The last couple of days have been interesting ones following the announcement of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Since then we’ve had a frequently asked questions released that gives us some more information on what they are planning to do with this new sim and we’ve seen various third party developers begin to weigh in on the subject. Let’s have a look at what we know!
Reading into the FAQ
Microsoft’s PR team should have anticipated a veritable storm of comments from the announcement of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 but I don’t think they were quite prepared. A FAQ, released, several hours after the trailer announcement, filled in some of the key questions that we wanted and needed to know. Some of that should probably have been in the initial announcement… but that’s how these things go sometimes.
You can read the full FAQ here but I wanted to skip over just repeating the whole thing verbatim and instead hone in on some key comments.
In addition to confirming that the new sim is indeed a new and separate product, they quickly moved on and confirmed a very important point.
Current aircraft and airports that are in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), as well as virtually all Marketplace add-ons, will be supported in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
My interpretation of this is quite simply that MSFS 2020 content should translate to the new sim essentially without issue. The legal team likely threw in the “virtually all” part to cover outlier cases where something didn’t work but I think we can assume that most stuff will just work. So all of those hundreds or thousands of dollars of aircraft and scenery packages should just continue on.
I’ve been around long enough to know that not everything goes according to plan but intention is important here. We also know that smaller jumps, between major sim updates, often require developers to have to do a bit of extra work to keep their planes up to date. The speed at which these arrive seem to indicate that most of the time they are minor modifications and I’m guessing from this angle that the upgrade to 2024 may be on a similar level to a major sim update.
The TL;DR on this key point? All of your stuff will probably just work on day one.
Another contentious point then should be able to be laid to rest: marketplace items will not need to be purchased again. We heard quite a bit from some that the sky was falling and that they’d charge us for the same content again… that wasn’t really rooted in anything except for fear that it might happen. I’d be angry IF that was what Microsoft was proposing but fortunately it is not.
Add-ons that were purchased from the in-simulator Marketplace will not need to be re-purchased in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
This is an important point and it goes back to my point above that it looks like they intend to make 2024 something that you purchase, load up, and continue on where you left off with everything you had before plus the enhancements of the new sim.
We will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch.
This one requires a bit of interpretation too. Support for the old sim appears to be something that they are going to continue to do even after launch of 2024. How much of that applies to new content and bug fixes on the high end or more basic customer service, support forums, and support for the streaming satellite imagery on the low end is probably up for debate but it does mean that there is a plan to continue MSFS 2020 with no sunset date for quite some time – hopefully for many years to come on some of those basic items.
We will continue to deliver our Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Roadmap which has content ranging from Aircraft and Avionics Updates, Sim Updates, City and World Updates, and also the free Dune DLC. We will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch.
What I am encouraged by with this statement is that the roadmap doesn’t die today and that they have a line-up of updates and content planned that will go into the current iteration for some time to come.
At the same time, I expect that beyond a certain point we’ll see things like new aircraft, world updates, avionics updates, and other items begin to shift to 2024 and we will no longer see them on the prior title. This is something that will probably happen quite some time from now and we’ll know when the shift will happen well in advance.
What developers are saying
I think it’s important to see what developers are saying too. I start with IndiaFoxtEcho which, through their Facebook page, tend to post short and frank assessments of how things are going from them with the platform and the message seems to be largely of status quo.
For what concerns us, at the moment we do not see any reason to change our plans so we are moving forward with our current projects…
Indiafoxtecho
IndiaFoxtEcho then lists out the F-14A TOMCAT, TORNADO IDS/ECR/GR.1, TA-4J SKYHAWK, EUROFIGHTER TYPHOON. and F-16 FALCON as being their order of operation for what comes next. They also go on to say the following:
Sure the new sim may introduce technological advancements or changes… but if that will be the case we will adapt our plans.
Indiafoxtecho
Seems pragmatic as always.
Dave from Fenix Simulations said this on their Discord.
Hello all. Dave here again. We’re naturally getting a lot of questions about MSFS 2024, however we’ve been just as surprised by the announcement as you will have been. There hasn’t been any extra communication between Asobo and 3rd party developers, so we have no idea yet what it entails except for the trailer and our own speculation. If you have a question for us about Fenix and MSFS 2024 the answer right now is “we don’t know”. From what we’ve seen this doesn’t change anything about our current plans or processes, and we’ll be continuing with V2/IAE and our other planned work as before. As soon as we know what the implications are of the new platform for us, we’ll be sure to make a bigger announcement – but please do keep in mind we will likely not be privilege to any more information than the rest of the public.
Fenix Discord
The folks at BlueBird Simulations wrote a shorter message on their Facebook and Twitter but one similar in overall message to the others.
We are just as surprised as anyone with the announcement of FS2024. In the meantime we are working as hard as ever to bring this jet to FS2020 by end of year. #FS2024#b757#FS2020
This jet, in this case, referring to their Boeing 757 that has been in development for some time and is leading the way for a follow-up 767 project.
PMDG have also come out with comments on the news with CEO Robert Randazzo reporting that there are no plans to change their product roll out plans.
To put the meat of my point right up front: None of the information we have been able to derive from publicly available sources lends us to believe that any change in our development agenda, product plans, pricing strategy or product release schedule is necessary.
PMDG
There’s also a fairly bright assessment on the both the future of the platform as well as the pro-simmer nature of what the long term plan for MSFS is. PMDG have not always seen eye to eye with Microsoft or Asobo on the sim but in this case they seem to be well aligned.
It is PMDG’s position that ensuring forward compatibility is a smart decision both for Microsoft and for PMDG, as it protects the customer investment in the hobby. In our early conversations with Microsoft after the unveiling of MSFS back in 2019, we came away with the impression that Microsoft’s business plan was pro-simmer, and that is why we announced our support of the platform in August of that year. While the messaging on this new version of MSFS has been a bit non-specific, we suspect that Microsoft’s strong support for growth of the developer community and the customer value equation remains in place.
PMDG
I suspect at some point major developers will eventually begin to get a better picture of what changes, if any, they need to be considering for the future.
Thoughts continue to pour in
Thoughts and messages continue to pour in right now as everyone evaluates the scenario. I’ve got an editorial coming up soon but I don’t like to jump to conclusions too quickly and instead assess the situation and come up with my thoughts over a longer period of time.
For the short term, however, it looks like MSFS 2024 is largely a through line for the series with ongoing support for both the older title as well as exciting new developments for the latest edition.
We’ve likely got a year between us and the launch of the new version. In that time, Microsoft and Asobo will have lots of opportunities to articulate their vision for 2024 and what the value proposition of the new sim will be. We don’t know everything yet but we do know now that Microsoft intend to ensure continuity for most things between the old and the new and that most developers are continuing on as business as usual in what is likely an encouraging way for the future.
More to come!
Stormbirds 
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