PSS Press Release - 16/1/2008

[Guest Antony Waterfield]

In an attempt to halt the current speculation surrounding Phoenix Simulation Software, the closure of their website and the lack of response to support and emails, I would like to make public the following statements.PHOENIX SIMULATION SOFTWARE REGRET TO ANNOUNCEThat the Company and Website have ceased tradingPSS have experienced severe difficulties both of a personal and financial level that unfortunately at this time cannot be remedied. The financial difficulties are mainly caused by the individuals who preferred to use sites like pirate bay instead of paying to support the growth and continuation of PSS and then clogging up our forums with technical support queries for products you don

[Guest kick]

Welcome be back, and I'm ready to support and thrust you again.CheersKick

[Jim Harnes 13]

Thanks, Anthony! This is a most welcome solution to a difficult situation.Jim Harnes

[Guest coolfront55]

Thank you a million times over. I guarantee I will be a loyal purchaser of your products!!! Jorge

[miguelpp 25]

Good news, I hope Graham will be able to overcome his problems. These kind of things are always very sad.Regards.Miquel Egea.

[MarkLawrence 0]

A sad situation for Graham - however, thanks to Antony for stepping in and he will have the full support of the registered PSS users! We all look forward to the future developments!

[hippyonenine 1]

Is there any way that the people who pirated the products can be banned from the PSS forums - even if it means ultimately that the reborn PSS manage their own support in another place a la Level D? Great shame that these people have have spoilt the hobby for us and caused the problems for PSS.I will fully support the new company and look forward to seeing it back as soon as possible. Well done guys!John

[B777ER 2,484]

Thanks for the update Anthony. I hope you get the ship righted so to speak. I will be here to support whatever may come for FS9.

[Guest zzmikezz]

Antony,Your father doesn't know me but please tell him that I've been a great fan of his work going back to, and even before, his wonderful freeware SR-71. I own his FS2002 747 and 777 and was stunned by the attention to detail, and by the integrity, of his work.He will be missed, you will be welcomed.

[Guest Callmecapt]

Thank you for the info, Antony.I think this is all we wanted to read from anyone from PSS BEFORE all this mess occurred. I will be the first to admit that I have had harsh words for PSS and Graham, and the only reason is because I felt a sense of being let down by a company I would consider somewhat a friend in the FS community, as I, along with many others have been there since the 747 and 777 days of FS2000. It was like we were thrown out with the garbage when Graham left.I do hope you employ some kind of more secure download and packaging for your software as other companies seem to do ok. Piracy exists and always will. All companies are victims to it. You just have to minimize it to make sure you make enough money to keep going. And I, along with everyone else, hope you do.Goran

[Guest jaglover]

Antony, good news indeed. I look forward to a better PSS in the months to come.A word or two of advice for you, if I may be so bold:To blame the current PSS woes mainly on pirated software is, well, very convenient and very short sighted. There are other companies providing software similar to that of PSS that don't seem to have had the problems PSS has had. These companies have had their software stolen in the same manner PSS has and they're not folding-up shop. In order to move forward you really have to have a closer look at the real issues that have dogged PSS over the last several years.1) Products released before they were ready. The 777 and 757 are prime examples of this. The early releases were clearly acts of desperation and harmed the company in a very significant way. 2) Very poor customer support. A company does not fare well when its support staff lie to people, accuse people of piracy, delete complaints, choose not to respond to customer queries, publicly berate customers. I am now in the customer support business for a large Fortune 100 company and when we show our new customer support reps examples of poor support, its PSS that we use as a model.3) Download mechanism. Ditch the installer system as it now exists. Other companies haven't felt the need for such a restrictive system and I know people who have refused to purchase PSS products solely because of the installer. People like to have an installation package that can be backed-up to a physical media and reinstalled at any time.I think you can see now that piracy has not been the main issue and I wish you and the new PSS all the best. Mark

[Guest jaglover]

>Is there any way that the people who pirated the products can>be banned from the PSS forums - even if it means ultimately>that the reborn PSS manage their own support in another place>a la Level D? Great shame that these people have have spoilt>the hobby for us and caused the problems for PSS.>>I will fully support the new company and look forward to>seeing it back as soon as possible. Well done guys!>>John That's very hard to do. First you need to identify possible pirates, then you need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they actually are pirates. This is more trouble than its worth. Also, its not solely piracy that toppled PSS. Other FS add-on companies are doing OK despite piracy, albeit with a different business model.

[phil747fan 14]

Anthony,great you re trying to coming back but just some advices from a former PSS beta tester in the old great days of FS2000 with 777 and 747 ...and i left just after the beginning of A320 development ...- making better or create a communication inside the team is the main to do - avoiding people claiming they re pilots in real and not at all- listenning when customers said there is a problem (see communication point 1)-never release add-on before it s fully operationnal and not thinking about customers as beta-testers.wish you the best but without all the points over no more chances to climb as your company was.and im not talking about piracy (im against but it doesnt kill your products) or business plan. see youPhil

[guy 24]

AnthonyAs an happy flyer of all pss products (except dash and 757) and also great admirer of your superb panels , I wish you much courage and good luck.Guy

[FOD 23]

Mark,Whilst I agree the general thrust of your comments, the generalities in para 2 have less credibility. Rob has formally been providing Airbus support for several years and I have been doing the same for the Boeings for well over a year. To my knowledge neither of us have done any of the things you accuse us of.As to the PSS delivery system, it requires one connection to the internet on initial purchase. After that you can copy/paste the files from FS9 as a backup or carry out a further download into a dummy folder. In either case you can them re-install the aircraft as you wish without the need for the internet.That said, I think we all hope that Antony is successful. Having been testing until last Autumn, I believe that with a new management the development team has much to offer for the future.John Rooum