PMDG founder Robert Randazzo has outlined some of the group's plans for their future plans in X-Plane development.

In a post titled "X-Plane User Updates" on the AVSIM forums, Randazzo talks about the recent FlightSimExpo, how this helped establish dialogue with Ben Supnik of Laminar Research, a potential of an update to the DC-6 and potential further developments in the future.

PMDG have "entered a period where some resources are going to begin freeing up- so we have some pieces moving around the planning table and some of those pieces involve XPlane."

On the DC-6;

"I do not have a clear answer to this question just yet, but discussion of the topic has begun, and we will be making decisions in the coming weeks and months to sort out how we are going to fill out development time for the remainder of the year.  Once we get the DC-6 on the schedule, we will still have a bit of "known unknowns" to wrestle, as we determine just how much work will be required to bridge the gap between the two simulator versions.  It might be minimal or it might be huge.  We just don't know at this moment"

Randazzo also spoke about renewed dialogue between PMDG and Laminar Research at FSExpo and how he hopes continued "shared decision making" will allow PMDG to fast-track any X-Plane development opportunities. He goes on to sum up the potential of more PMDG products being ported over to XP:

"At this point there are no clear answers beyond "we are very interested in doing so" but we haven't found a way to make it happen without an unacceptable degree of risk to our development timelines and revenue position..  We are still evaluating and exploring ways to make this happen.  It may simply require that we hire additional developers but this isn't a simple or guaranteed route, as there are significant technical differences between the platforms."

The answer appears to be "We're not sure at the moment", and will likely be the official stance until after the release of the 747-8 expansion for P3D.

That's not it from Randazzo though! Replying to a user's apparent dismissal of PMDG developing in X-Plane, he writes that "It isn't a matter of 'if.'  It is a matter of 'when.', These are extremely complex decisions that must be made with care."

You can see the full forum thread on AVSIM - see also: Ilari Kousa comments on PMDG's latest project, Global Flight Operations.