The Flight Simulation Association is hosting a free webinar this Saturday with none other than Mathijs Kok from Aerosoft. The subject matter? Microsoft Flight Simulator and flight simulation on Xbox. Some of you are probably just now sure how this is going to work and I’m with you too. Here’s what’s happening in-case you’re interested in attending! No doubt, Mathijs will also be talking about their latest products so it’s going to be a great opportunity to check up on what Aerosoft is up to including their Twin Otter project.

The Xbox and Flight Simulator

A full up flight simulation on console is relatively unheard of. It’s not that there haven’t been flight simulations and flight games on console but to be able to bring all of the detail and fidelity that pushes even the latest gaming PC’s to the limit, it just wasn’t really something that was done. They never had enough computing power and they didn’t have the interface to let you manage to do that. Times are, however, changing!

The XBox Series X and Series S are the next two iterations of the Xbox console gaming platform and they both pack some impressive specs. I could quote teraflops and other mostly meaningless marketing points but suffice to say that they both are packing serious PC gaming level hardware specs. The Series X is intended for 4K+ experiences and has more power while the Series S is a bit cheaper and is intended for 1080p and below.

Both are, by gaming PC standards, exceptionally inexpensive. It’s $299 USD for the Series S and $499 USD for the Series X. You may want to buy proprietary storage cards that add on to the storage capabilities. Even with that in mind, it’s still cheaper than a full up gaming PC although definitely less flexible.

Both consoles have a pair of high speed USB ports as well and are running on a custom version of the Windows OS. Plug and play flight sim peripherals? Maybe not all of the ones that we have on PC will work but I’m willing to bet that Microsoft will be supporting a good percentage of them.

With features like the marketplace being used to manage new content such as aircraft add-ons and new scenery packages, it seems like Microsoft Flight Simulator may be just the thing to break through into the console world.

Suddenly, a flight sim on a game console seems a little less silly than it sounded before.

The webinar

On to the webinar! The FSA is hosting this event for free on their registration system and here’s the description of the event:

With Microsoft Flight Simulator now fully established as the leader on the desktop, we are now looking forward to the simulator running on Xbox. Many traditional simmers do not see this as a logical platform and certainly not one where add-ons will do well. Mathijs Kok, a product manager at Aerosoft, does not agree and sees this as a different but potentially huge market. He looks at the Twin Otter project being done by Aerosoft as an example.

Sounds interesting? If so, visit the FSA website and sign up!