Ssnake, I have done this secondary license thing but my question is do i have to buy the upgrade to 2.5 also as many times as i have a regular (non-2.5 license) ?

I see them charging $25.00 though ...



(I included the DVD upgrade as well because maybe the got mixed around ?)

No, thats for the just released upgrade... different then secondary licenses.

So how do I tell them I want my 5 other licenses to be upgraded as well ?

Thanks that was the info I was looking for... perhaps a seperate sticky somewhere (also to explain when to install these license upgrades as Magnum has discovered)

Frankly, I think that SB Pro PE's dongle is a better copy protection than online activations. You can play offline if you want to and you don't have to worry about running out of activations. And the price point isn't a killer, either, not for the level of realism. An F-4 Phantom equivalent to SB Pro PE with an interactive AI backseater, I'd pay $125-$150 for, no contest. and that's at SB Pro PE's graphics level. It does just fine there, from the screenshots I've seen.

Full disclosure: I don't own SB Pro PE, but that doesn't mean I don't like the product. I was an early supporter of the original SB, and even reviewed it when I was WomenGamers.Com's Hardcore Flight Simmer waaaaayyyyy back in the day. I just have a taste for things Russian, and there is no playable T-64/72/80 in the sim, hence I'm still on the fence.

Frankly, Al Delaney is one of the good guys and he's got a good product. No need to make it more commercial. It appeals to a niche audience precisely because it's a mil-grade tactical sim that the massess can grok as well. Why change what works?

Miao, Cat

DCS A10 costs half of what SB Pro PE does (Ka-50 even less) and I wouldn't call the audience immature. I bet they are making a lot more sales, money and creating bigger community along the way. Heck, we could even have affordable Thrustmaster M1 gunner's controls panel if there was more audience to this sim. DCS sims don't even have fancy dynamic campaigns or other bells and whistles, well done sim still seem to find audience in these over-consolized times. Popularity is also never bad especially on the MP viewpoint.

Why not try a temporary once-in-a-lifetime offer and cut price to around $60 just for the Christmas and see how well it does and then draw conclusions from that. I'd predict extra hands are needed at the packaging department...

Look, I understand your opinion, but I can assure you that it isn't backed by the facts. Over the past decade Steel Beasts was on sale for $40.-, for $20.-, for $125.-, and for $100.-
Weekly sales figures haven't nearly varied as much as they would need to in order to overcompensate the reduced profit margin. The biggest difference in sales figures can be attributed to the time when it was available through retail channels and as a part of a bundle. Even if we use the most optimistic sales projections - a 200% increase over the biggest number of sales when we didn't make a profit at all (in that three games for the price of half a new game), this would still not justify the production of a gunnery control handle replica. DCS is selling 50 times more copies than SB Pro because flight simulations are 50 times more popular than (contemporary) armor simulations.

Given the choice between popular but broke, or alienating a few while making a profit that helps us stay in business, I know where my priorities are. Admittedly this is a personal value judgment.

I don't know what the original SB has to do anything @ 640x480 etc. it was already ancient in 2000 and naturally put people off but it's a different beast now wheter it was available for $10 or $5. Since you've already got a bunch of military customers bringing in the most cash it would be feasible to boost wider sales for the public for all the various reasons stated in this thread. I just hate this great game is stuck marginalized and it seems it will never change, I mean what harm would a short discount campaign do? It would certainly bring more customers than new screenshots at SimHQ front page. I figure 4 years after release the profits and cashflow wouldn't exactly come crashing down if you'd have a significant discount for a week or two to attract some fresh recruits. At least I personally know about half a dozen guys who'd gladly buy it if it was on par on the price department with other sims.

But I now rest my hopeless case.

Consider the core assumption that eSim has really lost opportunities- despite the fact that they've gained opportunities through military connections, people have suggested to the contrary that they've lost a fundamental opportunity.

They do this either not knowing or not remembering back in the 1990s and early 2000s when they didn't have big name publishers who would pick them up, or who weren't willing to invest in a more advanced graphics engine, that's why you had software mode in that resolution. One could argue they wouldn't exist any more and all you would have is the original Steel Beasts if they attempted to stay alive against the odds; an attempt to hedge the reality that many small businesses flunk with an average shelf life of just a few years, that is, if they don't merge, aren't bought out or aren't acquired first.

It's sort of a trickle down benefit, we happen to have a product we benefit from which is first and foremost not designed for the consumer market as it primary focus, rather consumers can opt in, if they want. In a peculiar way, it makes sense- the consumer price tag itself isn't what is keeping eSim alive, so really, they can appear to afford to have a philosophy which rather have a smaller group of fans and would prefer a custumer going in knowing what he's getting or isn't getting- the kinds of people attracted to $120 product to begin with tend to have an interest beyond casually picking it up, or they should be informed what they are getting. Without doing any market reasearch myself, this is a bet that it's better to have a core base of happy consumers rather than for slightly more cash in a small interest area people who didn't get hovertanks with flamethrowers, and dual weidling main armament, and delivering on the kinds of action a game like the Battlefield games trashing Steel Beasts all over the Internet for being boring or for its graphics.

Finally, eSim has responded to customer feedback, where they can. But there are obligations they have as well, for example a deadline to create content for a military order, which they can't simply fail to perform on while being focused with the consumer market all the time.

Remember, it's not a consumer product first- it evolved into something that consumers have the options to buy. Having said that, they actually have been rather responsive, even the last update includes equipment that probably has a lot of entertainment or historical value (M60, T-55, T-62) than is absolutely necessary for a military grade tactics trainer.

No serious sim is going to attract Call of Duty crowds anyway, or have you seen a lot of CoD players lately loathing at Flaming Cliffs 2's mediocre lighting effects? So how about settling for a compromise release I suggested before, let's say SB Pro PE Lite with 1-2 playable tanks (M1A1 and Bradley) & cut out something else if needed. Ships for example with nice bunch of community missions & online activation option. Fully compatible in FULL version if some vehicles are left out of scenarios. Price tag for LITE version $50 which you could upgrade to SB Pro PE FULL with $50 or so. They were going to release SB2 in the first place anyway, so why not give at least something out for the average-budget casual sim gamer, there's a big crowd out there who in principle won't pay $120 (and let's not start a price debate again please).