Over on the PMDG section of the AVSIM community, Robert Randazzo has announced the release plan for the long-awaited 747-8 as well as some additional information on product updates, pricing and support.

Randazzo announced that PMDG is planning to release the 747-8 this weekend which was expected by the teasers which they’ve been showing off over the last couple of days. Randazzo did leave a disclaimer stating that ‘Release is expected- but not guaranteed…stay tuned!’, so don’t get your hopes up too much just yet as it is possible that they’ll encounter a delay at the 11th hour.

The main update mentioned in this post is for a ‘massive’ update that will be coming to the 747-400 QOTS II. This massive update is occurring as according to Randazzo, the plan for the 747-8 was that it would overlay the 747-400 as the 777-300ER did with the 777-200LR, however, due to the huge differences in technology between the two aircraft, this turned out to be a different ballpark to the 777. He mentions that they should’ve announced that the 747-8 would’ve been a stand-alone product rather than an expansion, however, in order to stick to their word, they spent an extra 7-9 months working hard to make this product an expansion rather than a stand-alone product. In order to install the 747-8, you will need to download a new installer for the 747-400 which will become available alongside the -8.

Randazzo states that this update is very much focusing on the ‘top-end’. He mentions that P3D v4 has brought about a lot more flexibility with what can become of a product thanks to its 64bit nature. Thus, PMDG’s RainMaker will only be coming to P3D v4 meaning that FSX and previous versions of P3D will not be able to enjoy this feature. In a future update which is expected around November 1st, RainMaker will be coming to the 747-400; it will ship with the 747-8. PMDG’s new flight bag software with computation features and airport mapping will also be shipped with the -8.

According to Randazzo, those who use P3D v4.0 – 4.2 will no longer be able to receive support due to the 747 products being designed specifically for v4.3. Issues faced in previous versions of P3D v4 likely will be a problem that PMDG won’t be able to provide much support on, thus, if you want support, you must be running P3D v4.3. Randazzo does apologise for this move to those who wish to remain on previous increments of P3D v4 but says that in order to keep moving forward with their products, they need to keep up with the latest updates to P3D.

Now onto what most people will care about: the pricing. Randazzo states that due to the amount of work put into this aircraft and the complexity they have achieved, the price for this expansion will be slightly higher than previous expansions. Due to this, the 747-400 will also receive a price rise of $10 for FSX and $5 for P3D.

That’s all we have, for now, but make sure to keep your eyes peeled on FSElite for when the 747-8 is released.