Update, January 18th – Stay tuned for further news later this week! According to PMDG, something “good” is about to be revealed. Maybe the pending issues are finally left behind?
Another week, another PMDG update. After the previous showcase of the GPWS functionality in the upcoming Boeing 737 for MSFS, this week, PMDG’s boss Robert Randazzo discusses the pricing plans for the product and talks a bit about the -700 variant of the aircraft.
As usual speaking in PMDG’s forum, Randazzo showed two new images of the 737, depicting the -700 variant of the aircraft in its cargo and business configurations. Not much to see here, as these are two generic external shots of the aircraft not unlike those we’ve seen before. Worth noting is that the Boeing 737-700 is actually going to be the first model to be released on MSFS by PMDG, to be followed by other airframes.
This may come as a disappointment to many of those looking to get their hands on the PMDG 737, since the -800 variant is a much more popular variant and surely the one most people have been looking for. For some reason (since clarified, read more below), PMDG is going with the -700 first, with a gap of around 6 weeks until the -800 is released.
PMDG is changing up the product release strategy with the 737 for MSFS. While previously the company would sell a base package and then provide expansion packs with different airframes, now they will offer single packages for each variant, in an effort to provide users with more affordable purchasing options when looking to get just one particular variant.
The thing is (opinionated section ahead!), PMDG appears to be immediately inverting this logic by selling the -700 first. Maybe they are betting that folks will eagerly get that first variant just to be able to fly *a* 737, even if the most desired model would be the -800, to then make the planned purchase of that longer variant once it becomes available some 6 weeks later. Surely, if the -800 variant was the first to come out, subsequent purchases would be significantly fewer… And the final lineup hasn’t been established yet, so we’re really not sure if the -800 will be the second to come out or not, although Randazzo says that those are the team’s intentions… and there’s even a very remote possibility for the -800 to come out first if the -700 gets hung up for some reason. The -600 and -900 variants are also planned.
That said, Randazzo did point out that starting with the -700 would provide a more solid foundation to build subsequent variants, both in terms of system logic and options packages. Going from the -800 to the -700 would mean moving backward on a series of tasks, to then jump ahead again for the longer models, in a very inefficient ordeal. So, it appears there’s some good reasoning behind this planned rollout.
In any case, in practice, if you want the -800 then you’ll be able to buy just that and save some serious money when compared to previous releases of the PMDG 737 on other platforms. As for exact pricing… no news yet, but hopefully we will have more details on that front soon.
Existing owners of the PMDG 737NGXu for P3D are in luck, because the promise PMDG made a few years back still stands: full credit on that purchase will be transferred to your purchase decision in MSFS, as long as you buy the aircraft through PMDG’s store.
In related news, the problem that was reported before that was stalling the release of the 737 is still waiting to be fixed by Asobo. After nearly 100 days of waiting, PMDG still hasn’t heard from Asobo regarding this issue, which continues to prevent some (undisclosed) key functionality to be implemented in the aircraft.
To learn more about the latest developments concerning the PMDG 737 for MSFS, see below our previous coverage on this subject.
Editor’s note, January 18th – Added some clarification from PMDG regarding the reasoning for the -700 release in the first place.
