We bought Flight Simulator Premium Deluxe (and a Logitech Yoke controller) for my girlfriends step-dad, who had been diagnosed with dementia. He used to fly himself, so we thought this might be a nice gift and something that would give him pleasure. Sadly, he didn’t really take to it and it ended up being packed away. Even more sadly, he passed away in December of last year.
We are now in the process of clearing belongings and the Flight Simulator Premium Deluxe and Logitech Yoke has to go. What I’m not 100% sure of though is whether anyone else will be able to play the game if we sell it on? From memory, when we set it up, we had to create an account for him, and I suspect the game is now associated with that account. Does anyone know whether if the game is installed onto another computer (e.g. after we’ve sold it) whether that would work or whether it will say that its effectively “owned” by someone else? We would like to sell these items and then donate the money to a dementia charity etc.
If it makes any difference, it was the physical copy of the game, it came on 10 DVDs, and then there was a separate download I believe. In fact there were several downloads but I think that was because the game was quite new and updates were being released.
Any help/information you could offer would be appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Hi @RobMeade. That was a nice gesture for your GF’s stepfather. Sorry it didn’t work out.
I found this post on Microsoft’s Community Forums. Unsurprisingly, an installation that is already associated with one Microsoft Account cannot be used with another Microsoft account. A game license is not transferable. You would need to contact Microsoft to see if a refund is possible. I am not familiar with that process, but it is worth a try. Blue skies.
Edit: Link to information about requesting a refund.
OK it was a long time ago but I found a copy of FSX gold and FSX Acceleration for a fiver each in a charity shop. To activate them I remember sending Microsoft photos of the discs and their packaging including the attached activation codes. Three or four days later I was flying. Now I know things have changed with linked accounts etc. but I feel they might be sympathetic especially if it was very litte used. Coding today is more of a minefield so if the option doesn’t exist in the licensing program it might not be possble.
The dvd set is now very outdated and honestly easier and better to install from online download.
The game is associated to an xbox account (or steam account) not a serial number. So as long as whomever bought the dvds has their own account, it should function.
Try ebay or something similar for the Yoke.
Neither of these things can be done on this forum however.
Do remember to cancel/close whatever account(s) you may have set up for him, specially if personal or credit info was included.
I’m sure you’ll need to show you own it first so for the initial install it’s always likely you will need a disk. Once you are set up you should theoretically be able to bin them
Just to confirm, yes, I wasn’t trying to sell either here, merely asking the group whether they knew if it was possible to install/play once the game had been installed and associated with another account etc.
I ended up having to install/re-install this software about 5 or 6 times when trying to get it set up, as we actually had a number of problems with the laptop which had to be sent back several times as the screen kept falling out (you literally couldn’t make it up).
During that process, on one occassion I recall it had started to install without the discs (I think, it was a while ago now), but I think once it was associated with his Microsoft account, it then was available via the Microsoft Store/Library etc.
As there’s a bit of a mixture of whether it will be ok or not here, perhaps it would be best to try to contact Microsoft directly and see what they say. I think though we may run into the problem of needing his Microsoft account details and whilst we have the username, I’m not sure whether we’ll find the password that was set for it. Its been obviously a fairly rough time and details like that have problem been lost in the process.
I’ll see if I can reach out and see what is said. If the game’s serial is locked to the account, all we’d really want is for it to be unlocked so that someone else can use/enjoy it. He used to fly real planes, it was his passion, he proposed to my partners mum whilst in a plane over Snowdon (UK), I’m sure he’d like to think that someone else got to enjoy the software and yoke as much as he had always enjoyed flying.
Thanks again for all the replies and taking the time to offer suggestions. Apologies for my delay getting back to you all, I’ve been away for a little while and came back to some things. Thanks all
One thing is for certain, you will not have a chance if it is still installed elsewhere. Once uninstalled from his laptop (which must be while online with him logged onto his microsoft account when you do). Then theoretically it will be then be available but you are still going to need a licence that only Microsoft can consent to. Of course you could create a second account in your father in law’s name on your own PC but I suspect there are major legal implications if you do so without his permission.
It’s no longer installed, as the laptop was kindly gifted to my son, and I rebuilt it for him, so everything that was on it has been wiped.
I didn’t uninstall Flight Simulator though, not in the traditional way, so I’m not sure if that’ll be a problem, but it definitely isn’t installed anywhere at this time.
We may have some of the login details for various things, as you would expect when someone passes away etc, whether we have those for the Microsoft account though, I’m not sure. I think we had the gamer tag written down somewhere, and an email address that I created for them both to use on the laptop in the last few months they were with us.
Thanks again, and I’ll get on to Microsoft and see where it leads.
