Captains,
If you have been hanging around the PMDG forum for the past 22 years, you are likely aware that we operate on a continually updating five-year development plan. Each year, the plan is updated in January and July to reflect what we know of marketplace trends, our forward progress on existing projects, staffing levels, budget requirements, licensing costs and lots of other really boring business details that I won’t burden you with because we actually enjoy your company. 😊
The modifications we make to this plan rarely include seismic changes. A couple lines of text. We tweak the deliverable schedules, adjust expectations and continue on.
This year was a bit different. Our mid-year update in 2019 was not a course adjustment, it was a course deviation. Actually, it was probably more along the lines of being re-dispatched to a new destination while already enroute. A sunny, warm destination when all you packed for this segment was your cold weather gear...
In other words- our mid-year update was a big change this time around.
Many of you have probably guessed that this took place quietly in the back offices at PMDG HQ but we have been keeping the details to ourselves because we felt it would be better to wait until the details finally gelled- because then the changes would make more sense to you as part of a "bigger picture" view of the simming world in which PMDG exists.
So here is what you can expect from PMDG moving forward:
Quick, Boring, Corporatized Summary: For the past seven years, PMDG has been focused on trying to drive our products onto multiple platforms in order to increase our market reach. This has caused a slowdown in productivity, reducing the number of new titles that we can bring to market. Our goal for the next five years is to simplify our development process, improve time-to-market for new products and free up development resources to allow us to continue innovating interesting new ideas and technologies.
Yeah. That is the sort of corporate-speak that generally makes me want to reach for the vomit bag…
I included it here because it might help you to see the pattern in the detail breakout below.
Preparing for Microsoft Flight Simulator: It won’t come as a surprise to learn that we are pivoting our entire development process in order to include this exciting new platform. I’m not going to focus too much on this process for today’s announcement as we have a bunch of information to share on this topic at a future date- but suffice-to-say that most of what you will read below is a cascade effect of our strategic realignment to support this new platform. We do anticipate bringing the 737, 747, 777 and DC-6 product lines into Microsoft Flight Simulator and we will share more details on that in the near future.
End of Development for all 32bit platforms: We have previously announced that we will no longer develop products for FSX, FSX-Steam Edition or Prepar3D v3. We are expanding this stop order to include future product updates. Effective immediately there will be no planned updates to any of our 32bit offerings, and we are actively evaluating the End-of-Life process for all FSX, FSX-Steam Edition and Prepar3D v3 titles. Shortly we will announce an End-of-Life date for product sales of 32bit versions that is estimated to be within the next 6 months. We will continue to offer technical support for existing customers well after these products are removed from sale, however and anyone who has purchased them will still have full access to them within their PMDG purchase history at pmdg.com. Summary: If you own these products it won't impact you. We are simply going to end new sales in the near future.
End of Development for Xplane platforms: For some time we have been watching market metrics with the Xplane platform and evaluating our own development schedule in order to find a gap into which we can slide a dedicated Xplane development cycle. As part of our strategic objective to simplify our development agenda, we are pivoting to dedicate all of our development resources to our Prepar3D v4 product lines and to our upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator product lines. Effective immediately, we are no longer evaluating an Xplane development cycle at any point in the current five year window, nor do we see any active XPlane development time being allocated at PMDG.
Preparing PMDG Global Flight Operations for Phased Release: We are preparing to move PMDG Global Flight Operations from the development process to a more active testing environment. Development to date has been focused on the development of all the protocol necessary to support the PPMDG Global Flight Operations simulation environment as a framework for data interchange between simulation products, <yawn!> and we feel that the core structure is now robust and ready to be put to work.
We have selected a number of folks from this forum who will be invited to begin participating in a limited access, private test run of Global Flight Operations in order to help us find any remaining corners that need to be tucked in before we begin the phased rollout of PMDG Global Flight Operations functionality to our wider customer base. (P.S.: We know many of you are excited to offer your services to us for testing- but please understand that we do not accept active solicitations to our test teams, so please do not reach out to offer your services. We chose a batch of users from this forum based upon their general knowledge, personal demeanor, mature enthusiasm and history of engagement here in the PMDG forum…)
We will have a wide-testing regime that will be open to the public and details will be posted here in the PMDG forum at a later date.
Initial rollout will include key basic features, and then we will begin turning on dozens of advanced features once we have built some confidence that this entirely new, ground-breaking simulation environment is supporting our usage expectations. Stay tuned for this- there are exciting times ahead!
PMDG 737NG3 Product Realignment: The previously announced PMDG 737NG3 product line is being realigned in order to support the new Microsoft Flight Simulator platform. PMDG 737NG3 will now be released as an MSFS-only product in order to allow us to capitalize on bringing forth the very best that the new simulation platform has to offer without having to saddle the development team with external compatibility concerns.
The PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator will include the entire 737NG and MAX product lines in a mix of base package and expansion packages similar to our existing product inventory. The mix of aircraft across these packages will vary from previous offerings. Pricing will be in line with existing product offerings.
We will have lots more information to share on NG3 and the development process, to include a development and release timeline in a future update dedicated to this exciting new product line but we do want to be clear that PMDG 737NG3 is now aligned to be released only in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Okay- I had a few more things to share, but this seems like quite a bit to digest for now- so I think we will cap it right here. I had one more item to share with you but in all of this typing and editing I appear to have lost my train of thought. (This is the problem with storing all this stuff up!)
More coffee, and then we will see if I can recall what the last detail was.
If you have been hanging around the PMDG forum for the past 22 years, you are likely aware that we operate on a continually updating five-year development plan. Each year, the plan is updated in January and July to reflect what we know of marketplace trends, our forward progress on existing projects, staffing levels, budget requirements, licensing costs and lots of other really boring business details that I won’t burden you with because we actually enjoy your company. 😊
The modifications we make to this plan rarely include seismic changes. A couple lines of text. We tweak the deliverable schedules, adjust expectations and continue on.
This year was a bit different. Our mid-year update in 2019 was not a course adjustment, it was a course deviation. Actually, it was probably more along the lines of being re-dispatched to a new destination while already enroute. A sunny, warm destination when all you packed for this segment was your cold weather gear...
In other words- our mid-year update was a big change this time around.
Many of you have probably guessed that this took place quietly in the back offices at PMDG HQ but we have been keeping the details to ourselves because we felt it would be better to wait until the details finally gelled- because then the changes would make more sense to you as part of a "bigger picture" view of the simming world in which PMDG exists.
So here is what you can expect from PMDG moving forward:
Quick, Boring, Corporatized Summary: For the past seven years, PMDG has been focused on trying to drive our products onto multiple platforms in order to increase our market reach. This has caused a slowdown in productivity, reducing the number of new titles that we can bring to market. Our goal for the next five years is to simplify our development process, improve time-to-market for new products and free up development resources to allow us to continue innovating interesting new ideas and technologies.
Yeah. That is the sort of corporate-speak that generally makes me want to reach for the vomit bag…
I included it here because it might help you to see the pattern in the detail breakout below.Preparing for Microsoft Flight Simulator: It won’t come as a surprise to learn that we are pivoting our entire development process in order to include this exciting new platform. I’m not going to focus too much on this process for today’s announcement as we have a bunch of information to share on this topic at a future date- but suffice-to-say that most of what you will read below is a cascade effect of our strategic realignment to support this new platform. We do anticipate bringing the 737, 747, 777 and DC-6 product lines into Microsoft Flight Simulator and we will share more details on that in the near future.
End of Development for all 32bit platforms: We have previously announced that we will no longer develop products for FSX, FSX-Steam Edition or Prepar3D v3. We are expanding this stop order to include future product updates. Effective immediately there will be no planned updates to any of our 32bit offerings, and we are actively evaluating the End-of-Life process for all FSX, FSX-Steam Edition and Prepar3D v3 titles. Shortly we will announce an End-of-Life date for product sales of 32bit versions that is estimated to be within the next 6 months. We will continue to offer technical support for existing customers well after these products are removed from sale, however and anyone who has purchased them will still have full access to them within their PMDG purchase history at pmdg.com. Summary: If you own these products it won't impact you. We are simply going to end new sales in the near future.
End of Development for Xplane platforms: For some time we have been watching market metrics with the Xplane platform and evaluating our own development schedule in order to find a gap into which we can slide a dedicated Xplane development cycle. As part of our strategic objective to simplify our development agenda, we are pivoting to dedicate all of our development resources to our Prepar3D v4 product lines and to our upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator product lines. Effective immediately, we are no longer evaluating an Xplane development cycle at any point in the current five year window, nor do we see any active XPlane development time being allocated at PMDG.
Preparing PMDG Global Flight Operations for Phased Release: We are preparing to move PMDG Global Flight Operations from the development process to a more active testing environment. Development to date has been focused on the development of all the protocol necessary to support the PPMDG Global Flight Operations simulation environment as a framework for data interchange between simulation products, <yawn!> and we feel that the core structure is now robust and ready to be put to work.
We have selected a number of folks from this forum who will be invited to begin participating in a limited access, private test run of Global Flight Operations in order to help us find any remaining corners that need to be tucked in before we begin the phased rollout of PMDG Global Flight Operations functionality to our wider customer base. (P.S.: We know many of you are excited to offer your services to us for testing- but please understand that we do not accept active solicitations to our test teams, so please do not reach out to offer your services. We chose a batch of users from this forum based upon their general knowledge, personal demeanor, mature enthusiasm and history of engagement here in the PMDG forum…)
We will have a wide-testing regime that will be open to the public and details will be posted here in the PMDG forum at a later date.
Initial rollout will include key basic features, and then we will begin turning on dozens of advanced features once we have built some confidence that this entirely new, ground-breaking simulation environment is supporting our usage expectations. Stay tuned for this- there are exciting times ahead!
PMDG 737NG3 Product Realignment: The previously announced PMDG 737NG3 product line is being realigned in order to support the new Microsoft Flight Simulator platform. PMDG 737NG3 will now be released as an MSFS-only product in order to allow us to capitalize on bringing forth the very best that the new simulation platform has to offer without having to saddle the development team with external compatibility concerns.
The PMDG 737NG3 for Microsoft Flight Simulator will include the entire 737NG and MAX product lines in a mix of base package and expansion packages similar to our existing product inventory. The mix of aircraft across these packages will vary from previous offerings. Pricing will be in line with existing product offerings.
We will have lots more information to share on NG3 and the development process, to include a development and release timeline in a future update dedicated to this exciting new product line but we do want to be clear that PMDG 737NG3 is now aligned to be released only in Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Okay- I had a few more things to share, but this seems like quite a bit to digest for now- so I think we will cap it right here. I had one more item to share with you but in all of this typing and editing I appear to have lost my train of thought. (This is the problem with storing all this stuff up!)
More coffee, and then we will see if I can recall what the last detail was.
Danny Z.Cebis
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