The highly anticipated, long awaited ATR 42/72-600 for Microsoft Flight Simulator has released on the in-game marketplace at a price tag which seems to have shocked many simmers.
The addon, which has been developed by Hans Hartmann in collaboration is the first in a new “Expert Series” of aircraft from Microsoft, which aim to bring “highly accurate and authentic” planes to MSFS.
Guesses for what the price would be had varied wildly among the community, although the plane has today been released for $19.99 (€19.99, £16.74) with a 30% discount on top for simmers with a copy of the deluxe and/or premium deluxe editions of the simulator.
For that price, you get the ATR-42/600 and the ATR-72/600. The shorter 42 variant comes with 3 liveries out of the box (ATR House, Air Saint Pierre and Silver Airways), while the longer 72 comes with 5 (ATR House, Silver Airways, Air Tahiti Re’ireva, Air Tahiti Tapuata, and Air Tahiti Te Anuanua). As the release was only earlier today, no third parties are available yet, although simmers looking to fly a specific airline should keep an eye on flightsim.to for new liveries popping up over the coming days and weeks.
Initial reception to the ATR addon has been mixed. While many simmers seem happy with the addon and delighted with the price, branding the plane as “expert level” was always going to attract critics who were expecting an aircraft addon up to highest standards of system depth and modelling. Users on the Microsoft Flight Simualtor forums have come in with some of the harshest criticism, with one user comparing ATR’s quality to that of infamous developer CaptainSim.
A number of simmers have also expressed difficulty in calibrating the throttles for the aircraft. The community will likely be quick to compile tutorials and video guides, although in the meantime a throttle calibration guide has been published on the MSFS forum by SeedyL, the MSFS Community Manager.
Despite the criticism, there are also a number of simmers who seem to be happy with the addon at the eye-opening price point. Commenters on an initial reception post in the r/flightsim subreddit seem to have kinder words on the whole, with a number of users accepting that, while the quality may not be on a level with established “study level” aircraft like those from PMDG and Fenix, for the $19.99 price point it seems to be a fair deal.
Of course, these are only initial reactions and we will see how the community’s impressions of the ATR are moulded over the coming days, and to what extent the product will receive post-launch support in the form of bug fixes.
FSElite will bring you more coverage on this developing story soon.
