17 June 2019 - News update

June 17, 2019

****PLEASE READ - CONTAINS INFORMATION ABOUT PRODUCT END-OF-LIFE AND INSTALLER UPDATES FOR EXISTING PRODUCTS****

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to take a moment to update everyone regarding news on upcoming products, information on older products being retired, our plans going forward and offer some comments on the latest announcement from Microsoft.

Transition from eSellerate to FastSpring

As all of our customers know, we've relied on eSellerate for all our product sales and transactions. We've enjoyed a very solid relationship with them for over ten years now and have been very happy with their professionalism and support. Unfortunately, Digital River, the parent company of eSellerate, have globally decided that eSellerate discontinue any new sales operations starting June 30th, 2019, while retaining product activation/deactivation capabilities for existing customers until September 30th, 2019, at which time the eSellerate infrastructure will no longer be available.

As soon as we were informed of this news, we started looking for the most appropriate eCommerce provider to match our customers' requirements. After a thorough market search, we selected FastSpring (www.fastspring.com) as they rate very highly in customer satisfaction and have a stellar reputation in handling payment processing in a fast and efficient manner.

I'd like to provide some details on how we're going to transition from eSellerate to FastSpring and how this affects you as a customer below. To do so, first I'd like to discuss what will happen to our existing products:

Prepar3D v4 (P3Dv4 - 64bit)

All our products for P3D v4 will continue being sold and supported through our web site. This includes the A320-X (P3Dv4), the A319-X (P3Dv4) and the upcoming A321-X (P3Dv4). Existing installers for purchases before June 30th will continue working until September 30th, 2019. Starting June 30th, existing customers will be able to transition to new installers by following a free license transfer process through our web site to receive new activation keys that the new installers will require. We aim to make the transition process as easy as possible - details on the transition mechanism will also be available as a separate announcement and email. We expect that our upcoming A320-X update will be part of this transition.

Prepar3D v3 (P3Dv3 - 32bit)

We will stop selling any P3Dv3 products (Concorde-X / A320-X) effective June 30th. At the same time, we'll stop providing free upgrades from P3Dv3 to P3Dv4 for our A320-X product line. Support will continue for at least one year (June 30th 2020) and product activation will continue working with existing installers until September 30th, 2019. After that date, we will provide updated installers through our Redownloads page which will allow activation without contacting eSellerate's activation mechanism.

Flight Simulator X (SP2/XPack/Steam - 32bit)

As with the P3Dv3 products, there will be no further development work done on the FSX products, but sales of the A320-X for FSX only will continue until September 30th. This will conclude sales of all FSLabs 32-bit products as they have reached end-of-life and development for them will no longer take place. As with the P3Dv3 products, we will provide updated installers through our Redownloads page which will allow activation without contacting eSellerate's activation mechanism.

As a result, effective June 30th, all new sales on our web site will no longer be processed by eSellerate and will be handled through FastSpring's popup storefront system.

How does this affect you as a customer?

New customers (purchasing after 30 June):

Only 64-bit products will be available for purchase.
All sales will be handled by FastSpring. Sales through eSellerate will no longer be possible.
Concorde-X (32-bit) will no longer be offered for sale for any platform.
We expect that the A320-X for FSX will no longer be offered for sale after September 30th, 2019.

Existing customers who have already purchased one of our products:

64-bit product updates released after June 30th, 2019 will use installers that will require FastSpring order IDs (starting with "FLI") and new activation keys. Details on this will be provided in a separate announcement and email. We are aiming to make the transition as easy as possible to better serve and support you going forward.

Upcoming products

Work continues on the A321-X - we will provide a separate announcement with more details on exciting new features and new functionality as time goes by, but we think the A321-X is shaping up to be our finest product yet - we know it’s a favourite amongst pilots and we’re sure our customers will develop an equal appreciation for this airframe with its rather unique characteristics. The model already looks superb and the liveries that Vassilis has been producing are shining with their new Physics Based Rendering textures. I expect several preview pictures to follow in the coming months, along with some lovely surprises in the cockpit.

The Concorde-X for 64-bit is now officially on pause. While we received some strong support from customers regarding future sales on P3Dv4, we have to ensure that we align our business model with the significant development news that we received from Microsoft, and since the aircraft is so specialized, we prefer to evaluate further once there are more details on the new platform.

The A3XX-X is also in its early stages of development, we'll have more news on that when available.

"Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020" (working title)

We were very happy to read the announcement of the new Microsoft Flight Simulator platform (which most now affectionately call "MSFS 2020"). It signals the return of one of the most prolific products that our good friends in Redmond have developed and we are all very excited to take a preview look into what looks to be technologies bringing the simulated world to a new level of immersion. We've seen the same previews as you have and they are certainly breathtaking! We cannot, however, provide any details or answer any questions about "MSFS 2020" at the present time, other than to say that our excitement about this next version is the same as yours!

That's all for now, expect more details on the transition to FastSpring these coming days!

Thank you always for your continued support!