few months ago someone posted on the forums "My account was suspended without reason!" and Mathijs responded "You know what you did."

They routinely look for people in Discord who are members of piracy Discords and ban them from the PMDG one. Which made me think the reason PMDG accounts are getting banned is OC3 detected the presence of an unauthorized product.

I wonder how legal that is. Denying service just because someone tried out a pirated version? And these are customers and can no longer use the other planes they paid for? Or just not buy new planes?

Ah well, it's not like it's hard to find their planes on the pirate sites. All this will do is turn formerly paying customers into 100% pirates going forward.

21 minutes ago, JonathanC said:

I wonder how legal that is. Denying service just because someone tried out a pirated version? And these are customers and can no longer use the other planes they paid for? Or just not buy new planes?

MK posted this on the Discord: "and all I have to say is that you have to contact support if your account is blocked so we can find out why it is. If it is because of piracy we will need to find a way together to get out of that problem."

 

1 minute ago, BrammyH said:

MK posted this on the Discord: "and all I have to say is that you have to contact support if your account is blocked so we can find out why it is. If it is because of piracy we will need to find a way together to get out of that problem."

 

I know exactly how PMDG will handle that.   Pay for the addon when released, or your account remains blocked for using the pirated version.

However as someone who has genuinely never explored pirated software products, I can't say I have much sympathy for those that installed the pirate version.   If anyone is wrongly accused that is a different matter.

23 hours ago, PilotPete99 said:

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

Cheers, Pete

Yep, I live almost exclusively on their products, and the only reason I fly the Ifly 737 is because the PMDG isn't out yet for 2024.  What a load of time that is taking!  And yes, wonderful products, very strange, bizarre company.  

On 12/13/2025 at 11:57 AM, MikeV1 said:

I wasn’t expecting a miracle. A 737 is a 737.

People keep saying that, but part of the truth is also that Fenix pulled off something close to a miracle with the BFU in 2024. It feels, looks, and sounds like a completely different airplane compared to before the update. For free.

I’m not expecting every developer to match Fenix’s level of dedication and talent, but let’s also not pretend that better things aren’t possible.

9 hours ago, JYW said:

I know exactly how PMDG will handle that.   Pay for the addon when released, or your account remains blocked for using the pirated version.

However as someone who has genuinely never explored pirated software products, I can't say I have much sympathy for those that installed the pirate version.   If anyone is wrongly accused that is a different matter.

I'm not endorsing piracy. BUT at the same time, let us say someone has legitimately purchased all the PMDG stuff for 2020/2024 (so hundreds of dollars), and then out of sheer boredom/frustration/curiosity/malicious intent/whatever, downloads this thing and tries it. At this point, should a company be allowed to take away the legitimately paid stuff and deny a customer the product they actually paid for? 

Note that this is not an "opinion" based question.

This is either legal, or it is not. It depends on jurisdictional law (US vs EU are different, etc.), ToS (does PMDG's ToS say that you agree to losing all purchased products if they ever detect you using a pirated version?) and various other factors. At a first read, this does not seem legal, but I'm not a lawyer (though I may or may not be married to one... ).

Oh well, it was an idle thought, I really don't care to discuss it further. Good luck to those who may have run into this (and if you have, and you're really angry.. maybe look into consumer law wherever you live)