The latest 737NG package from Ariane, the 737-700ER x2 Base Pack, has been made available at simMarket.com.
Among all features, you’ll recognize the HUD, weather radar, and other static effects. Also exists, the airline upgrade pack, featuring ANA gold, ANA blue, Privatair, BCA, and the roll out factory option, pre-painted zinc edition.
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I can’t wait for PMDG to make this company irrelevant….
Ahmen to that.You have to hand it to their marketing person though. Works with the Devil no doubt Selling lollie pops to children….
20101108 Editors Note: today we have the following request from Ariane Design to remove this particular comment, to which we agreed:
“Ariane considers that the post referring to its Marketing Executive is rude, extremely distasteful and untrue. Ariane respects the right of people to post comments providing those comments are accurate, balanced and yes, they can be critical if that critical appraisal is based on fact.
Ariane’s products are high level, technically advanced products used by real pilots in training. Ariane as a business adheres to high professional and ethical values, and fairness in its dealings with suppliers and customers, and expects to be treated in the same way.
Kind regards
Neville
Neville Rolt
Managing Director
Ariane Design”
yeah i got sucked into buying there 737 never again. bring on the PDMG 737
Brilliant and amazing product. So many features still make this the daddy of all 737 sims. (Oh and ignore the immature children’s comments here, they work for the competition; this is an adult simulation). This is THE sim of choice for me.
So, Steve… How is life working for Ariane these days?
Don’t be an idiot. I know a lot of people who dislike Ariane for a lot of reasons and not one of them “works for the opposition”. Primarily an appalling lack of support, an abysmal and fault-ridden activation system and a history that is chequered and questionable to say the least.
They may have dealt with all of those – I don’t know, I will never deal with them again after my experiences – but it’ll take a lot longer to get rid of their legacy.
Oh, and I don’t “work for the opposition” either. The only person whose comments here that are immature are yours.
I don’t work for Ariane and calling me an idiot shows your IQ (or lack of it) and people will see through it (as well as note your lack of literacy, even when it comes to sentence construction).
Yes, maybe Ariane had their faults at one time (I was not around). But that was years ago (but talk about tire of reading the same old hot air and foul wind responses from people like you, blowing around again and again (and I think we are all sick of that kind of smell).
Ariane changed and bravo and good for them; everyone deserves a fresh start, whoever they are. History means past and gone, not tomorrow. Move on.
Being a professional pilot, I do know all about support however. Ariane’s new direct ticket system came as a result of customers asking for it (I know because I was one of them). As far as supporting product; yesterday (I got word of it then) they announced upgrades and new features to update even older products along with some stunning new development work on their FMC, free of charge. I think that is more than supporting customers to give new development work away. Who does that today? Rarely might that happen in a recession. Good for them. That is evidence of a march of change.
The tireless service they gave me with a very illustrated response to my (fairly technical and probing) questions was a testimony to the good support model they run (and their activation system was flawless enough for me as it must be for the many companies that rely on it – or they would not be selling Ariane product either. But all of them do.
So you had a bad experience? Everyone does. Get over it. You may enjoy having little if any, respect for a company but it has been around a lot longer than you or the handful of opinions you speak of and Ariane is and must be doing something right to still be around today attracting the growing number of REAL pilots like my colleagues who appreciate the attention to the quality and accuracy they put into products and technical applets like EGPWS (which incidentally, people like me actually rely on since it is the only tool available for mission tasking that we are charged to carry out) and their simulation of those systems is second to none there. I should know.
For me, once again I am underlining why Ariane deserves good merit (as well as a medal) for the work they put into the 700er. It is not only the reason I make the decision to proudly defend it here but also it is my right to support anything I please and I and my flying colleagues are going to continue to support Ariane and for a great many years to come (and no matter what people like you say or do).
And while we all have an inalienable right to make up our own mind about what we do when it comes to buying what we want to and what we fly, my words should offer little need to describe Ariane or their character. Their product does that very well for them.
As for your character Ian P (sic). You described that quite adequately to the world yourself. Now move on before you embarrass yourself any more and whatever you fly, get a life, man.
Hello
Thanks for that Neville, or is it Peter?
Steve,
If you can’t take it, don’t dish it out. You acted like a small child, you’ll be treated like one. If I was acting like one, your posts would be deleted, your username, e-mail and IP address banned. They’re still here.
One of the many reasons I dislike Ariane was a string of supposed “customers” who blighted three forums I ran (two VAs, one FS community website) for long periods of time, posting pictures of “their new favourite jet” which were hosted on Ariane’s website and when you looked at the details on the images, they were all taken on the same PC, by the same username. Strangely, all the advertising pictures on the Ariane website had the same username and PC used to create them as well. Ariane are well known for stooges pretending to be customers. You’re behaving like one – rather like the post above this implies as well, so it’s not just me, see?
I have spoken to sales support people, within the last sixth months, who say that they receive more complaints about Ariane’s activation system, lack of support and problems with both than any other product they sell and/or have sold in the past.
You have every right to defend them if you want to, whether you work for them or not. What you do not have the right to do is post, unchallenged, statements that anyone who disagrees with your viewpoint is a “child” or “works for the competition”. Which, incidentally, are contradictory statements, unless you’re into child labour in Arianeworld?
I believe this is just a case of “kick-them-when-their-down”.
“Ariane changed and bravo and good for them; everyone deserves a fresh start, whoever they are. History means past and gone, not tomorrow. Move on.” (Steve M Harris)
I agree with Steve. They’re some good 737 sims popping up now and Ariane has been working hard at improving their attitude, simulation, database, and customer service.
Competion has always been a good thing and, although PMDG’s product will be a top seller, for sure, Ariane’s will be bitting at their heals with their own unique improvements to their versions.
I believe it is the customer who wins. There will be many who enjoy all of the 737 sims.
Ariane, iFly, and PMDG will run the race for the most attractive 737 and it gives (us), the consumer (and good Simmarket customer), a 737 that is constantly improving.
Honest and sincere criticism is one thing, but bashing and blackballing, doesn’t benefit the flight sim community, developers or distributers like Simmarket.
It is not something that can be really stopped though. As long as some people like to jump on bandwagons and feel that they are part of a more popular or accepted group, there will be this kind of bullying.
I believe if Ariane continues to follow the path of improvement that they are now, they will eventually overcome their past.
One thing is for sure. It doesn’t benefit anyone at all, for them to be put out of business.
Bob
Ladies and and gentlemen, seriously, RELAX! I’ve have their 737-700 X2 and it’s absolutely the best available as of now, and quite frankly, it’s great overall! If you don’t like it, DON’T COMPLAIN! You’re scaring people off and there are more that people that enjoy it than harrass Ariane and their possible customers. Speaker from an independent view from Ariane, they have their quirks, but then again, SO DOES EVERYTHING ELSE! Let’s keep this civilized. Could any of you design even have of what they do? I think not. The flightsim community has become so ungrateful towards those trying to improve it. Let’s all just do the mature thing here and drop it. If you like their product, say so. If not, also feel free to say so, but in a civilized mannor, not insults sent through an online page about THEIR PLANE! Responding like a child to this post only shows your ungratefulness and lack of the mental composure to just enjoy what people work hard to bring you.
Thank you for resonding appropriately.
Collin
This is again, an announcment of a new product, not a public burn of Ariane. This is not the appropriate place for that.
I’ve been enjoying reading the post’s above and see where the anger lies. I’ve been burned myself by believing what’s on the box or written by the marketing bods.
If a product is so fantastic, then simply have it available as a timelimited download with an unlock key supplied on purchase. I recently downloaded a sample/demo 767 from a disk supplied on the front of a mag. When run it was rubbish compared to my LVL767 which I fly regularly. If I’d purchased said sim I would have felt cheated as I would have trusted the blurb. You comment to get over such activities, but when you try and get a refund you’re met with resistance. One of your contributors thinks that this Company is quite unique in supplying ‘add on’s’ free, please look-up FULL TERRAIN’s ORBX if you want to see how a truly wonderful Company treats it’s customers.
About a year ago I downloaded their full AU suite of programs from a file sharing site to see if the marketing blurb was as true as stated. It was so wonderful a product and so accurately described I ordered it whithin one hour of running it! £100.00 no less!
(Sorry, I work in the IT industry in the Health sector!)
So I say, get angry, vent you anger and demand monry back if you’ve been had. Maybe then the Companies out there will stop making daft claims in the hope we’ll all be taken in. This new product looks fantastic and, yes, I’m tempted. I won’t be ordering it though, for the reasons stated above. I just don’t rust the gush!!
To put things in context, yes, Ariane’s models have improved massively over the years and the reviews that I have read of their most recent ones have generally been favourable. They almost certainly do have a good product and their customer service has, according to some people I trust, improved markedly. The cost of their products has also dropped significantly – long gone are the days when you bought an external model, then had to buy a number of other packs to even make it usable with a total cost running to well over £100 or $200, at the time.
However, falling back on the “well could YOU make it?” argument is both pointless and irrelevant. Ariane expect recompense for what they do, they do not give it away. Also, of course, remember that if Ariane’s intentions had succeeded, there would be no other B737s available for any sim. Nor would there be any liveries for major airlines, nor would their be any freeware models for anything vaguely resembling a real aircraft or livery. We, as a hobby, industry and community, are still suffering from the legacy of that.
As Bob says, above, there is a lot of bandwagon jumping on Ariane – it is “cool” not to like them amongst certain communities. Many of those people weren’t involved in the legal struggles to keep fictional VAs running because they looked a little bit like the previous livery of a real world airline. Very few of those people have friends who lost their entire income when Ariane’s founder folded his previous company and refused to pay any developers whose work he published a penny or cent for their work – even though he continued selling those products under another brand name, without permission. Of course, with no income, international legal challenges are kind of hard to undertake so all the developers could do was sit, watch and publicly complain.
Yes, all of this is in the past. It’s also very well documented in the past if you care to look. However, there is always a place for taking warnings from the past and prior history does count for something. What I spoke about in the last paragraph did not happen once, it happened twice. The second time was the birth of Ariane and the same people are involved in the company now as were then.
Am I biased? Yes. I was one of the people fielding telephone calls and letters from lawyers, I was one of the people trying to keep the peace on the forums while redesigning entire VAs to get said lawyers off our backs because our name was different, but our livery looked “similar”. I was one of the people directly affected by what they did – although people like Robert, Chris, Andy and many others were affected far more. I only really lost many hours of my time. They lost many hours of time and money they couldn’t afford to lose. Most are no longer involved in flight simulation development or even as a hobby.
I don’t expect people to just take what I say at face value, I presume they are competent and intelligent enough to do research for themselves and make up their own minds.
I agree that Ariane’s FSX product is the best one currently available. However that is also a simple given as it is the *only* such product available, so has no competition. It may still be the best after that, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
I will also remind you of the comment that I originally responded to: “(Oh and ignore the immature children’s comments here, they work for the competition; this is an adult simulation).” – the statement is both incorrect and immature, I responded in kind. I make no apology for that other than that I should have just deleted it at the time as a personal and unwarranted attack.
Hello Ian,
If the actions of Ariane effected you in a negative way in the past, then I can understand your personal anger toward them, but 90% of the people that bash Ariane as a developer, have had very little actual experience with them at all. They are just repeating what they have heard so that they can also be an accepted part of a popular social club.
I only judge Ariane on their what they develop for FSX and FS9, their support and their prices. I know nothing about their personal lives, whether they are true to their wives or whether they attend church on a regular bases. I don’t even know if they inhaled! This doesn’t concern me.
If I stopped buying from every company that had law suits against them or were suing someone else, I would have to limit my purchases to buying from the Amish.
I know that Ariane makes good 737s sims(especially for FSX). I know that they have made their prices much better than they were before, although they still may be considered a little pricey. I know that they have given good and friendly support for their products (at least to me), because I have personally experienced all of this.
There is not that many flight sim developers out there making good commercial aircraft. It is senseless for those of us who love flight simulation to want to limit our choices of developers, simply to join in on feeding mean spirited rumors.
Simmarket has represented Ariane designs for quite a while by offering their products to their patrons. I am a loyal customer of Simmarket and it is very hard for me to seriously believe that if Ariane were such crooks, that Simmarket would continue to offer their products.
I believe in positive or negative feedback for a product, when it is done to educate flight sim consumers, but I do not believe in attempts by groups to limit my choices by blackballing developers based on actions or bad decisions of many years ago.
People change and companies change. I sure don’t want to be judged now on decisions that I made in my youth.
Bob
Ariane has terrible customer service. You order a downloadable product, they charge your card (a very high price I might add) and then it take forever to get the product.
Ariane needs to get up to speed with the times. If you post you have a downloadable product, then when someone buys it, they should be able to get it. Not wait 48 hours for it.
I had no desire to wait that long. Seems petty, but when I buy it, I want to fly with it. You buy from PMDG, you get it. Flight One, You get it. And you get it when you buy it.
I wrote to them and said I was calling my bank to cancel the order… I got a reply about canceling my order and calling my bank, much later, with a ridiculous statement attached…
Warning. Customers who decide to take matters into their own hands will regretfully be placed on a FORCED ILLEGAL REFUND database and their details will be shared with other sites, many of whom will bar them from all future purchases. In some cases, forced, illegal refunds can see offenders registered with agencies that will record their names and details with credit reference agencies and port authorities and this may affect their credit or their travel.
You mean to tell me when I cancel an order with Ariane, those arrogant people think they have the clout to possibly restrict my travel with port authority? The insanity of it is mind boggling. (I will attach the entire statement at the end of this post.)
When you do get an email from support, no one will sign their name. Pitiful. Poor customer service. There is no other argument around that.
Further, is Ariane actually provided a good purchase experience, they would not have to post such a blatantly threatening disclaimer.
When I did have the charges canceled… of which I NEVER received my download, Ariane threatened to contact my bank and have them “take action” against me. Really? You think Ariane can make that happen? It was laughable. I dared them to do it.
I have read so many posts about the customer service. Awful. I have nothing to say about the product. I never got it. Perhaps the product is crazy good, thats fine. I have no argument about the development and functionality. I am not informed enough to comment about it.
But when you see the following as a disclaimer on an email… do you really want to do business with them? Seriously. How big are their B***S to think that they can put you on a “list”. Research their so called list… look it up. Google it. Apparently it doesn’t exist or is so unsubstantial it doesn’t even warrant a hit.
Ariane. No thank you.
**Ariane Email Tag**
NO REFUND POLICY
For many years software houses like this one have been operating a ‘NO REFUND POLICY’ with regard to download software. Many online stores operate a similar policy which is there for the protection of our industry since without it, there would be no flight sim and no development.
All sales are final. We test all product/s to ensure that the product/s meet the specifications on our web pages and as per our terms there will absolutely be NO REFUNDS. We do not offer refunds on software that has been delivered to customers via download UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
Customers are encouraged to read all specifications prior to purchasing a license for the applicable product. If a customer purchases a license to a release version of one of our products we do not offer a cash refund or an exchange. Unlike physical goods, electronically distributed software and software licenses can be easily duplicated.
Accordingly, it is our policy that once we have distributed a release version to a customer, the sale is final, and you may not return the software for a refund or credit.
Warning. Customers who decide to take matters into their own hands will regretfully be placed on a FORCED ILLEGAL REFUND database and their details will be shared with other sites, many of whom will bar them from all future purchases. In some cases, forced, illegal refunds can see offenders registered with agencies that will record their names and details with credit reference agencies and port authorities and this may affect their credit or their travel.
A NO REFUND POLICY stops piracy and is made very clear on our website terms and conditions that they all agree to it when they proceed to payment.
Your option and right is to see that the product is operating as it is designed and as it has been specified and if not, then we will support you without charge via email until it is.
Thank you for your understanding.