Earth Simulations Closed Down?

[irishsooner 9]

Got that from Orbx site and tried the website and says no longer trading. Shame if true since they could have produced UK in up to date quality scenery. That and Playsims Publishing gone from the scene hurts for that part of the world.

[STUART_H 12]

Playsims website is still up and says products are available from different suppliers.

 

http://www.playsimspublishing.com/index.html

 

Stuart

[Gregg_Seipp 568]

That's a shame.  I have to say, I don't know how much was involved in creating their beautiful sceneries...perhaps, too much?  But, if anything did them in, it was their website.  It's performance, for the longest time, was horrendous.  Recently, it was better but still needed work.  That makes it doubly ouch since their products were among the best if not the best in their class.

[irishsooner 9]

Still wondering about Playsims, still has no forum working and facebook link fails. Also still showing vol. 7 coming soon, believe it was released according to FlightStore site. Least site is still up.

[MichaelTurner 5]

I currently have several ES products installed on FSX. Will I be able to reinstall them on FSX SE when I drop FSX and move over? I haven't saved the files but relied on their ESI installer for fresh downloads.

[Don Quixote 76]

ES gone?! That's awful and somewhat surprising too... they only recently started their mammoth project to cover all of the UK with high-resolution photoscenery and autogen.

What I'm worried about right now is whether we will be able to install their products in the future, as they rely on an installer which needs to communicate to the ES Servers to install the sceneries. I've just checked the installer, it still works, the question is for how long.

There is the possibility to create an "ESI-Pack" in the installer, which (I suppose) is a local backup. Probably a good idea to do that right now!

[kevinfirth 1,396]

From the ES Helpdesk (Still active for a short period of time apparently )
------------------------------------------------

Why has ES ceased trading?

← General FAQ

A number of factors have been instrumental in the decision to close down Earth Simulations.

◾We have been unable to secure enough orders for our most recent product line to raise the capital needed to pay our way and therefore remain in business.
◾Recent changes to taxation rules make running a small business such as ES extremely difficult. We are now required to register for VAT separately in every country we sell to and keep records of each sale accordingly. The added bureaucracy involved is quite honestly more trouble than it's worth.
◾Within a month of setting up ES Microsoft pulled out of Flight Simulation development. Since then there has been a steady and continued decline in the add-on market which seems unlikely to improve any in the foreseeable future. Rather than things getting easier we can only see things getting harder.
◾With the relentless struggle it has been up to making this decision, just to keep ES running and a roof over our heads, we have each worked consistently very long hours for what has been far less than even a minimum wage. As a result our health has suffered and the fun we once had making scenery has become increasingly hard to come by.
We would like to thank sincerely all our past customers, many of whom we consider to be our friends. We hope that you have had, and will continue to have many more hours of pleasure from our scenery creation efforts.

This helpdesk & ESInstaller will remain active for as long as possible but not indefinitely. We encourage you to create backups of your scenery installations.

[Wendall 50]

Well that's just a damn shame...ES' Guernsey scenery rekindled my love for low and slow flight. Sad and disappointed to see them go, but what can you do really.

[simmerhead 885]

The end of the best scenery in the biz. Sad day.

[=Hollywood= 0]

Oh man that's sad news, they did amazing work.  With the launch of FSX:SE if they'd only been able to hang in there just a little while longer. :(

[carlito777 712]

Can anybody tell me, how I can download a Prepar3d installer for the Isle of Man? I have only installed the scenery in FSX (not yet downloaded the Prepar3d version) once using the ESInstaller but the installer doesn't create any backup files, does it? If anybody knows how to save what we paid for, this would be highly appreciated! Thanks!

[kevinfirth 1,396]

Carlo, if you open ESI, you can select your owned scenery to install and then make download packs for it, so you will still be able to install it when their servers eventually go offline.

K

[CFIJose 5,485]

This could be a blessing if they join the ORBX team. There are still many great regions that can be developed and not enough talented developers. Just an idea.

[cianpars 1,165]

The big problem is the amount of time needed to produce and support FS add-ons.  The devs need to sell thousands of copies to make it pay. 

 

Because demand is fairly limited and in the main, simmers only want to purchase sceneries for their home areas or the areas in which they regularly fly, they simply can't sell enough, so the price has to be set too high for the market.

 

It's a shame, but that's the way it is.

 

Some have tried donationware and made it work (it doesn't always work) and UK2000 for example release demos of their scenery and cut down or old versions for free.  I think that they have had limited success with this, but it looks like the best business model at the moment.

 

For Earthsim, I think the VAT registration for the entire world was just too much for them to bear in a market where take up was so limited.

 

Because the cost of scenery is so high and I would want so much of it, I have to rely upon freeware and make my own with FSEarthtiles if I want to.  There are plenty of free tools for creating DIY scenery if you want to have a go.

 

IAN

[carlito777 712]

 

 

Carlo, if you open ESI, you can select your owned scenery to install and then make download packs for it, so you will still be able to install it when their servers eventually go offline.

K

 

Thanks! Checked it out and I'm already downloading an ESI pack for the Isle of Man...