Buying Licenses

Question

Hello all,

 

It's been a while since I've been on here but have been trying to keep up with ESP news as its released.  I was wondering what the best way to go about buying licenses for ESP is now.  I would only require client licenses (no development aspect) and would probably be looking at 5 or more.  I went to some of the resellers and saw one selling for around $40 and the other selling for $300+.  The descriptions looked similar but obviously there had to be some difference or else the prices wouldn't be so different.

 

Has anybody tried purchasing licenses since the new year?  What should I be looking for when going to the reseller's site and trying to buy licenses?

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

EDIT: In case it is of importance, I am  US customer.

Answer 1

If anybody has went through license purchasing after the new year and has any information it would be a great help.

Currently I am looking at the resellers listed (CDW, SHI, Softchoice, PCMall) and seeing what in all it would entail to purchase a client license from them and be able to resell it to our end customer.  I have noticed Microsoft Select attached to many of the entries so am unsure whether or not we have to have MS Select agreement in place prior to purchasing.  The other major point to address would be what support (if any) is or will be available, and also if there is an upgrade path for future work on ESP (unlikely it seems now, but with other companies like Lockheed having intellectual rights, certainly a possibility).

It would be a shame to hit a dead end now after putting the time and money into developing a product with ESP.  I'll keep you posted with my experiences but any other information would be of great help to me!

 

Thanks,

Mike

Answer 2

Hey Mike,

Late last year I had a number of chat's with MS licensing. I was told that MS would no longer be selling copies of ESP in 2010 and that object code licensing could be purchased by ESP integrators.

The only release I have seen thus far is here: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-17MSFlight1PR.mspx

After many weeks of investigation we decided not to move forward with a distribution license as we feel that ESP has no long-term future. It's possible that LHM may bring the product back to life but not a wise investment at this point.

Cheers!

Christian

Answer 3

Christian,

Thanks for the response.  It is true that MS is not selling any copies of ESP, but licenses are being sold via 3rd parties as listed off the main ESP page.  I think all I require is client licenses so our end customers can legally use the product.  We have a developer's license for our company and have already devised a solution based around ESP.  Essentially we are just 3rd party software plugging into ESP via the SimConnect API.

So currently I am just trying to figure out where I need to go from here.  Even if ESP has no long term future, I'd like to cut some of the losses we incurred developing by at least selling the solution we have already developed -- even if we do not do further development work on the project.

I am exploring a few contacts at Microsoft now to see what is the best way to go.  Ideally I'd like for our end customer to simply buy a legal, licensed copy of ESP and be able to sell our solution to them.  I know last year it was okay for us to buy the client license, install it on a PC, and then resell the PC to our end customer (at least it was okay according to the MS contact) but with the volume licensing no longer going through MS, things may have changed.

 

Thanks for the info,

Mike

 

Answer 4

Mike, shoot me an email at christian @ freedomworks . ca and I can get you in direct contact with the license people you need to speak with.

 

Christian

Answer 5

Sent you an email, thanks!

 

Mike

Answer 6

Hi Mike,

I don't agree with Chris.  ESP has quite a shelf life yet. First off, nothing else really competes on that level (yet) and there are almost unlimited possibilities. If it is a matter of support, We never relied on MS for support at anytime during FSX or ESP development and any that was offered was usually not sufficient.

We have licensed copies available with our solutions. One that I am ready to release restores all ESP menu content so that it can operate just like FSX as a free play simulator. Out of the box ESP cannot do this unless it is ran in debug mode. This utility is very affordable (150.00) and can be sold as part of an ESP / Solution purchase from us.   ESP may not be supported by MS, but it has great potential for some time to come until something better comes along and that will be quite some time from now.

Jim Rhoads

Flight1 Aviation Technologies
htp://www.flight1tech.com

 

Answer 7

Jim,

 

I'm interested as to how you came across licensed copies of ESP since in my converstations with MS, there is no way to purchases ESP "Out of the box" anymore.  There have a program set up where you get access to the source code of ESP V.1 and go from there, but this is obviously more expensive than the client license being offered previously via the Volume Licensing Program.  Did you purchase a large quantity back when it was sold OOTB?

 

Mike

Answer 8

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/dec09/12-17MSFlight1PR.mspx

Answer 9

Jim,

Indeed becoming partners is a way to get licenses, but the problem is that we don't want to pay the upfront cost and yearly royalty fees for a source code license -- we simply want to purchase the same license we could before.  We already devised a solution around ESP and just need client licenses so our customers can run ESP and our solution.  The problem with this is that there are no longer "client licenses" and entering into an IP agreement with ESP is now the only way to acquire licenses.

 

Mike