PMDG Issues Update on P3D Development

Rob Randazzo of PMDG issued the following statement regarding the release of PMDG products for P3D tonight. If you are a P3D owner, we encourage you to have read.

Captains,

We are in the home-stretch with our first release for P3D.  The first product release for P3D will be the PMDG 777-200LR/F and the PMDG 777-300ER products.

New 08JAN15 Information Condensed Here:

We are tying down a few licensing loose ends and we anticipate that both products will be in the hands of our testing team for final approval within a week or two.  Right now the **only** item we are waiting on is a module that we license from an outside vendor that must be updated to run properly in P3D.  Once we have that module, we will be booting the 777s out to the test team, then pushing them out to the user community.

I am going to refrain from putting a timeline on the release schedule, as I had thought the items we were waiting on would have been resolved some time ago- and that our major license partner would be the holdup- but they came through this week and we are essentially cleared for the release.

Some of the information is repetitive from previous updates, but is included below in the interest of completeness.  If I don't cover a particular topic in this thread, it likely means that we do not have specific information available or that we will make what information we do have available at a later date.

This thread will continue be updated from time-to-time as more information becomes available.

General Status:

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The following products are currently in development and are about to enter final testing pending release:

PMDG 777-200LR/F Base Package

PMDG 777-300ER Expansion

The following products are expected to be released during 1Q15 and/or early 2Q15:

PMDG BAe JetStream 4100

PMDG 737-800/900NG Base Package

PMDG 737-600/700 Expansion

PMDG 747-400v2.0 Base Package

(The order in which products are listed here does not reflect their release order or timeline...)

Release of new products being developed under the PMDG Classics product line are also under consideration for release as P3D titles.  PMDG does not intend to release any of our legacy products such as the PMDG MD-11 or PMDG 747-400X into the P3D platform.

Products that enter development following the PMDG 747-400 v2.0 will be considered on a case-by-case basis depending upon their marketability on the P3D platform.

Licensing and Use:

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Unlike products developed on the Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) platform, products on the P3D platform will be offered with a range of licensing options.  These options will initially include only a General Study, Education/Academic-STEM and Familiarization licensing model but will eventually expand to include licensing models to cover training, classroom training and training center/airline site license versions.

Customer Licensing for General and Personal Training licenses will be handled directly through PMDG's current eCommerce portal.  All other licensing options will be handled on customer-specific non-public portals.

Costs for licensing of P3D based products will vary based upon the license model chosen and the desired use.  This will enable PMDG customers to choose a range of cost options based upon their needs and license requirements, from Home Entertainment (using FSX) up through PMDG Certified Training Solutions customized for specific airline customers.

PRICING:

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Lockheed Martin's Prepar3D simulation platform is an enterprise platform with a range of licensing options.  PMDG's product lines will likewise offer a range of options but will generally be more expensive than products released on purely entertainment simulation platforms such as Microsoft Simulator.

Upon completion of approval/licensing from our licensing partners, PMDG anticipates offering licenses in the following categories:

Individual User Non-Professional/Non-Training

Professional User*

Corporate/Training Center*

Initially PMDG will offer only the Individual User Non-Professional/Non-Training license on P3D.  It is anticipated this license will fall in the sub $200 range.  This license tier will not require an annual support contract.

*Professional and Corporate/Training Center customers are encouraged to contact PMDG directly in order that we can recommend a licensing solution to minimize costs while providing the greatest level of flexibility.  Please note that these two license tiers will require the purchase of an annual support agreement.

TRAINING CENTER & AIRLINE CUSTOMIZATION:

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Training Centers and Airline customers will be able to purchase a general version of a PMDG product for P3D, or alternately PMDG can create a private version that tailors the aircraft equipment options to match the customer fleet.  This version can be made available only to designated crew members through a private portal.  (Please contact us directly via our site for more information on customization.)

Note: Training enabled licenses depend upon certification from Boeing and licensing by same.  This product line is not yet available.

LICENSE CONVERSION/DUAL USE:

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Customers who own a license to use a PMDG product on a platform other than P3D will not be able to convert the non-P3D license for use on P3D.  PMDG licensing is issued on a per-platform and per-product basis and this is not anticipated to change with the addition of new simulation platforms to the marketplace.

We are currently evaluating offering promotional pricing for users who wish to change platforms, but the details of this offer are still being evaluated and the program will be offered for a very limited period of time.

x64 UPDATES:

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It is anticipated that P3D will be offered in an x64 variation at some point in the future.  PMDG will be monitoring development of the x64 version of P3D in order to manage the process by which we begin offering x64 compatible versions of our products for P3D users.

Based on our knowledge of the process at this time, we anticipate that x64 upgrades will be made available to licensed users of PMDG products at no cost.  This information is subject to change pending the development, testing and release of an x64 version of P3D.

Okay- I think that covers the "officialese" sounding stuff...  (I'm sorry if it all sounds very dry, but I am trying to cover a broad range of topics as concisely as possible while maintaining reasonable expectations for those looking forward to these new product lines...)

I will be back to post more information and previews of the upcoming P3D releases as it becomes available!