Orbx has today confirmed that they have purchased Earth Simulations assets with the intention of releasing refreshed versions of the Channel Islands for Prepar3D, Aerofly FS2 and X-Plane 11.
Over on the forums, it was confirmed that the acquisition of these assets mean we’ll be seeing brand new versions of Aldnery, Guensey, Jersey and the Isle of Man in the upcoming year. The project will be lead by the guys at Turbulent Designs, who recently teamed up with Orbx. Using up-to-date imagery and the various development techniques developed by Orbx, these new products will be better than ever before.
Orbx CEO John Venema today said “This is a great result for both the former users of Earth Simulations and also the Orbx community.. It has been a desire of mine for some years to carry Darren and Vicki’s benchmark scenery titles forward and give them a new lease of life.”
Whilst owners of Earth Simulations products may be disappointed to hear that there will not be a free upgrade, it’s worth noting that all the additional features will ensure it will feel like a brand new product. Furthermore, it has been confirmed that cross-platform purchases will mean users who buy for multiple sims (e.g. P3D and XP11), will be entitled to the usual 40% discount, as seen from other Orbx products.
Darren Vincent – the former director of Earth Simulations – said today, “I’m very pleased that Orbx have taken custody of our work and will give it a new lease of life across these simulator platforms. I am sure our previous ES customers will embrace this redux of our sceneries which we are very proud to have made back in the day. I wish John and his team all the best with their plans!”
John concluded with “We will make use of the many digital assets that are available from the ES files, which you will see in products like TrueEarth Great Britain and elsewhere.”
The first channel island to be released will be Alderney for FSX/P3D which you can expect within the next 3-4 months.
*Couldn’t find a suitable preview image, so used a cool video from MegaRocket99.
