Except it’s not a part of the premium version. Well, it is, but you don’t have to get the premium version to get the 787, as it’s standard fare in all versions. I’ve never flown it and I have a tendency to avoid the default airliners like the plague, but I may in the short term future. It will likely frustrate the hell out of me because it’s not study level, but I don’t expect it to be, as that would be ridiculous.
But it’s one of 20(!) aircraft that come with the standard edition, and you expect to get 20 study level planes, plus the rest of the sim, for half the cost of one real study level airplane? That’s just preposterous. Oh, and there is a free mod available that at least brings it somewhat closer to “study level”, though I don’t know how complete the mod is. (I’m not saying it’s complete or not complete, I’m saying I literally don’t know. But even the developers themselves admit it’s not adding all that much yet.)
You are not wrong, but I for one have advocated keeping the base CJ4 and the WT CJ4 as two separate aircraft, so those who prefer the simplicity of the unmodified plane still have it available to them. Just the Navigraph integration alone sent me running to YouTube to make sure I knew how to use it properly, PLUS a Navigraph subscription. I don’t see YouTube kiddies being interested in Navigraph in the first place, much less being willing to pay for the subscription fees (or having much success explaining to their parents why such a thing is needed), nor do I see MS buying Navigraph and just giving away the subs for free, though I wouldn’t complain if they did. For that matter I’m not sure that Navigraph itself is even going to be XBox compatible.
Part of those fees goes to pay Jeppesen for the use of their data, and while I suppose it wouldn’t be that big of a challenge for MS to also just buy them, and another choice that I wouldn’t complain about, I have a hard time seeing it happen.
And though I’ve been a long time advocate of MS doing the same thing with the FBW folks, buying them and integrating their A32NX into the sim, I would make the same recommendation for the same reasons, and that is that the A32NX and the base A320 should remain separate aircraft, so those who prefer the simplicity of the A320 can still have that without the training involved in learning to fly the A32NX. That’s another one that will have Navigraph integration very soon as well.
Failing to do those things will have a negative impact on the 12-year-old demographic as I outlined in a post early in this thread, which will damage the sims profitability in the long run for MS.
OK. I’ve rambled enough. I’m actually going to go try flying the 787 mod myself right now, if I can manage to stay awake.