Majestic Dash-8 Q400 to be developed for MSFS, waiting for SDK improvements

Well, that last point can be debated. Leonardo certainly have a great product. Their pricing and their choice to only sell via SimMarket are a couple of things I will never understand. On one hand, there is NO competition. No one has another MD-80. So, you get to set the price to what you want it to be. It can be smart, or dumb… The $90 price point is certainly steep. I would have set it at something like $70 and then charge $30 for the expansion, so that it’s $100. I think $100 for the entire lineup is reasonable. But the decision to only sell on SimMarket is puzzling. Why not Orbx and JustFlight? Those are nice fronts and I can’t imagine the cut SimMarket takes is much smaller than those others.

I get moving away from P3D. At the end of the day, Lockheed Martin have themselves to blame. Also, please don’t get me started with the “it’s not for simmers anyway, the military is happy and that’s the primary market” argument. Sure, they MAY be happy now and for the next couple of years. But look at a couple of pro-only sims coming out now. They look way better than P3D. Eventually even the miliary is going to get tired of the FSX mummy that is living under all the lipstick. There WILL be a higher fidelity sim for professional/military application and LM will get left behind because they are a dinosaur and have ZERO progressive thinking. They shot themselves in the foot with v6. All those updates could have been part of v5 and v6 SHOULD have been a homerun with a new engine. Instead, they managed to alienate just about everyone. That’s an achievement.

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I was reading through their FB posts last night, they had made a few update announcements for other products and the comments were filled with MSFS, no one really seemed interested in their P3D updates that were released.

The responses towed the line their previous ones had made.

I remain hopeful we see it one day, but if someone else comes to market with a similar quality one, I’ll jump on it.

Dying for classic Dash or Q4!

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NextGen Simulations have got the Dash 8 series planned for sometime in the future, but they’re working on the Saab 340 and 2000 first.

That’s where I’m at, the Majestic Q400 was a gem in P3D but I’m way past waiting for legacy devs to get going on MSFS. Honestly at this point I hope someone else jumps in with a decent one.

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NextGen Simulations isn’t really the caliber of a developer I am interested in. They are literally a step above VirtualCol (it’s his son!) :wink: I uninstalled their Embraer cause there are a ton of better turboprops to fly nowadays.

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tbh the quality of Q4XP on x-plane is good for me. dont know if majestics is better or not, dont have p3d.

I’m assured by an ( ex ) Q400 crew who’ve tried both for extended periods that the Majestic is the better one to fly, although I think the Q4XP suffers from some XP limitations ( apparently has a magical lack of yaw for one thing ) - but obviously the Q4XP wins graphically. I don’t have either so I have no first hand experience, but those guys are fairly fanatical simmers so I trust their judgement.

You know your jones’ing for one when you watch youtube streams of the Q4 while flying in MSFS :slight_smile:

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Majestic are now advertising for a 3d modeller for this on fsdeveloper so I guess they are starting to awaken from their slumber.

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Read on a blog that the q300 will pick up after the q400 is successfully ported over, is this still the case?

FSElite have posted an update, basically work continues and confirmation that Majestic are working on the aircraft for MSFS, however don’t expect anything before 2025.

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I’ve had a search in all the usual places so I’m pretty sure the answer is no new news, however as of February 2025 does anyone have an inkling of movement with this?

Correct, unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be a high priority for them. Hopefully someone else steps forward with a Q400 otherwise we may never get one for MSFS.

I feel at this point, it’s pretty much vapourware.

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After 4 years with basically no information (only speculation) we can pretty much say there is never going to be a Majestic FS version of the Dash 8-400. A pity because if there’s one turboprop I would like to have it’s this one.

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Some Dash-8 news here in german, but English translation:

Nordic Simulations gives up
February 5, 2025 |

Simmers who were hoping for one of the smaller Dash 8-100 to 300 and who had placed their hopes in Nordic Simulations must now be strong. Joshua Riyawong, head of Nordic Simulations, announced the end of the project today, but also left a small glimmer of hope.

In the end, the calls were in vain and the collaboration with Skyline Simulations also seemed to come to nothing. Riyawong has repeatedly tried to find fellow developers for his project, the Dash 8-100/200/300. However, there was little to no response and so Riyawong has now come to the conclusion that his limited time no longer allows him to move the project forward alone.

One man’s loss is another man’s gain
But this saying goes on. In the coming days, Nordic Simulations plans to publish its current development status in full. This way, interested developers can build on a “strong basis”.

Last but not least, Riyawong has something from the rumor mill: a “high-fidelity Dash project” is nearing completion and further information on this will probably be announced shortly. According to his own impressions, this should be in the direction of a Fenix ​​A320. Could this possibly be the long-awaited Majestic Dash 8-Q400 for the MSFS? We’ll see and report on it as soon as there is any news.

pure speculation that Majestics is behind that