Microsoft Flight Simulator News & Announcements
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is by far our most ambitious simulator to date, and we are incredibly excited for all of you – from our core sim fans to all gamers and those who want to explore the world with us – to join us on this journey. With authentic realism of all environments, aviation careers to pursue and the ability to explore our beautiful world with various kinds of aircraft, there is something amazing for everyone in this version of the simulator.
We feel very fortunate that Microsoft Flight Simulator has a vibrant, highly informed and passionate community which has been invaluable on our journey to continually improve the simulator. Our motto is “for the community – with the community”, which means that we will continue to carefully listen to your feedback and suggestions to help guide our development efforts – and it also means that we will continue to work with teams from the community to help us produce the best aircraft, airports, scenery, missions, and other features.
The team at Asobo is very much the core with the engine and key innovations all coming from the team in Bordeaux. We were able to substantially enhance the breadth and quality by inviting other creator teams from the flight sim community to help and bring focus to the many areas of this vast simulator. Aircraft were built by well-known and loved community teams like iniBuilds, Carenado, Got Friends, Blackbird, Hype Performance Group, MilTech, S&H, FlightFX, DC Designs, ATSimulations, BlueMesh and others to create the largest and most detailed fleet we have ever had (70 aircraft) for the base simulator. Other areas like airports, heliports, glider airports were mostly built by the talented team at Gaya, worldwide obstacles by Orbx & Puffin Flight, animals by Lakshya and via a collaboration with Frontier Developments, air racing by Climax, and many other elements like avionics and flight planning from Working Title. In total, we had over 800 people contributing to the sim and the result is beautiful and incredibly impressive.
The dream of flight is ingrained in us yet many people have been unable to pursue that dream due to a lack of opportunity to pilot their own plane … MSFS 2024 provides 70 highly diverse aircraft, our entire beautiful Earth, and many activities to suit your aviation desires.
Thank you for embarking on this incredible adventure with us. We hope you enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
The Sky Is Calling.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available in a variety of editions. The Standard Edition – available with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass — comes with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; Deluxe Edition includes 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports; the Premium Deluxe includes another 15 aircraft (total of 95); Aviator Edition includes everything from the Premium Deluxe Edition plus the entire fleet of 30 Microsoft-published Marketplace aircraft developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator between 2021 and 2024. If you own Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Deluxe Edition or Premium Deluxe Edition the additional aircraft and airports unique to these editions will automatically work in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
We feel very fortunate that Microsoft Flight Simulator has a vibrant, highly informed and passionate community which has been invaluable on our journey to continually improve the simulator. Our motto is “for the community – with the community”, which means that we will continue to carefully listen to your feedback and suggestions to help guide our development efforts – and it also means that we will continue to work with teams from the community to help us produce the best aircraft, airports, scenery, missions, and other features.
The team at Asobo is very much the core with the engine and key innovations all coming from the team in Bordeaux. We were able to substantially enhance the breadth and quality by inviting other creator teams from the flight sim community to help and bring focus to the many areas of this vast simulator. Aircraft were built by well-known and loved community teams like iniBuilds, Carenado, Got Friends, Blackbird, Hype Performance Group, MilTech, S&H, FlightFX, DC Designs, ATSimulations, BlueMesh and others to create the largest and most detailed fleet we have ever had (70 aircraft) for the base simulator. Other areas like airports, heliports, glider airports were mostly built by the talented team at Gaya, worldwide obstacles by Orbx & Puffin Flight, animals by Lakshya and via a collaboration with Frontier Developments, air racing by Climax, and many other elements like avionics and flight planning from Working Title. In total, we had over 800 people contributing to the sim and the result is beautiful and incredibly impressive.
The dream of flight is ingrained in us yet many people have been unable to pursue that dream due to a lack of opportunity to pilot their own plane … MSFS 2024 provides 70 highly diverse aircraft, our entire beautiful Earth, and many activities to suit your aviation desires.
Thank you for embarking on this incredible adventure with us. We hope you enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
The Sky Is Calling.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available in a variety of editions. The Standard Edition – available with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass — comes with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; Deluxe Edition includes 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports; the Premium Deluxe includes another 15 aircraft (total of 95); Aviator Edition includes everything from the Premium Deluxe Edition plus the entire fleet of 30 Microsoft-published Marketplace aircraft developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator between 2021 and 2024. If you own Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Deluxe Edition or Premium Deluxe Edition the additional aircraft and airports unique to these editions will automatically work in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
There's only five more days until the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024! The launch will be a single global release for all time zones simultaneously at 8:00am Pacific Standard Time (1600 UTC) on Tuesday, November 19. To confirm the launch time in your local area, please consult the Arrivals Board below.
Yesterday, we hosted the final Developer Livestream prior to the launch of MSFS2024. This time, we were pleased to welcome aircraft developer Hans Hartmann to demonstrate two planes he created for MSFS2024, the Pilatus PC-6 and De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter! In case you missed it live, you can watch the VOD on YouTube here.
The next Developer Livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, November 27. The regular panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial will be back to discuss Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and answer many questions from the community. As always, follow our official Twitch channel and ensure notifications are enabled so you'll know whenever we go live.
As we announced last week, we are now regularly posting to Threads! If you're looking for the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator news and information on an alternate social platform, be sure to follow @MSFSofficial to stay up to date with all the latest announcements!
Finally, simmers who purchased the Limited Collector's Edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from Aerosoft may have recently received an email about a shipping delay to non-USA regions that will prevent delivery in time for the November 19 release date. We know everyone who purchased this edition are some of the most dedicated and passionate simmers in the community, and we have heard your disappointment that you won't be able to play on launch day. To make things right, we are pleased to offer all affected simmers one complimentary month of Game Pass (which includes the Standard Edition of MSFS2024 in addition to hundreds of other titles) plus a Standard to Aviator Edition upgrade token, allowing you to enjoy the new sim as soon as it releases. Please see this announcement post for more information.
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Yesterday we hosted another of our planned weekly Developer Livestreams leading up to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on November 19. Joining Jorg this week were Mike Johnson to showcase the Amphibian Aerospace Albatross and Cameron MacMillan and Pablo (a real-world Airbus A330 and A350 captain) from iniBuilds to demonstrate the Airbus A330, A321LR, A400M Atlas, and Beluga XL.
If you missed the broadcast live while it happened, you can watch the VOD on our YouTube channel here.
In the lead-up to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, we know many of you are looking at different peripheral options so you can enhance your sim experience. All throughout this week, we have been posting spotlight articles on flight sim products from different vendors. You can check them out at the links below:
- Pimax (VR headsets for PC)
- Turtle Beach (flight control peripherals for PC and Xbox)
- Tobii (head and eye tracking for PC)
- Elgato (programmable multi-function control panels for PC)
- Thrustmaster (flight control peripherals for PC and Xbox)
We have more peripheral spotlight articles coming in the next few days. Be sure to check them out!
Finally, for anyone looking for the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator news and information on an alternate social platform, we are now regularly posting to Threads! Be sure to give us a follow so you can stay up to date with all the latest announcments!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Yesterday we hosted another of our planned weekly Developer Livestreams leading up to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on November 19. This week, Jorg was joined by three members of the SDK team at Asobo to answer some of the most common questions we've seen from third party developers since the start of the Dev Alpha last week. Also appearing on the stream were three members of Microsoft's Marketplace team to discuss some upcoming changes to the Marketplace in the new sim. Of particular note to fans of military aircraft is a new policy change: visible but non-functional weapons will now be permitted on aircraft sold via the in-sim Marketplace.
If you missed the broadcast live while it happened, you can watch the VOD on our YouTube channel here.
The next developer livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, November 6th at 10:30am PDT (1830 UTC). Please note that the start time may be different in your local time zone due to the switch from Daylight Saving Time to Standard time in many parts of the world. Next week's livestream will feature aircraft developer Mike Johnson as well as members of the team at iniBuilds to preview the new aircraft they are creating for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. As always, we will be livestreaming the event on our official Twitch channel! The full schedule for our planned Developer Livestreams over the next month is below:
Finally, next week we're excited to showcase some wonderful partners who make hardware peripherals compatible with Microsoft Flight Simulator. Follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok) or check back on this website to learn more about some great hardware products to enhance your flight simming experience. There might be some prize giveaways... 👀
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Earlier today, we released an update to Expert Series 01: ATR 42-600/72-600. This update is available to download via the in-sim Content Manager, and you can read the release notes on our forums here.
On Wednesday of this week, we hosted the second developer livestream to feature the creators of new aircraft launching with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This time, the panel consisted of developers from Got Friends, MilTech Simulations, and Hype Performance Group demoing seven new aircraft. First up, Got Friends showed three airplanes and two gliders: the AeroElvira Optica, Draco X, and Zlin Aviation Savage Norden and the Pipistrel Taurus M and Stemme S12G gliders. Next, MilTech Simulations gave an extensive preview of the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, a new plane that is sure to delight fans of military transport aircraft. Finally, Hype Performance Group ended the livestream with a demonstration of the Airbus H225 helicopter. All you rotary wingnuts out there (hi Sergio!) will love flying this beautiful bird on passenger transport missions to offshore oil platforms.
If you missed the broadcast live while it happened, you can watch the VOD on our YouTube channel here.
The next developer livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, October 30th at 10:30am PDT (1730 UTC) and will feature MSFS team members Julie, Mabel, and Todd joining Jorg to discuss the in-sim Marketplace in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. As always, we will be livestreaming the event on our official Twitch channel! The full schedule for our planned Developer Livestreams over the next month is below:
In case you missed it, last week we shared a full recording of the presentation from September's Global Preview Event at the Grand Canyon. This presentation was delivered by several members of the development team to invited members of the media and flight simulation creator community and covers many of the new features and improvements coming in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. We hope you enjoy watching it to learn more about MSFS2024 ahead of its launch in 26 days!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
From October 11-14, we ran the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Technical Alpha Test. The purpose of this test was to gather automatic telemetry data related to several online services used by MSFS2024. THANK YOU to everyone who participated! The data collected from the Technical Alpha is tremendously valuable to our production team as we prepare for the launch of MSFS2024 on November 19. For anyone who did not participate in the test, we wish to remind you that any footage from the Technical Alpha you may have seen online was from a pre-release test build and should not be viewed as representative of the final product.
Yesterday, we hosted the first in our series of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Aircraft Partner livestreams. During the broadcast, Jorg was joined by Nick and Marwan from Flight FX to showcase three of the aircraft they created for MSFS2024: the Jetson One, Joby S4, and Archer Midnight. All three of these modern, cutting-edge aircraft are included in the Standard Edition of MSFS2024. If you missed the livestream, you can watch the VOD on YouTube below.
Our next 1st Party Aircraft Partner livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, October 23rd at 10:30am PDT (1730 UTC). As always, we will be livestreaming the event on our official Twitch channel! The full schedule for our upcoming Developer Livestreams is below:
Finally, we're excited to share this video from last month's Global Preview Event at the Grand Canyon. This is a recording of the presentation delivered by several members of the development team to invited members of the media and flight simulation creator community. The presentation covers many of the new features and improvements coming in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and we hope you enjoy watching it to learn more about MSFS2024 ahead of its launch in 33 days!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is Twitter user @BasedRaccoon! If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!
Earlier today we launched Expert Series 1: ATR 42/72-600 Expansion, which features a number of bug fixes and improvements to this popular turboprop. Additionally, this expansion also includes two new variants of the plane for your enjoyment: the 42-600S (short take-off and landing / STOL) and 72-600F (freighter). Owners of the Expert Series ATR 42/72-600 aircraft can download this FREE update via the Content Manager.
In the run up to the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on November 19th, we are hosting a number of Developer Livestreams. The next Developer Livestream will be broadcast on Wednesday, October 16th at 10:30am PDT (1730 UTC) and focuses on 1st Party Aircraft Partners. We will be livestreaming the event on our official Twitch channel! The full schedule for our upcoming Developer Livestreams is below:
Upcoming Developer Livestreams
If you missed the last Developer Livestream with the Asobo SDK (Software Development Kit) Team, you can watch the VOD over on our YouTube channel.
Finally, earlier this week we announced the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Technical Alpha, which is now open for applications via our Insider Sign-Up Survey. Please note that this is only available for the Windows PC (Windows Store) platform. For more details on the Technical Alpha please see our web post, which includes a summary as to what content will be available, as well as other important information.
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is Twitter user @pommes_l! If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!
Earlier this week, we launched Aircraft & Avionics Update 3 (AAU3)! This release enhances three aircraft: the Airbus A310-300, Airbus A320neo V2, and Pilatus PC-6 Porter. To see what was improved for each plane, you can read the full release notes here. We also released the latest Navdata update (AIRAC cycle 2410) this week. Both AAU3 and the navdata update are installed automatically upon launching the sim.
On Wednesday, we hosted the second of our weekly Developer Livestreams leading up to and following the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 next month. This livestream featured Jorg and three members of the Software Development Kit (SDK) team from Asobo. While the primary intended audience for this session was third-party developers who make add-on products for the sim, regular players may also find the information from the broadcast interesting. Some of the covered topics include:
What are the new and enhanced features in the SDK developers can use when making aircraft and airports?
- Can players use third-party add-on aircraft in Career Mode?
- Approximately how much developer effort is required to upgrade a Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) add-on to use the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 SDK?
- And much more!
- If you missed seeing it live, you can watch the VOD on our YouTube channel here:
There was much more information the SDK team would like to share than could be covered in the two-hour broadcast, so we have tentatively scheduled a second SDK-focused livestream for next week. Tune in again on Wednesday, October 9 at 9:30am PDT (1630 UTC). As always, we will be livestreaming the broadcast on our official Twitch channel.
Finally, the MSFS Team would like to send our greetings to all the members of our September Family who are currently attending the Reno Air Show this weekend! While we’re sad that we won’t be there in person this year, we’re sure the various performers and display teams — including the US Navy Blue Angels and Canadian Forces Snowbirds — will give a wonderful send-off to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Reno Air Races!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Aircraft and Avionics Update 3 is now available as a free download for all Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) players!
If you would like to provide general feedback for each of these aircraft, please do so via the dedicated Polls & Feedback threads linked here:
Airbus A320neo V2
Airbus A310-300
Pilatus PC-6 Porter
The release notes are available to browse here.
This week's Screenshot Challenge winner is Forum user KnackBretzel! If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!
It's been another big week for Microsoft Flight Simulator news!
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available to pre-order on Steam! With pre-orders for Xbox and Windows Store going live last week, players on all platforms can now prepare themselves for the November 19 launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 204 and also enjoy the De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting aircraft in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) today as a special bonus to everyone who pre-orders!
Yesterday, we hosted our September Developer Livestream! During this broadcast, our regular panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial were pleased to be joined by guest Hans Hartmann to provide more details about an upcoming update to Expert Series 1: ATR 42-600/72-600. The panel also responded to many of the community's most frequently asked questions regarding Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. If you missed the live broadcast, you can watch the VOD on YouTube here:
Topics covered during the livestream include:
- ATR update information
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 PC system requirements
- World & weather updates
- Aircraft & flight model improvements
- Information about Career mode
- Additional clarification about ownership of MSFS (2020) content in MSFS2024
- Announcement of World Update 19: Brazil, Guyana, French Guyana, and Suriname
- And more!
Towards the end of the session, Jorg also announced that we will be hosting (almost) weekly Developer Livestreams for the next two months, each focusing on a different subject area and each with different guest panelists. The first such livestream, scheduled for next week on October 2 starting at 9:30am PDT (1630 UTC), will focus on the Software Development Kit (SDK) used by add-on makers for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. You can watch this livestream on our official Twitch channel. If you would like to pre-submit a question to the panel in advance, you can do so by completing the form at this link. Reminder: this upcoming livestream is about SDK-related topics only, not a general Microsoft Flight Simulator Q&A.
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Summary:
Click here to pre-order on Steam!
2020’s Microsoft Flight Simulator was by far the most successful entry in Microsoft’s longest supported franchise. It redefined what was possible from a flight simulator by utilizing a mix of cloud-based worldwide map data, cutting-edge photogrammetry, machine learning techniques, and a real-time worldwide weather simulation. These offerings, along with a complex physics system that allowed for highly sophisticated flight models, all made the famous franchise a household name again.
Now with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on fast approach for a November 19, 2024, release date, we got our first deep dive into the game, and discovered how much more impressive the entire flight simulator experience is about to become for fans. From the digital tourist to a novice flyer to the most advanced pilots, it’s shaping up to have something for everyone to enjoy.
“Since we launched Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2020, we have seen 15 million people come to the simulation and be interested in what we do,” explains Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann. “When you compare that number to the previous biggest launch we had, which was Microsoft Flight Simulator X, it took 16 years to get to 5 million users. So there has been an explosion in the flight simulation hobby and it’s because of the community and excitement that everybody’s bringing .”
Earning Your Wings
One of the features I’m most excited to see come to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS 2024) is its Career System, designed to bring a comprehensive and immersive experience for all manner of piloting skills. The system cleverly mimics the experience of how real-world pilots start their aviation careers. “You can pick any single airport on the planet and start your career there, which means that you are going to take your lessons at this location. Your first job can be anywhere, and I mean anywhere, in the world,” explains CCO of Asobo Studio David Dedeine. “You will start as a rookie pilot and meet a mentor who will explain to you how the career works and guide you through the very first steps in the career.”
The Career System introduces new elements to the simulation like pre-flight procedures, logging flight paths, and choosing from a vast amount of mission objectives. Advancement is tracked through a certification tree where you can learn the skills to fly various types of aircraft – each of which comes with a training session to help you master those skills. Later, specializations will unlock a variety of missions, such as Search and Rescue, Commercial Flights, Firefighting, and many more.
“You are not going to have to spend five years of your life to do the actual exam. It’s a simplified version, but still, it will explain to you the basics of each of those different activities, from commercial pilot to tailwind, airliner, transport, etc.” Dedeine adds. “Performance for these missions is evaluated by several factors like following ATC instructions, taxi paths, and flight parameters. Completing these missions successfully nets you credits and reputation, which you can then use to save up and buy your own plane and eventually manage your own fleet.”
Once you have earned enough money to run your business with your personally-owned aircraft, a new phase in MSFS 2024 opens in which you’ll be directly responsible for your aircraft; every landing, every bump on the runway, is going to impact the warranty of your planes, affecting the cost to keep them maintained. Effectively, MSFS 2024 includes a management sim inside the wider flight sim.
“This is basically the management of your fleet,” Dedeine elaborates, “because you will buy more planes at some point to allow you to engage in a different type of activity. Maybe you want to buy your own airliners and expand your fleet across the world. This new Career System is a big chunk of the innovation we introduce in MSFS 2024, and I think it’s never been done at this level of variety and quality before.”
If there was a ding against the 2020 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, it was that each of its individual experiences, like Bush Trips and Landing Challenges (which are still fun), rarely felt connected to each other. It was akin to putting on a greatest hits album, giving you the best bits without experiencing what the journey was like to get there. This is what I’ve wanted from a flight simulator for such a long time, and having a chance to create my own virtual pilot journey from start to finish sounds like it’s going to keep me flying for a long, long time.
Improving the “Digital Twin”
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also bringing massive enhancements to the simulated Earth by increasing the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000. For instance, the ground will no longer be a mere heightfield; it now features tiny stones, rocks, gravel and grass all modeled in 3D. This ground detail impacts your aircraft’s wheels as they interact with the various surfaces affecting take-offs and landings. Improved sky and atmospheric lighting, especially during sunrise and sunset, with varying displays of colors based on the makeup of the clouds ensuring accurate temperatures for all light sources. New cloud types like cirrus clouds will better simulate the highest levels of our atmosphere, while the dynamic weather has been improved as well, increasing the density to make storms and other weather phenomena much more realistic and impressive to fly through.
“We can basically get every rock on Earth now; it’s unbelievable,” Neumann adds. “We updated the aerial imagery for the entire world, and we set up a team of specialists that gather digital elevation maps from across the planet. The result of these last four years of work is that we now have an unprecedented level of ground detail. Nobody else has anything like this.”
And it’s not just inanimate objects that are getting massive improvements. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is attempting to populate its digital Earth (the “digital twin”) as close to our real world as feasible by introducing a large cast of diverse human characters and locally-significant vehicles, all adding to the overall realism of the simulation. For instance, there’s real-time ship tracking so you can see cargo ships move throughout the world as you would in real life. You can see passengers inside airliners or moving from one location to the next in airports. And because landing just about anywhere in the world is one of the key features, due to the much more detailed environments, the development team worked closely with partners like Frontier (creators of Zoo Tycoon and Planet Zoo) to introduce many species that bring the world to life.
“We have species separated into two groups. For wild animals, we are using a fantastic database (GBIF – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) to place animals across the world both in their appropriate habitats and in roughly appropriate quantities to get close to realistic densities. For domesticated animals, we are using our field detection (which is also used for activities like Aerial Application) to place species like cows, sheep, goats and horses across the planet. We can essentially now go sheep herding or cow herding with helicopters, which is super fun,” Neumann explains.
Powered By the Cloud
Another big area of improvement that’s planned is addressing the installation size. It’s no big surprise how much space Microsoft Flight Simulator takes up on your console or PC (it’s a lot). So, it’s refreshing to hear how this is one of the biggest things that is being addressed in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. By tapping into the latest cloud streaming technology, installation size has been trimmed down to about 30 GB to get you in your seat and flying as quickly as possible, streaming in the higher detailed areas that are only necessary for your flight path; why install all the data for the United States when you’re intending to just fly over Europe for the evening?
“The very important thing is overall bandwidth consumption is way down, because you only download what you really see when you see it, and we don’t pre-download at like hundreds of gigabytes,” explains CEO and Co-Founder of Asobo Studio Sebastian Wloch. ”Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) already had over two petabytes of data on the cloud. That was the whole world data. We kept adding to that, but we still had planes, airports, meshes, points of interests like castles, and textures that were all installed. That’s the part that kept growing with the marketplace content, which had grown to 2 TB. Now we integrated everything into the cloud, and it is all streamed and kept into a rolling cache on the hardware. You don’t have to install any new World Updates; they’re just streamed seamlessly.”
It’s all highly optimized and tailored to each player’s experience. For example, if you fly over a large international airport, you won’t need to have the highest quality version of the mesh downloaded on your system. The simulator is only going to pull the lowest or medium quality version, leaving the higher quality assets streamed on demand through the cloud for when you’re closer.
Another impressive addition to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be its “soft body simulation” for hot air balloons. These balloons will be simulated across 6,400 surfaces giving a realistic reaction to heat density — when you turn on the heater, the air will heat up, and it’s going to inflate the massive balloon.
“You will see the balloon inflated and get lighter. Combustion happens, and the balloon goes up. Banners are physically simulated, so they will flap in the wind, just exactly like tissue with the rope attached,” explains Wloch. “Also, we now have parachutes. For example, the Cirrus Vision Jet, which you can fly, has a parachute system that can be deployed when needed.”
Attention to Detail
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is launching with one of the most largely diverse groups of highly detailed aircraft systems than any flight simulator has ever come with before. It isn’t just how good these aircraft look – and they certainly look fantastic – but also the care and attention that has been given to these systems.
“The reason that we wanted to focus on this experience so much and to build things like flight planning and pre-flight activities into the simulator is because we wanted to make sure everyone had the opportunity to take advantage of those kind of capabilities and those kinds of experiences,” explains Co-Founder of Working Title Simulations Christopher Burnett. “One of the things that has impacted simmers in the past is that flight simulators have often used outside tools to do their flight planning or preflight activities, and those came with some barriers to entry, things like cost or maybe complexity, that kept a lot of them from doing that.”
Now you’ll be able to go through the entire preflight experience, from planning to briefing for things like weather, and then executing that flight on some of the most detailed cockpits and avionics systems that we’ve ever seen in a flight simulator. The new flight planning tool supports anything from small flight plans all the way up to larger, more complicated paths using the same kind of tools that airline dispatchers use for their long commercial flights.
“We’ve also got several commercial aircraft systems that we’re bringing into MSFS 2024,” Burnett explains. “The 737 Max 8 avionics package is one of those. Of course, we’ve got the 787 and 747 8i as well. Then something exciting that we’re working on is the Boeing 747 400 LCF, also known as the Dreamlifter. This is a purpose-built aircraft that Boeing made to help them with the manufacture of the 787. They expanded it and now simmers can use this to fly aircraft parts around. We’ve partnered with Boeing to faithfully recreate this aircraft and the 747 400 avionics package that goes with it. We’ve got a ton of great avionics in the simulator.”
All these enhancements, from addressing install size, entirely new forms of photogrammetry and an unprecedented digital twin of Earth, the enhanced learning system, the vast and innovative Career System, were not the only things that the development team was excited about. They are, as Neumann explains, all the result of carefully listening to the wishes and dreams of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s passionate community. The community feedback was welcomed and embraced by the dev teams and became the guiding principles in the creation of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 “We are making this new simulator for the community, and we are working directly with the community and it is through this fantastic collaboration that MSFS 2024 is able to take flight simulation to the next level,” Neumann shares.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is shaping up to be the most ambitious commercially available flight simulator that has ever been undertaken – and it’s not even close. It’s fun to think about how many decades some of us have been “flying” in front of our PCs now, and it’s impressive to see how Microsoft’s longest-running franchise wasn’t content to just settle for sticking the landing a few years ago – it wants to keep soaring and bring all of us along for the ride. Time to buckle up.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – available for pre-order today on Steam — will launch in a variety of editions on November 19, 2024, and day one with PC Game Pass. All pre-orders will receive the De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting aircraft to use instantly in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020). The Standard Edition comes with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; Deluxe Edition will include 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports; the Premium Deluxe will have another 15 aircraft (total of 95); and then there’s the Aviator Edition for those who want everything which comes with all of the above plus the 30 planes that have been released in the Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Marketplace for a grand total of 125 planes with that edition.
Click here to pre-order on Steam!
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 takes the franchise further than ever before with groundbreaking new elements like worldwide Aviation Careers, a white-knuckle Challenge League system, and a brand-new World Photographer mode.
- The representation of Earth, the “digital twin,” graphically takes a leap forward with a jaw-dropping enhancement of the ground detail, the inclusion of worldwide ship traffic, the first ever implementation of helipads, glider airports, oil rigs, and vertical obstructions around the world all the way to the addition of dozens of animal species worldwide.
- Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – available for pre-order today on Steam – will launch in a variety of editions on November 19, 2024, and the Standard Edition will be available on day one with PC Game Pass. All pre-orders will receive the De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting aircraft to use instantly in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020).
Click here to pre-order on Steam!
2020’s Microsoft Flight Simulator was by far the most successful entry in Microsoft’s longest supported franchise. It redefined what was possible from a flight simulator by utilizing a mix of cloud-based worldwide map data, cutting-edge photogrammetry, machine learning techniques, and a real-time worldwide weather simulation. These offerings, along with a complex physics system that allowed for highly sophisticated flight models, all made the famous franchise a household name again.
Now with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on fast approach for a November 19, 2024, release date, we got our first deep dive into the game, and discovered how much more impressive the entire flight simulator experience is about to become for fans. From the digital tourist to a novice flyer to the most advanced pilots, it’s shaping up to have something for everyone to enjoy.
“Since we launched Microsoft Flight Simulator in 2020, we have seen 15 million people come to the simulation and be interested in what we do,” explains Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann. “When you compare that number to the previous biggest launch we had, which was Microsoft Flight Simulator X, it took 16 years to get to 5 million users. So there has been an explosion in the flight simulation hobby and it’s because of the community and excitement that everybody’s bringing .”
Earning Your Wings
One of the features I’m most excited to see come to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 (MSFS 2024) is its Career System, designed to bring a comprehensive and immersive experience for all manner of piloting skills. The system cleverly mimics the experience of how real-world pilots start their aviation careers. “You can pick any single airport on the planet and start your career there, which means that you are going to take your lessons at this location. Your first job can be anywhere, and I mean anywhere, in the world,” explains CCO of Asobo Studio David Dedeine. “You will start as a rookie pilot and meet a mentor who will explain to you how the career works and guide you through the very first steps in the career.”
The Career System introduces new elements to the simulation like pre-flight procedures, logging flight paths, and choosing from a vast amount of mission objectives. Advancement is tracked through a certification tree where you can learn the skills to fly various types of aircraft – each of which comes with a training session to help you master those skills. Later, specializations will unlock a variety of missions, such as Search and Rescue, Commercial Flights, Firefighting, and many more.
“You are not going to have to spend five years of your life to do the actual exam. It’s a simplified version, but still, it will explain to you the basics of each of those different activities, from commercial pilot to tailwind, airliner, transport, etc.” Dedeine adds. “Performance for these missions is evaluated by several factors like following ATC instructions, taxi paths, and flight parameters. Completing these missions successfully nets you credits and reputation, which you can then use to save up and buy your own plane and eventually manage your own fleet.”
Once you have earned enough money to run your business with your personally-owned aircraft, a new phase in MSFS 2024 opens in which you’ll be directly responsible for your aircraft; every landing, every bump on the runway, is going to impact the warranty of your planes, affecting the cost to keep them maintained. Effectively, MSFS 2024 includes a management sim inside the wider flight sim.
“This is basically the management of your fleet,” Dedeine elaborates, “because you will buy more planes at some point to allow you to engage in a different type of activity. Maybe you want to buy your own airliners and expand your fleet across the world. This new Career System is a big chunk of the innovation we introduce in MSFS 2024, and I think it’s never been done at this level of variety and quality before.”
If there was a ding against the 2020 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, it was that each of its individual experiences, like Bush Trips and Landing Challenges (which are still fun), rarely felt connected to each other. It was akin to putting on a greatest hits album, giving you the best bits without experiencing what the journey was like to get there. This is what I’ve wanted from a flight simulator for such a long time, and having a chance to create my own virtual pilot journey from start to finish sounds like it’s going to keep me flying for a long, long time.
Improving the “Digital Twin”
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is also bringing massive enhancements to the simulated Earth by increasing the detail of its virtual environment by a factor of 4,000. For instance, the ground will no longer be a mere heightfield; it now features tiny stones, rocks, gravel and grass all modeled in 3D. This ground detail impacts your aircraft’s wheels as they interact with the various surfaces affecting take-offs and landings. Improved sky and atmospheric lighting, especially during sunrise and sunset, with varying displays of colors based on the makeup of the clouds ensuring accurate temperatures for all light sources. New cloud types like cirrus clouds will better simulate the highest levels of our atmosphere, while the dynamic weather has been improved as well, increasing the density to make storms and other weather phenomena much more realistic and impressive to fly through.
“We can basically get every rock on Earth now; it’s unbelievable,” Neumann adds. “We updated the aerial imagery for the entire world, and we set up a team of specialists that gather digital elevation maps from across the planet. The result of these last four years of work is that we now have an unprecedented level of ground detail. Nobody else has anything like this.”
And it’s not just inanimate objects that are getting massive improvements. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is attempting to populate its digital Earth (the “digital twin”) as close to our real world as feasible by introducing a large cast of diverse human characters and locally-significant vehicles, all adding to the overall realism of the simulation. For instance, there’s real-time ship tracking so you can see cargo ships move throughout the world as you would in real life. You can see passengers inside airliners or moving from one location to the next in airports. And because landing just about anywhere in the world is one of the key features, due to the much more detailed environments, the development team worked closely with partners like Frontier (creators of Zoo Tycoon and Planet Zoo) to introduce many species that bring the world to life.
“We have species separated into two groups. For wild animals, we are using a fantastic database (GBIF – the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) to place animals across the world both in their appropriate habitats and in roughly appropriate quantities to get close to realistic densities. For domesticated animals, we are using our field detection (which is also used for activities like Aerial Application) to place species like cows, sheep, goats and horses across the planet. We can essentially now go sheep herding or cow herding with helicopters, which is super fun,” Neumann explains.
Powered By the Cloud
Another big area of improvement that’s planned is addressing the installation size. It’s no big surprise how much space Microsoft Flight Simulator takes up on your console or PC (it’s a lot). So, it’s refreshing to hear how this is one of the biggest things that is being addressed in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. By tapping into the latest cloud streaming technology, installation size has been trimmed down to about 30 GB to get you in your seat and flying as quickly as possible, streaming in the higher detailed areas that are only necessary for your flight path; why install all the data for the United States when you’re intending to just fly over Europe for the evening?
“The very important thing is overall bandwidth consumption is way down, because you only download what you really see when you see it, and we don’t pre-download at like hundreds of gigabytes,” explains CEO and Co-Founder of Asobo Studio Sebastian Wloch. ”Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) already had over two petabytes of data on the cloud. That was the whole world data. We kept adding to that, but we still had planes, airports, meshes, points of interests like castles, and textures that were all installed. That’s the part that kept growing with the marketplace content, which had grown to 2 TB. Now we integrated everything into the cloud, and it is all streamed and kept into a rolling cache on the hardware. You don’t have to install any new World Updates; they’re just streamed seamlessly.”
It’s all highly optimized and tailored to each player’s experience. For example, if you fly over a large international airport, you won’t need to have the highest quality version of the mesh downloaded on your system. The simulator is only going to pull the lowest or medium quality version, leaving the higher quality assets streamed on demand through the cloud for when you’re closer.
Another impressive addition to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be its “soft body simulation” for hot air balloons. These balloons will be simulated across 6,400 surfaces giving a realistic reaction to heat density — when you turn on the heater, the air will heat up, and it’s going to inflate the massive balloon.
“You will see the balloon inflated and get lighter. Combustion happens, and the balloon goes up. Banners are physically simulated, so they will flap in the wind, just exactly like tissue with the rope attached,” explains Wloch. “Also, we now have parachutes. For example, the Cirrus Vision Jet, which you can fly, has a parachute system that can be deployed when needed.”
Attention to Detail
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is launching with one of the most largely diverse groups of highly detailed aircraft systems than any flight simulator has ever come with before. It isn’t just how good these aircraft look – and they certainly look fantastic – but also the care and attention that has been given to these systems.
“The reason that we wanted to focus on this experience so much and to build things like flight planning and pre-flight activities into the simulator is because we wanted to make sure everyone had the opportunity to take advantage of those kind of capabilities and those kinds of experiences,” explains Co-Founder of Working Title Simulations Christopher Burnett. “One of the things that has impacted simmers in the past is that flight simulators have often used outside tools to do their flight planning or preflight activities, and those came with some barriers to entry, things like cost or maybe complexity, that kept a lot of them from doing that.”
Now you’ll be able to go through the entire preflight experience, from planning to briefing for things like weather, and then executing that flight on some of the most detailed cockpits and avionics systems that we’ve ever seen in a flight simulator. The new flight planning tool supports anything from small flight plans all the way up to larger, more complicated paths using the same kind of tools that airline dispatchers use for their long commercial flights.
“We’ve also got several commercial aircraft systems that we’re bringing into MSFS 2024,” Burnett explains. “The 737 Max 8 avionics package is one of those. Of course, we’ve got the 787 and 747 8i as well. Then something exciting that we’re working on is the Boeing 747 400 LCF, also known as the Dreamlifter. This is a purpose-built aircraft that Boeing made to help them with the manufacture of the 787. They expanded it and now simmers can use this to fly aircraft parts around. We’ve partnered with Boeing to faithfully recreate this aircraft and the 747 400 avionics package that goes with it. We’ve got a ton of great avionics in the simulator.”
All these enhancements, from addressing install size, entirely new forms of photogrammetry and an unprecedented digital twin of Earth, the enhanced learning system, the vast and innovative Career System, were not the only things that the development team was excited about. They are, as Neumann explains, all the result of carefully listening to the wishes and dreams of Microsoft Flight Simulator’s passionate community. The community feedback was welcomed and embraced by the dev teams and became the guiding principles in the creation of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 “We are making this new simulator for the community, and we are working directly with the community and it is through this fantastic collaboration that MSFS 2024 is able to take flight simulation to the next level,” Neumann shares.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is shaping up to be the most ambitious commercially available flight simulator that has ever been undertaken – and it’s not even close. It’s fun to think about how many decades some of us have been “flying” in front of our PCs now, and it’s impressive to see how Microsoft’s longest-running franchise wasn’t content to just settle for sticking the landing a few years ago – it wants to keep soaring and bring all of us along for the ride. Time to buckle up.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – available for pre-order today on Steam — will launch in a variety of editions on November 19, 2024, and day one with PC Game Pass. All pre-orders will receive the De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting aircraft to use instantly in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020). The Standard Edition comes with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; Deluxe Edition will include 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports; the Premium Deluxe will have another 15 aircraft (total of 95); and then there’s the Aviator Edition for those who want everything which comes with all of the above plus the 30 planes that have been released in the Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Marketplace for a grand total of 125 planes with that edition.
Click here to pre-order on Steam!
So, quiet week, huh?
...
😉
Starting today, you can pre-order Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024! As a special bonus, anyone who pre-orders will receive the De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting aircraft (part of the Standard Edition of MSFS2024) to use right now in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)! You can learn more about how to pre-order and also read additional details about the simulator -- including the full aircraft list -- on this page. Pre-orders are available for Xbox and PC from the Microsoft Store now and will come to Steam next week on September 26.
If you'd like to learn more about the new sim before pre-ordering, then you can hear from press representatives and content creators who attended a special Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 preview event last week. The attendees received a behind-the-scenes look at what is coming in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 in the form of presentations and interviews with key members of the development team. They also had a hands-on opportunity to try a pre-release build of the new sim itself. For your convenience, we've collected many of the text and video previews on our website here, and we'll continue to update this page as more publications post their preview content.
We're sure you still have many questions about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, so our next Developer Livestream is scheduled for next week on Wednesday, September 25 at 1730 UTC! During this broadcast, our panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial will discuss the new sim and answer many of your questions. Since the initial reveal trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, we have been collecting the most frequently asked questions from the flight sim community, and we're very excited to start answering some of your top requests for more information!
As always, we will also be taking questions from live viewers during the event. You can watch the Developer Livestream on both our official Twitch channel and our YouTube channel. If you're unable to watch the broadcast as it occurs, the recorded video will also be available on YouTube.
We look forward to sharing much more information with you about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 between now and its release date on November 19.
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
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To purchase these discounted items, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, select ‘Featured’, scroll down to ‘Special Offers’, then select ‘See All’ and look for the savings.
The sale runs from 10 AM PDT / 1700 UTC Monday, September 16th, 2024 through 10 AM PDT / 1700 UTC Monday, September 23rd, 2024
As we mentioned last week, our next Developer Livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, September 25 at 1730 UTC! During this broadcast, our panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial will share more details about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Since the initial reveal trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase in June 2023, we have been collecting the most frequently asked questions from the flight sim community, and we're very excited to start answering some of your top requests for more information!
As always, we will also be taking questions from live viewers during the event. You can watch the Developer Livestream on our official Twitch channel, or, if you're unable to watch the broadcast as it occurs, we will also post the video to our YouTube channel within a day or two of the original broadcast.
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Earlier today, we released an updated version of Local Legend 19: Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. You can read the release notes on our forums here, and the update is available for download now via the Content Manager.
Last week in Cologne, Germany, we were thrilled to provide hundreds of gamescom attendees with the opportunity to try Microsoft Flight Simulator at our booth! Check out some of the photos of the event here:
Finally, on a more somber note, our team was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Derek Davis. For nearly 20 years, Derek has been serving the hobbyist flight simulation community as editor-in-chief of PC Pilot magazine. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him and enjoyed his work, and the MSFS team would like to pass on our most sincere condolences to his family and friends. Blue skies and tailwinds!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
Happy anniversary! Earlier this week, we marked four years since the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator on August 18, 2020. To celebrate the occasion, we released four short videos showing all the updates from the past four years. For a trip down memory lane, you can watch the videos at the following links:
Earlier today, we released World Update XVIII: Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and the accompanying Local Legend 19: Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor. The World Update is a FREE download from the in-sim Marketplace, and you can add the Condor to your hangar for the usual price of USD $14.99 (or less if you have the discount for owning the Deluxe or Premium Deluxe editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator).
If you missed the earlier announcement, we are currently running a Marketplace sale on the Top-Rated scenery add-ons as selected by you, the community. Check out the Marketplace section below for more information.
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!
The Fw 200 was a record-setting airliner in a class of its own!
A BOLD VISION
The 1920s and 1930s witnessed incredible advances in aircraft innovation and accomplishments. One of the highlights of this era was transatlantic travel, as exemplified by Charles Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic journey in May of 1927. The nascent airline industry, inspired by rapidly evolving technology, sought to offer transatlantic service, and started with airships. In October of 1928, the Graf Zeppelin completed the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight in history. The massive airship lifted off from Friedrichshafen, Germany and flew to Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA completing the journey in 111 hours and 44 minutes.
Continue reading about Local Legend 19: The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor!
A BOLD VISION
The 1920s and 1930s witnessed incredible advances in aircraft innovation and accomplishments. One of the highlights of this era was transatlantic travel, as exemplified by Charles Lindbergh’s solo transatlantic journey in May of 1927. The nascent airline industry, inspired by rapidly evolving technology, sought to offer transatlantic service, and started with airships. In October of 1928, the Graf Zeppelin completed the first commercial transatlantic passenger flight in history. The massive airship lifted off from Friedrichshafen, Germany and flew to Lakehurst, New Jersey, USA completing the journey in 111 hours and 44 minutes.
Continue reading about Local Legend 19: The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor!
World Update XVIII provides pilots the highest resolution yet for the stunning scenery of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland!
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, collectively known as DACH (Deutschland, Austria, Confoederatio Helvetica), offer an incredibly diverse array of landscapes and architecture to explore. Highlights include the Swiss Alps, mountain lakes, expansive forests, historic castles and cathedrals, and modern architectural feats.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator team partnered with Bing Maps, Vexcel Imaging, Maxar Technologies, Gaya Simulations, and Orbx Simulation Systems to bring these countries to the Microsoft Flight Simulator world in all-new ways. The update serves as a fusion of recent aerial photographs, digital elevation models, TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface modeling, hand-crafted points of interest, and airports.
Continue reading about World Update XVIII!
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The sale runs from 10am PDT (1700 UTC) on Tuesday, August 20th, 2024 through 10am PDT (1700 UTC) on Tuesday, August 27th, 2024.
A few days from now we will celebrate the fourth anniversary of the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator on August 18, 2020. From all of us on the team, we want to share a message of sincere gratitude to everyone in the flight sim community for making the last four years truly special. Whether you're a long-time veteran sim pilot, someone brand new to the hobby, a third-party developer, or a content creator, it's because of YOU that we've been able to deliver four years of ongoing support at a sustained rate of nearly two major releases per month since 2020. Stay tuned to our Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels for some special anniversary videos over the next few days!
Earlier today, we released a small update to Local Legend 18: Westland Scout & Wasp. You can read the release notes on our forums here.
We hosted our latest Developer Livestream on Twitch yesterday. If you weren't able to watch it live, you can catch up on everything you missed by watching the VOD on YouTube below:
In addition to answering many questions from the community, the panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial also shared new information about the following topics:
- World Update 18: Germany, Austria, Switzerland
- Local Legend 19: Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor
- Aircraft & Avionics Update 3
- Famous Flyer 10: Boeing 707-320C
- World Update 19: Brazil
- And much more!
This was the last monthly Developer Livestream that will focus primarily on Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020). Starting next month, we're very excited to begin sharing much more information about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with you during the lead-up to its launch on November 19!
Finally, some of our team members will be on the show floor at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany next week. If you're attending this event, be sure to stop by the Microsoft Flight Simulator area and say hello! It's always a genuine thrill for us to meet members of the flight simulation community!
- MSFS Team
Click here to continue reading the Development Update!