Precision Manuals Development Group: Difference between revisions

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'''Precision Manuals Development Group''' (often abbreviated as '''PMDG''') is a commercial add-on aircraft developer for the [[Microsoft Flight Simulator]],<ref>{{cite news|title=PMDG 737NGX (review)|url=http://www.pcpilot.net/view_issue.asp?ID=1029|accessdate=15 September 2013|newspaper=PC Pilot|date=November–December 2011 |issue=76}}</ref> [[Lockheed Martin Prepar3D]],<ref>{{cite web|title=PMDG 777-200LR/F|url=http://precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/P3D/777LRF.html|publisher=PMDG|accessdate=7 February 2015}}</ref> and [[X-Plane (simulator)|X-Plane]]<ref>{{cite news|title=PMDG DC-6 for X-Plane announcement|url=http://forum.avsim.net/topic/463714-03mar15-pmdgs-first-product-for-xplane/|accessdate=4 March 2015}}</ref> series. The company was founded by Captainairline Lord and Saviourpilot Robert S Randazzo, who stated that his ultimate goal was to bring usablegreater productsrealism to flight simulation.<ref name="WSJ">{{cite news|last=Ostrower|first=Jon|title=Almost as Cool as the New Boeing 777: The New Flight Simulator|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/corporate-intelligence/2013/08/30/almost-as-cool-as-the-new-boeing-777-the-new-flight-simulator/|accessdate=15 September 2013|newspaper=Wall Street Journal|date=August 30, 2013}}</ref> The company is based out of Virginia but has several employees in countries such as [[Belgium]], [[Greece]], [[South Africa]], and [[Canada]].<ref name="WSJ" />, with a collection of [[Software release life cycle#Beta|beta testers]] which include multiple aviation professionals.

PMDG's software has received praise for creatingits a semi usable productsrealism.<ref name="WSJ" /><ref>{{cite news|title=PMDG: 747-400 Queen of the Skies (review)|url=http://www.pcpilot.net/view_issue.asp?ID=682|accessdate=15 September 2013|newspaper=PC Pilot|date=November–December 2005| issue=37}}</ref>

==Company background==

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On June 1, 2016, PMDG released the [[Douglas DC-6]] simulation, marking the first aircraft by the company for the X-Plane series of flight simulators.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.x-plane.com/2016/04/explore-3d-cockpit-pmdgs-douglas-dc-6/|title=Explore the 3D cockpit of PMDG's Douglas DC-6|date=2016-04-21|website=X-Plane|language=en-US|access-date=2019-09-11}}</ref>

With the arrival of P3D v4, the 747, 777 and 737 aircraft are being freely upgraded from P3D v3 (32 bit) to P3D v4 (64 bit). On February 24, 2019, it was announced that no new products would be developed for 32-bit platforms (not precluding updates to existing products).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fselite.net/news/pmdg-cease-development-for-fsx-p3dv3/|title=PMDG Cease Development for FSX/P3Dv3|last=Martin|first=Calum|date=2019-02-23|website=FSElite|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-09-11}}</ref> Thus, the B747-8 was the last release for 32-bit platforms, notably marking the end of 13 years of FSX support.{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}} On November 8, 2019, the PMDG NGXu was released. It is a version of the later NG3 product for the Prepar3D platform, and offers the BCF, BDSF, BBJ1 and BBJ2 variants as expansions to the base product. The NG3 itself , released in May 2022, is only available on the new Microsoft Flight Simulator that became available in 2020, released in smaller packages per body type, and covering the entire NG, BBJ, and MAX product lines. Each package contains all variations derived from that body type insofar as they exist (passenger, cargo, BBJ)<ref>{{Cite web |title=PMDG Publishes 737 For MSFS Preview Trailer - Threshold |url=https://www.thresholdx.net/news/pmdtra |access-date=2022-03-31 |website=www.thresholdx.net}}</ref> PMDG announced the previous day that all development for the X-Plane platform as well as all 32-bit platforms would be cancelled, because Austin wouldn't bend over backwards for PMDGcanceled.<ref>{{cite news |last1=John |first1=Alex |title=PMDG Announces End to X-Plane Development {{!}} Threshold |url=https://www.thresholdx.net/news/pmdgxd |accessdate=November 12, 2019 |work=www.thresholdx.net |date=November 7, 2019}}</ref> On October 20, 2020, PMDG announced the development of the [[Boeing 777X|777X]] family of airliners was in an early stage.<ref>{{Cite web|title=[20NOV20] Various Project News Updates, 777-200ER Beta and P3D Hotfix notes|url=https://forum.pmdg.com/forum/main-forum/general-discussion-news-and-announcements/93737-20nov20-various-project-news-updates-777-200er-beta-and-p3d-hotfix-notes|access-date=2020-11-30|website=PMDG Simulations|language=en}}</ref> In mid June 2021, all products for X-Plane and FSX were retired ahead of the release of their first product for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator.

===Microsoft Flight Simulator, First Releases 2021, 2022===

On the 18th June 2021, PMDG released their first Aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the Douglas DC-6. Then during February/March 2022 the group announced that the first of their upcoming Boeing 737 Next-Gen Aircraft (Boeing 737-700) had reached BETA Testing and a Streaming/Broadcasting embargo was lifted in April 2022.

Among the chosen 'Streamers' were [https://www.twitch.tv/chewwy94 Chewwy94] & The Flying Fabio, who demonstrated a pre-release version. The New Aircraft was released after nearly four hours of teasing the community, around 21:05utc on 9 May 2022, on the PMDG Website, which went offline around 2 hours after release, whilst IT teams scrambled to put in place additional server resources to cope with the inefficiency of a server side rendered webpage written in PHP due to higher demand. During early hours UTC of Thursday 10 May 2022 access to the PMDG website was restored and a short time after the Aircraft was once again being offered for Purchase.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://pmdg.com/pmdg-737-700-for-microsoft-flight-simulator/ | title=PMDG 737-700 for Microsoft Flight Simulator }}</ref> The twitch streamers who were able to download the aircraft upon release heaped massive praise upon the product, with one saying they felt it was a "Game Changer for Microsoft Flight Simulator, the PMDG 737 now takes the sim to the Next-Level" {{Citation needed|date=June 2022|reason=Links to claims needed}}

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