X-Plane fans are eagerly awaiting the launch of the open beta and inevitable push towards release for the next generation of the X-Plane series. A new update on the status of the project is coming very soon with Laminar Research’s Austin Meyers and Orbx CEO Anna Cicognani participating in a joint update and interview on July 16.
Mark your calendars
The forthcoming interview should prove to be an interesting one. New details on the content or release of X-Plane 12 is widely expected. Meanwhile, there have been many questions as to what Orbx’s full plans are with the X-Plane 12 series including what scenery and landmark packs they might be offering and what the upgrade and compatibility is with current Orbx products under X-Plane 11.
A joint update from both leaders sure goes a long way to suggesting that Orbx fully intends to support X-Plane going forward.
Stay tuned for the interview on July 16 at 5:00pm EDT which is also 2:00 pm PDT and 9:00 pm GMT.
Stormbirds 
Given the bloodbath in the civ sim market caused by MSFS, I can’t help but believe this is some sort of collaboration / joint venture.
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Is it that bad? I’ve heard that a lot of developers are doing well. Even X-Plane devs have seen a bit of a boost allegedly although that may not be evenly spread.
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Judging by the frequency of sales and degrees of discount for X-Plane addons, I think it remains bad. I just bought a copy of Thranda’s almost brand-new Cessna Caravan for literally half price, same for CowanSim’s also new Bell 206. Both are extremely well regarded devs, too…
XP airliners seem to be healthier in that the discounts are lower and the sales less frequent, but both are well above pre-MSFS levels. I bet that’s going to change even further now that the “study level” airliners are available in MSFS, too.
And nearly incredibly, the top quality $85 iniBuilds A310 is going to be given away for free in MSFS (I can’t help but think this is a poke in the eye to XP’s pending default A330).
But, however bad it might be for X-Plane, the Prepar3D market has practically disappeared.
Consumers completely abandoned P3D over night. Devs thus being forced to focus 100% of their time on re-building for MSFS, and only paying lip service to P3D development (PMDG), or outright abandoning P3D development altogether (Aerosoft, MilViz, etc.).
For e.g., you can literally go download Aeroplane Heaven’s ENTIRE Prepar3D addon library for FREE. MilViz permanently cut the prices of ALL their P3D addons by 50% and no longer offer support/patches of any kind. And so on…
So of course, the vastly decreased market share has certainly affected Orbx (they’re pumping out MSFS scenery like mad, but the prices are far lower than they used to be), and again, I doubt they’re selling many units of their once state of the art TrueEarth sceneries for P3D, and who knows how their XP product line is doing (it’s practically moribund relative to the explosion of MSFS products).
As far as X-Plane, the demise of P3D and a notable number of MSFS-ers looking for better flight models has saved it from the same type of trouble, but I can’t imagine they’re doing “great” by any means.
And though XP v12 will have greatly enhanced visuals, the scenery will not be photo-real like MSFS is.
So we’ve got a once-dominant scenery company with 2 legs of their stool kicked out, and an excellent flight simulator that even after v12 releases still won’t be able to offer MSFS quality scenery…
Laminar hasn’t done a joint session with any other addon maker (AFAIK), certainly nothing with the fanfare of advanced announcements like this, so why will they with Orbx, who makes the one piece of the puzzle they won’t?
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Thanks for the comments! This is all well thought out. I pay very little attention to P3D myself so I haven’t seen the implosion there.
I have heard comments from a few XP developers that business is good so it may not be a universal issue for that sim. I suspect too that there may be folks like me who are holding on purchases until 12 comes out or at least until developers make a significant statement. Most of Aerobask’s line-up for example seems like a safe bet as they are bringing all but one or two types forward to XP12.
Your reasoning is definitely sound on the joint conference. I do wonder what the plan is. X-Plane 12 can’t afford to fumble their scenery situation. Orbx’s TrueEarth has been a revolution for my X-Plane flying.
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I’ve always voted for flight dynamics and systems versus scenery complexity. Unless of course you are flying other than the heavies. Then, I could see were your focus would lie.
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Yeah I can see it mattering less to airliner folks. I’m a 85% GA flyer so the scenery aspect definitely matters.
Curious to see what they end up revealing!
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