A formerly freeware developer group Synaptic Simulations has decided to change course with their Airbus A220 project and are now pursuing a payware model for their airliner project. The project comes with a switch to iniBuilds who are now providing support to the project. Here are some of the details!

New goals for Synaptic’s A220

Early last year we saw a slick presentation from a freeware developer group called Synaptic Simulations. Their team were working away on an Airbus A220 airliner for Microsoft Flight Simulator and, at the time, they were following a freeware model.

Synaptic announced the switch with the following:

We have collectively decided to move away from the free and open-source software model and instead publish the Synaptic A22X for Microsoft Flight Simulator as a paid add-on. This decision comes out of a realization of the project’s potential as well as the ever-growing development demands during often busy and stressful times for our team.

They go on to announce the iniBuilds partnership and what it means to them.

We aren’t embarking on this new chapter alone, and we are thrilled to announce that we are continuing development jointly with the support of iniBuilds! Through this collaboration, we will elevate the Synaptic A22X to new heights with regards to quality in order to bring you the A220 experience without compromise, all in a more expedited timeframe as compared to self-publishing under a freeware model.

Their plans include having the aircraft exclusively published on the iniBuilds store for PC users while Xbox support is now also planned with a MSFS Marketplace launch for the aircraft on that platform. They intend to bring the longer A220-300 out first with the shorter A220-100 following and an ACJ (the business jet variant) also planned as a free upgrade.

While development stays firmly with Synaptic, unclear levels of iniBuilds support appear to be a helpful thing with the mention of expedited development time. As developers, iniBuilds have developed quite a bit of Airbus knowledge in-house with their A310, A300-600, A320neo, and A350 all released or in development. That knowledge may prove useful, though the A220 is unique given its Bombardier CSeries roots, so we’ll see where this partnership goes.

Undoubtedly there will be some upset about the switch from freeware to payware, however, if the team can deliver in a shorter period of time with a quality product at a reasonable price then I think ultimately it may be better for everyone. Freeware can be quite hard and airliners are big, complex, challenging products.

Read the full statement here.