PMDG doesn’t do sales very often, which is why the annual birthday discount tends to be circled on a lot of calendars. This year it’s 29% off everything bought directly at PMDG.com, running until 2359Z on Monday, 10 August 2026. That’s the main news, but there’s also a note at the bottom of Robert Randazzo’s anniversary message where he mentions the team is working on the “ultimate 747 fleet simulation” and getting the aircraft ready for beta testing.
That single sentence is a new public signal of where the 747 programme actually stands. Back in June, when we covered PMDG’s hunt for the WASM crashes affecting the 737 and DC-6, Randazzo confirmed the 747 had entered alpha now that the 777, 737 and DC-6 had all made the move to MSFS 2024.
Two months later, the wording has shifted from alpha to preparing for beta. PMDG has never been in the habit of publishing dates, and nothing here counts as a release window, but the direction of travel is clear enough.
What the sale covers
The 29% applies to purchases made at PMDG.com. Marketplace buyers are not included, which is the usual arrangement for these anniversary sales.
If you already own an older version of a product and qualify for an upgrade loyalty discount, PMDG says you’ll receive whichever is larger, the loyalty discount or the 29% birthday price. To get that, you need to be logged into your existing PMDG account before you start adding items to the cart. Log in first, then shop.
The catalogue on offer is in a considerably better state than it was twelve months ago, when the company ran its 28th birthday sale at 28% off. Since then the 737 Next Generation family has been rebuilt for MSFS 2024, with the 737-900 arriving in February after the -800 landed in December, and the DC-6 finally received its MSFS 2024 compatibility update in May after a long wait. If you held off buying into the PMDG lineup while the 2024 conversions were still in progress, this is the first birthday sale where that argument no longer really applies.
Twenty-nine years, and it started with a book
The anniversary note itself is worth reading, because Randazzo used it to retrace how the company came about. It’s a great story and one that we’ve heard several times.
There was no software at first. In August 1997, Randazzo posted in a simulation forum that he was writing a book to teach simmers how to fly and operate the 747-400. He was still paying down credit card debt from his pilot’s licence, and by his own account he needed to sell exactly 50 copies of the manual to clear the card and continue his training. He printed, assembled and shipped the manuals himself.
The company name came from a complaint. Randazzo says someone in a simming group remarked that buying something “written by one dude on the internet” seemed a bit sketchy, so he appended the word “Group” to the already published name Precision Manuals Development. That’s the whole story behind the G in PMDG.
The switch to software development came in 1999, and Randazzo says the team has released close to 75 product titles since. The company also came within a conversation of not existing at all. By 2002 he had been promoted to a chief pilot role at his airline, PMDG had started getting in the way of real flying, and he was making noise about shutting it down. Vin Scimone, who has just marked 25 years with the company, suggested one more project: a 737 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000. Randazzo describes his own reaction to the idea as thinking it was terrible. His mother, meanwhile, gave him the speech about sticking with things because you never know what might happen. He listened to her, the 737 went ahead, and here we are.
Randazzo notes the current team includes people who have been there more than 25 years, others approaching 20, 10 and five, and two second-generation PMDG developers. For a hobby where studios routinely appear and vanish inside a single sim generation, a long history such as PMDG’s is certainly a rarity.
The 30th year
Randazzo signs off by saying the 30th year as an add-on developer looks like it’s going to be a good one, with features from the 747 to share as the aircraft moves toward beta. Given that PMDG has said the 747 series will be exclusive to MSFS 2024 and will eventually span the -100, -200, -400, the SP and later variants, the next twelve months could be the busiest stretch the studio has had in years.
For now, though, it’s time to enjoy the sale. It ends at 2359Z on Monday, 10 August, and it’s at PMDG.com. Log into your account first if you’re upgrading anything.
