Microsoft Empower for ISVs

#1 That's a really fantastic deal, I'm reading through the details now.

#2 If anyone figures out the "catch" to this... if there is one... please speak up. :)

#3 Sorry, it keeps truncating my post... See here:

http://www.empowerforisv.com/pages/qualify.aspx

No XP?

#4 To me, this really seems about reinforcing their positions on phones, the datacenter, and the home computer. I would go for it on the Vista angle.

#5 Yea... as long as your game runs on Vista then you should be good.

Now if your a hobbyist and never really plan to ship a game, this might not work out for you... but it doesn't hurt to apply and see if they give it to you.

@RollerJesus - Its doing that because of a weird character in your pasted text... copy it to Notepad first then cut and paste it here. Also remove any (c) symbols and junk like that.

#6 Great Tom, thanks for the info.

I'm a happy Vista user, so I don't really have any complaints on that end, but I know there are packs of XP-rabid dogs out there ready to tear my Vista-loving-a$$ apart...

#7 All licenses lapse when membership expires

This is a $375/year subscription... when you stop subscribing, your licenses are no longer valid. I'm not sure what happens after the 2 year initiative they state for the program. You pay $800 and get 2 years of usage?

#8 @Josh - Yep... that is a downside for some. We're currently using another Microsoft program called the Action Pack, but its aimed more at system sellers and database like apps and not so much on software development. Its a subscription service as well, but it comes with 10 licenses of just about everything, but it has no development tools... so no VS.

This new thing comes with a MSDN Premium Subscription... which itself is $2,499 a year (a $1,999 renewals).

Ignoring that. Visual Studio 2008 Pro alone is $799 new ( $549 upgrade ).

So unless your one to stick to one version of Visual Studio for 2+ years... this still seems like a steal.

#9 Ok... i catch your meaning now Josh. This is the real catch:

Quote:Empower offers developers a one-year membership with an opportunity to renew for a second year. Membership is available only once per company.

Meaning after two years you need to buy a full version of everything.

So this looks better for a startup that needs a cheap way into development than a long term development software purchasing strategy.

#10 There isn't really a catch with Empower, you get licenses for pretty much everything MS do for 1 year, with an option to renew it again for a 2nd year. It's worth it just for visual studio for a couple of years, let alone licenses for the various flavors of vista/xp for testing. Plus it's not just a single license, you get several, so for a small company it's a good way to get started imo. You also get a few limited support benefits too that are otherwise paid for.

The idea is by the end of the 2nd year on the program you'd have a retail product on sale and be looking to move onto becoming a Microsoft partner (certified and gold certified) which cost a fair bit more and the benefits of which may not justify the cost for an indie. But, there's no requirement to actual progress to that level, nor to infact complete your retail product, although of course doing the later is in your own interest and the former is what MS would hope most will go on to do.

As a developer I thought it was well worth doing and signed up early last year. Keeps your startup costs low for the first two years.

Quote:So this looks better for a startup that needs a cheap way into development than a long term development software purchasing strategy.

Yes, it's not really for the long term. A better option for that would be one of the MSDN subscriptions that provide you with Visual Studio amongst other things but are a perpetual license, so when your MSDN subscription expires, your VS license does not. Assuming of course you also make use of the other products on offer, otherwise it may work out cheaper to just buy VS outright.

#11 @Gary - The problem with the Microsoft Partner program stuff is that it doesn't include the development tools. And MSDN is just a little too expensive for a small studio like us at the moment... $2,000 per year per developer is a bit much.

#12 Yes most of the partner programs are too expensive for the benefits they may provide a small company. The action pack would have been an attractive alternative if it had included visual studio, but unfortunately doesn't.

Empower is the first program I've seen from Microsoft that I could actually see been worth the money. When you consider you get 5 user licenses for Visual Studio along with Vista/XP (+ other OS versions) for a single years payment of $375, and the option to renew at the end of the year. It could be a good deal for a number of starting companies that have a few developers.

Hopefully by the time the 2nd year ends and the licenses expire, the company would be in a position to purchase full licenses for the various tools, so the ability to not renew for a 3rd year shouldn't really matter.