iFly planning to release the Boeing 737 MAX-8 for Microsoft Flight Simulator!
Here’s something we don’t hear every day: a new airliner is possibly in the works for MSFS! iFly, a popular third-party development team that found success in older platforms like FSX and P3D with their renditions of the Boeing 737 and 747, hinted a few weeks ago that the new 737 MAX, which they are developing for P3D, is planned to come to MSFS as well!
The news was shared a few weeks back in iFly’s official forums, stating that the iFly 737 MAX-8 will first come to P3D, as announced by the team earlier this year, and then to MSFS. Furthermore, the MAX-8 200 is also planned along the same lines, further down the line.
iFly reinstates that these are just “plans“, but it certainly seems like a no-brainer to put a highly successful new platform such as MSFS to good use, especially now that iFly is building the 737 MAX-8 as a completely new aircraft.
Note: all images seen in this article are from the P3D version!
Older simmers will probably remember the very popular iFly 737 for FSX, which provided an excellent airliner experience for those who couldn’t spend the high entry prices for the PMDG version back then. For many, it was the 737 simulation of choice, so it’s naturally great to hear that it’s being considered for the latest simulator from Microsoft.
For now, there’s not much else to know about iFly’s first entry for MSFS. The 737-MAX-8 is currently in development for P3D (we share here some WIP images about that model… definitely not as forward-looking as what is now possible in MSFS), and first it will have to be released on that platform before coming to MSFS. This may end up taking quite a long time…
In any case, a quality 737-MAX is very much in need for MSFS. We now have a decent assortment of high-quality airliners, but most are representative of older airplanes. The MAX, while heavily based on a decades-old airframe from Boeing, is equipped with many modern niceties, including a fancy new glass cockpit. Bring it on!
As a tease, see above some preview images of the in-development iFly 737 MAX-8 for P3D… and try to picture them in your head with the MSFS rendering engine. That’s more or less what we should get… if all goes well… way into the future!
TakeoffNoBlue
I’ll wait for PMDGs
Vasgr
I’m glad to see such professionalism. All modern airliners currently in operation should indeed be released for the Prepar3D platform as it is serious into the simulation, and NOT into gaming. Excellent choice to prioritize Prepar3D.
IFly and PMDG are very close in quality and simulation depth if I’m not mistaking.
Generally, iFly and PMDG have the same fleet. It is obvious to me that PMDG’s next airframe will be the 747 MAX!
Vasgr
737 Max **
David
My feeling is they will not come to MSFS
Kenny J
IFly is the REASON I went to PMDG. I was being cheap and couldn’t see myself spending $120 on a PMDG plane over the cheaper IFly 737. I hated that I had to set the plane up outside of the sim, in a application on the pc that sent that info to the sim on start up. IFly must have changed by now, but I’ll never know. Just know I HATED IT SO MUCH it MADE me spend $120.
chock2chock
In this day and age where the Boeing 737 is probably one of the most replicated Flight Sim airliner addon, with several options on different simulator platforms – with some very well known ones are actually free and of high fidelity, and PMDG being ubiquitous with the modern simulated 737, anything to break the PMDG hegemony is welcome. IFLY had a decent 737NG back during the final days of FSX , unfortunately it couldn’t compete with PMDG’s NGX which came out not long after, At the time the NGX seemed to be the better product, but the iFly had support home cockpit builders from the get-go, so there were definitely advantages to getting the Ifly product…. depending on who you asked. Come 2022, PMDG lives on reputation alone – there’s the “if it’s not PMDG I ain’t going” crowd which is large and loyal and unfortunately, PMDG knows it. PMDG’s MSFS 737 product though adequate, it is somewhat lackluster, lacks innovation and not necessarily any better than their P3D product. IFLY’s rendition will certainly be a welcome change – to what is promised by PMDG -a splash of orange in a decidedly blue and white future.