Asobo Studios is working on readying the next big update for Microsoft Flight Simulator. World Update 3 is nearly here and its UK and Ireland focused expansion is bringing with it plenty of new content and areas to explore. We have new screenshots, new details on release date, and there are new details coming out on the roadmap. Here’s what we know!

Update 3 closes on release

Asobo has been working hard on Update 3 and after last week’s acknowledgement that they were still working to implement the new city photogrammetry, all seems to have been resolved. Asobo says they are now targeting February 11th.

Some new screenshots have been released showing off some notable landmarks and one of the new airports. Land’s End is located on the south western tip of the UK. It looks like it might be a great place for me to start my UK tour!

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This past weeks Q&A also included a teaser of the full World Update 3 trailer. Different versions have been floating around since then but this version posted to the r/MicrosoftFlightSim Reddit group is probably the best capture.

World Update 3 UK Trailer [ETA between 09.02.2021-11.02.2021] from MicrosoftFlightSim

Roadmap: France and Benelux is up next

If you were already thinking ahead to the next world update, Asobo is way ahead and is already working on the next World Update which will be focused on France and Benelux. What is Benelux? It’s a portmanteau (it makes me excited as a writer to get that word out) of Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg. In other words, the next update will cover these four European countries and will almost certainly include the usual updates to imagery, terrain details, airports and new points of interest.

Also noted on the roadmap include these highlights:

• Partnership Series update – February 25th
• Trailer – March 4
• Sim Update 3 – March 4
• Partnership Series update – March 18
• World Update 4: France and Benelux – March 25

The trailer on March 4th is particularly interesting to note as we don’t yet know what they are planning to do.

Asobo Q&A’s

There’s two Q&A’s out this week with the Asobo team. First, we have their own Q&A series from a Twitch stream which talks about some top questions and has many interesting details. I haven’t had a chance to delve into it all but there are some interesting notes.

Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, was also interviewed by Twinfinite and that Q&A asked some interesting questions. There’s new details on their thinking about XBox and a reveal that Asobo is building additional aircraft, some of which will be called “passive planes” which would include enough aircraft types that AI aircraft representing real world aircraft would match. There’s also talk about liveries and how much work they are trying to do to get more liveries in – especially from airlines. Read the Twinfinite Q&A here.

For the latest, direct from Asobo Studios, check out their developer update right here.