It will remain to be seen.
We’ve already seen the precedent with the CRJ and DC6 where they were priced more competitively and the gamble paid off bigtime for Aerosoft and PMDG.
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Perhaps I agree with the PMDG DC-6. Aerosoft priced it appropriately for the depth of that package. Given the scale, I agree that developers could potentially charge less and get way more than the niche markets they served on the legacy platforms.
A key question is: are there enough simmers on the MSFS platform wanting beefy, deeply simulated aircraft to justify a scale back in prices? If that market is bigger than the old Then perhaps we could see some “economies of scale” come into play. Either that or much more competition. Like you said, time will tell!
I would hope so, but you’re right in that rubbish by the likes of Bredok3d and Deimos still apparently sell so maybe the market for really high fidelity isn’t much bigger than the older sims.
I’d like to think though that there will be a large population ready to covert to higher level simming if given an accessible entry point. I think the popularity of the FBW A320 says a lot.
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From what I understand the market for MSFS is bigger than perhaps any previous flight sim ever. I’m sure this means an increase in serious simmers (although Mathijs at Aerosoft seems to think they’re still using P3D), but definitely an increase in the lower-fidelity crowd, or at least those who don’t know enough/better to avoid such things.
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I feel these legacy 3rd party aircraft are already solidified to sell to the majority whom are customers like myself who aren’t concerned about having a price threshold of potentially missing out on memorable experiences we’ve had with these aircraft in prior sim platforms at a products initial release.
We are an over majority as compared to the price watcher penny wary consumers who will dent and impact sales. No way customers like me are gonna miss out on TFDI MD11s, PMDG 737s etc etc because they happen to be $20 or $30 over a willing purchase price threshold. Those customers are the minority and future discount sales will lessen that minority. 3rd party addon devs know this.
I feel some of you underestimate and aren’t really in touch with these 3rd party devs legacy products and longterm customers. This TFDI thread is prime example. You can’t project an addons success based on prices when you don’t know that particular companies history nor consumer base.
Do you have any idea how much $$$ a 20+ year simmer has invested equipment alone not counting addon software? There are more “day one purchase no matter the price” customers than you think and could even gauge. After 20 years of an expensive obsessives hobby you think most are gonna all of a sudden be pocket wary penny pinchers now because of price increases over an imaginary limit you FEEL and THINK a product should be priced at?
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Hey it’s your money, but I think you’re sorely mistaken if you think the ‘penny pinchers’ as you call them are anything less than the overwhelming majority of the current sim user base.
Mostly it’d come down to what you consider value for money, say the Fenix and PMDG offerings are released around $70 - $80, will the TFDI plane be of higher fidelity than the PMDG / Fenix birds? and if so does it warrant potentially a $30+ increase in price. I’d assume the large portion of new simmers keen to step up to a higher complexity plane will go for the cheaper one.
Even if the PMDG plane gets priced at $100 who do you think people will gravitate towards given the complete radio silence from TFDI?
But again, we’ll see how this works out for them. They’re entitled to ask for whatever they want for their work. It’s up to us to make the value judgement, which I’m making right now since I have nothing much to base it on except a couple of screenshots and the most expensive price tag in the sim currently.
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I think you’re absolutely right, there is a much larger potential market than ever before, and a good number of new simmers that are really interested in detailed functioning aircraft but are not going to be buying add-ons that cost more than the purchase price of the whole sim.
I’m one of them so I’m quite sure this market exists. I play on xbox but I’m not a casual gamer, I’m really interested in the simulation and engineering side.
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All - I am not huge fan of the MD-11, first it’s a FAA mandated update to the DC-10 because the plane was just a piece of junk. Part of this is economics, Boeing was just kicking MCD’s backside, and then Airbus joined the fray, MCD just could not compete good. Their military unit was also not doing well. United, lost a door, which took out the hydraulics and that plane crashed. Chicago, I think. FAA mandated some serious upgrades/fixes, so McDonald rereleased the improved plane as MD-11. I had several dear friends who flew it for Delta, said then it was not a good plane. The L-1011 from Lockhead was a much better plane, Delta even asked Lockheed to build more, and they would buy them, Lockheed said no. I won’t buy it, but I get the pricing, and it’s easy to figure out.
This sim is a moving target, every single time SU or WU is released something breaks, developers have to go back, rewrite code, release patch to current user base, and update code on plane model sitting there for sale. Those rewriting costs time, time is money. The pricing also mirrors PMDG’s 737-700-800 release pricing, I call it modular pricing, each model is a “purchase”. They are pricing in the numerous rewrites they are going to have to do to keep it viable in the sim. PMDG is facing the same issue. If you do not believe this, find the DC Designs F-14 Announcement thread, and read that. DCD had after each and every update, to go back to base code and fix something Asobo/MS changed in game code, so the plane will work. There is something like 1382 posts in that thread, some by me. Many are questions on this or that or my last one was a flight report from PMDY and how windy it was.
You can see this at the very end of the Just Flight’s Warrior topic. The flight dev posted about how they’re making some improvements to the flight model, but waiting until SU8 and the new prop physics shake out before making more. I remember when SU5 broke the speed tape on the CRJ, and SU5 also caused the pilot avatar to pop in over the player camera in the JF Pipers and it took until SU7 before they got it sorted.
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I have no problems with the Price, I just think breaking up the Cargo and Pax version is a bit cheeky. Cant wait for it to come out. I am desperate for a pay ware long hauler in MSFS.
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Price of CRJ is a good example to win this market
And TFDI should consider about it if Fenix give a price lower than it (may be started from $70?)
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Well those are strong disqualifications.
The other side of the MD11 story is that its in many ways the perfect fusion between the Boeing Muscles and the Airbus Brains.
She was a very serious competitor to the 747-400 back in her days. Equipped with 3 engines instead of 4 to allow for oceanic crossings but with a lower maintenance price tag. Her undercarriage and gear were rock solid so it could land on any type of runway, unlike the early 747’s that were limited to very long asphalt runways. This gave the MD11 an edge in the European market where many flag carriers were (and are) operating routes with former colonies that had less refined airports and runways back in the day. They performed outstanding on those routes.
Both the MD80 and the MD11 were technological marvels. That made them quite groundbreaking in the day. An MD11 is way more advanced/smarter than a 747-400 that came out around the same time as Boeings’ revolutionary take on it. If you compare the two, you soon wonder what those people at Boeing were doing behind their development desks as they didn’t fully utilize abilities such as MD identified.
It is true that MD run into financial difficulty but that was mainly due to the unexpected ‘ending’ of the Cold War that hit their military developments very hard. Boeing than saw an opportunity to buy up stock and acquire McDonnelDouglas, ending development of the 744’s competitor after 200 of them were build. Boeing stated that the plane wasn’t doing so well to anyone who wanted to listen, some of that will be true, but some of that wasn’t: they were also just ending competition to their costly 744-development proces which didn’t look like alot compared to the MD11 technology.
The MD11 wasn’t all she was hyped up to be for airliners as the fuel consumption disappointed due to the relatively small wings for such a big plane and there were silly design flaws, especially when loading up a freighter and figuring out too late there’s a lot of added weight in that tail. She was however revolutionary in the all-in integrated Automated Flight Systems that later helped Boeing develop their new line of 777’s, which, in many terms, is its successor from a technological point of view. I sure appreciate her for it. But then again, I’d never identify a complex and modern jumbojet like ‘a piece of junk’. If you don’t see it, you just don’t see it I suppose.
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Great post, and I really hope these flaws are shown through in the actual flight model. One such flaw/issue or whatever one would like to call it, touching on your comment regarding the wings was the landing speed of the plane was quite high, and it was really Important that landing speeds were adhered to otherwise there would be issues.
To me apart from the systems at these prices/level a sign of a great add-on is when these things are seen in the sim.
The MD11 is a tough aircraft to land, prone to bouncing and can be temper mental especially with winds in the mix as sadly witnessed at Tokyo Narita Int. So having this characteristic modelled is important IMHO as it adds to the immersion.
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Oh for sure! The smaller wings make her feel a bit like a sportscar jumbojet.
I suppose the trick is to just land her at flaps 35 if the weight allowed for it (which was usually the case for a pax variant). Just aim well for that runway and allow that air to pass her wings fluently. She’s very responsive at flaps 35 yet a lottttt less at flaps 50. Average landing speeds around 155/160 if I remember correctly, but with that rock solid landinggear you’ll feel comfortable with it. 
Such a joy. Can’t wait.
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it is way too high. i hope there will be regional pricing for my country.
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Did they price this for the 20 people who would buy this on P3D? This is MSFS and a huge audience of flight simmers. MSFS has brought a huge new audience back into flight simming. This will be expected to be the most expensive plane in the simulator and higher than the expected pricing for the Fenix and PMDG 737 single planes. It must be better than those 2 planes to justify the price tag as the most expensive plane in MSFS. Great to see the plane in the sim and lets see if the price justifies the crown of the best plane in MSFS (better than PMDG and Fenix).
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So let me get this straight… a company like TFDI with a proven track record and history of solid RELEASED QUALITY products and CUSTOMER SERVICE has to prove themselves to be better than Fenix a company with ZERO RELEASED products and NO TRACK RECORD because of your need for justification of quality as compared to your individual imaginary pricing threshold standards?
The blind blatant bias is ridiculous here…
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They put out pretty screenshots though.
Seriously, there was a topic on the PMDG forums how the Fenix screenshots mean that PMDG need to up their game.
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I think exactly like you, but in the Airbus direction. Though, you do have a good point: the Airbus collection from Aerosoft was fun, but not GREAT ! PMDG was spot on with their Boeings and the MD-11 ( my all time favourite study-level in FSX !!!). But, I’m an Airbus fanboy, and with the extraordinary work of the FBW team on the A32NX, I must say, I have big expectations for their A380…and they are FREE !! …and obviously equaly “study-level” as PMDG
Now, the only model(s), as I mentionned in my first post in this thread, I’d like to have from them is either/both the A318 and A350. But I’m still not excluding a B737(300-400) or the MD-11 from PMDG. They do really nice and good stuff too !!
HAPPY FLYING to Y’ALL !!
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Maybe a blind person set the price for the plane? Let’s put it this way, both Fenix and TFDI have zero released planes in MSFS. Track record in previous sims means nothing when it comes to a new sim such as MSFS.
TFDI will need to justify the price with the quality of the simulation in comparison to other products such as PMDG 737 and Fenix A320. I hope this plane will be amazing and justify its high price in MSFS. Let’s see the reviews first and then judge if the price is reasonable.
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