Microsoft Marketplace and Orbx Direct - FAQ

[Nick Cooper]

Q. What are the Microsoft Marketplace and Orbx Direct?

 

A. The in-game Microsoft Marketplace is a medium for the purchase and installation of additional features for the Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Its purpose is to allow customers to pay for and install any of the products on offer in the Marketplace.

Marketplace customers will have an account at the Marketplace.

 

Orbx Direct is a website where customers may go to purchase Orbx products.

Customers may also make purchases using Orbx Central.

Orbx Central is the application that must be installed on the host computer to download and install the purchases made at Orbx Direct.

Orbx customers will have an Orbx Direct account.

 

Q. Why can I not see the products I bought in the Marketplace in Orbx Central or my Orbx Direct purchases in the Microsoft Marketplace?

 

A. There is no connection or communication between the Microsoft Marketplace customer account and the Orbx Direct customer account.

 

This means that:

a customer who bought from the Marketplace will not see them as owned in Orbx Central.

a customer who bought from the Marketplace will not be able to use Orbx Central to manage or update those products.

 

a customer who bought from Orbx Direct will not see them as owned in the Marketplace.

a customer who bought from Orbx Direct will not be able to use the Marketplace to manage and update those products.

a customer who bought from Orbx Direct will be able to use Orbx Central to manage and update those products.

 

Q. Why are new products and product updates available through Orbx Central and not yet through the Marketplace?

 

A. Orbx has direct access to Orbx Direct and Orbx Central. New products and product updates can be added as and when ready.

New products and updates to Orbx products have to go through a Microsoft procedure before being added to the Marketplace.

Note: Orbx product updates at the Marketplace will be in the form of a full download of the product.

 

Q. I bought an Orbx product at the Marketplace, why do I not qualify for a discount at Orbx Direct?

 

A. Product discounts for previous ownership rely on there being a qualifying product already in the customer account. As the two marketing media are not connected, a product owned at one of them will not qualify for a discount at the other.

 

Q. Can I use products that I bought from Orbx Direct on my XBox?

 

A. No, the XBox is a closed system which cannot run Orbx Central as an installer.

To run Orbx products on an XBox, they must be bought, again if already owned, from the XBox in-game Marketplace.

 

Q. I bought an Orbx product from the in-game Marketplace, can I transfer it to Orbx Direct?

 

A. No, as the two selling media are completely separate, there is no system in place to allow this.

There is no system to transfer them in the other direction either, though such a request has never been made.

 

Q. I have installed a product using Orbx Central but it shows in the Content Manager as "Not installed"

 

A. If a third-party developer's product really is not installed, it does not show in the Content Manager at all.

It is best not to refer to the Content Manager when dealing with third-party addons, unless it is changed, it

is more likely to mislead than to inform.