If you’ve been refreshing the news feed for PMDG over the past few months and wondering where everyone went, you now have your answer. In a lengthy new post, PMDG’s Robert Randazzo explains that the quiet came from a lot of work happening at once, most of it what the developer itself calls “business stuff.”
The headlines for most simmers are simple enough. PMDG says the 737 refactor has cut WASM crashes significantly, the 737-800 is now scheduled for release on PlayStation 5 with the rest of the 737 fleet hopefully following by the end of October, and the first 747 previews should start appearing later this week.
“Quiet” is relative, of course. Back in August, PMDG was rebuilding the 737 and 777 for SU6 while sharing close-up rivet detail of the 747. But by the developer’s usual standards of near-weekly updates, this has been a long stretch without much to report. Here’s what happened in the meantime.
The WASM refactor paid off, PMDG says
WASM crashes have been the defining frustration of PMDG’s time on MSFS 2024. In March, the developer pushed its first round of WASM crash fixes for the 737, and by June it was describing a company-wide “moonshot” to hunt down every possible trigger in its codebase.
According to PMDG, that effort grew out of a customer survey run at the start of 2026 and became a four-month refactor of the 737 line, aimed at following best practices as closely as the SDK documentation and conversations with Microsoft and Asobo allowed. The developer now says the 737 is more stable to a degree that is statistically significant, with a large drop in customer contact about WASM crashes.
PMDG is careful not to oversell it, though. The company admits that WASM crashes can still happen, but says it considers it highly unlikely that the 737 is the cause outside of truly extreme circumstances. It also credits three MSFS Sim Updates with fixing some platform-level problems along the way.
Slower updates for 737 and 777 owners, for now
Once the refactor wrapped up, PMDG moved its entire development team onto the 747 at the start of summer. The developer says that move helped un-stick progress on the Queen of the Skies, but it also openly admits it slowed the regular flow of 737 and 777 updates.
PMDG says it has pushed around 200 product updates for the 737 line in total, with those from the last three to four months focused on critical fixes. That approach continues for now. Both the 737 and 777 fleets will get a broader bug-report sweep after the 747 releases, so anyone waiting on smaller fixes should expect them later rather than sooner.
The long road to PlayStation
Randazzo also shared some insights on PMDG’s experience with the PlayStation 5 Marketplace, and it’s a rare look at how console vetting works behind the scenes.
Products bound for PSN go through checks involving Microsoft, Asobo and, the developer believes, Sony. In the first round, the 777F and DC-6 passed without trouble, but the other seven products in PMDG’s catalog came back with fault reports. What followed was a couple of months of nearly weekly submit, reject and feedback cycles before the team had a complete list of required changes
The developer describes the process as immensely frustrating, mostly because it pulled developers away from the 747. But PMDG also says it taught the team a lot about optimizing for MSFS 2024, and that the result is better, more stable products across all platforms, PC included.
As for where things stand today:
- The PMDG 737-800 has passed PSN approval, was held up in a backlog, and is now scheduled for release
- The rest of the 737 fleet is in final acceptance review, and PMDG hopes to have it on PSN by the end of the month
- The 777 fleet is being prepared for a final run through acceptance, with no timeline given because of the backlog
This continues the story that began in July, when the 777F became PMDG’s first aircraft on PS5. It’s also worth remembering that, as we noted when MSFS 2024 entered early access on PS5, Marketplace purchases made on PC or Xbox don’t carry over to PlayStation.
PMDG calls PSN, like Xbox, an important strategic platform. The company points out that its aircraft can now be flown on PlayStation, Xbox, PC, the cloud, and even in a Boeing classroom.
The 747 is next
The 747 gets only a brief mention here, because PMDG says it deserves a dedicated post, so expect more details in the coming days. The developer has been deliberately quiet about the road to release but says that’s ending, with fun news, interesting details and possibly some show-and-tell coming from this week (above, you can see some 3D renders of the 747 cockpit, which Gaya Studios has built for PMDG).
It has been a long journey since PMDG first laid out its plans to capture the history of the 747 in MSFS 2024, and the 747-100 and 747-400 remain the first variants we know of. No release date has been given yet.
PMDG closes by asking simmers to support “our friends at Bluebird” this week. That’s a reference to the BlueBird 757, which releases on October 23. It’s a nice moment between two Boeing developers, and PMDG’s message is very warm: everyone in simming comes out ahead when developers support one another. You can follow everything about that launch on our BlueBird 757 hub.
We’ll be covering the 747 reveals as they arrive, so keep an eye on our PMDG coverage this week.
