The imge above is of the FSX version of the PMDG B777 but, at their support forum earlier today, Robert Randazzo of PMDG confirmed that the development team are planning release of a number of their products for classroom/training use on Lockheed-Martin’s Prepar3D simulator Platform – subject to some conditions being met.
No date for release of products was announced, but the products currently planned for release are the PMDG 747-400v2.0 for P3D, PMDG 777 Series for P3D and the PMDG 737NGX Series for P3D, with the JS4100 and future “PMDG Classics” aircraft also being considered.
Regarding the ever present licensing questions, the thread states that “PMDG are currently working with our licensing partners to expand and clarify scope restrictions under our current license agreements that prevent us from releasing products for the P3D platform. These conversations have been ongoing since approximately July, and we do not have an ETA for their successful conclusion but it is anticipated that we will have an agreement in principle before the end of 2013.”
Read about the pricing policy expectations here. We’ll keep you posted for future developments.
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MAY GOD BLESS YOU.
It’s amazing to see, through the case of FSX vs P3D, almost identical simulators, with some tweaks, that the difference in terms of license (entertainment vs training), is basically a plain company’s decision and marketing (MS vs Lockheed)… 🙂 Even multi millions level D motion simulators, if anyone can afford one of them for his/her huge basement, won’t be possible because a decision is made with some legal lines on a paper that this super virtual reality eye candy motion thingy is for real life training only! Interesting indeed!
Unfortunately it isn’t. There’s a lot more involved than that.
The key word is “liability”. Lawyers love it because it makes them a lot of money. A product licensed solely for home entertainment use carries next to none, because if anyone uses it for real world training, or loses money as a result of it going wrong, then they were using it in breach of the license and thus the license is void – there’s no come back on the developer/publisher beyond statuatory rights.
A commercial training tool, on the other hand, carries a massive amount more both legal and financial liability. If someone trains on your equipment or software, then carries that training over into the real world, the legal and financial implications are vastly higher when it is/goes wrong. The support requirements are also higher, when working with commercial rather than entertainment customers.
If you saw the commercial liability insurance that my ‘day job’ employer has to carry for each and every thing that I do (I work in a safety critical role – not aviation related) then you’d understand why the costs of it are so high. So yes, you are quite right that it is some legal lines on paper that’s the direct cause, but the implications of those lines can be very serious indeed!