We’ve got wall to wall Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 news coming in today as the embargo has dropped and we’ve learning all kinds of new details about the upcoming simulator. Those details together with the start of the pre-orders for the new sim and a mountain of media coverage to get through should make for a long article. So, get your popcorn ready and lets dig into the latest news and coverage of Microsoft’s newest sim.
The world and more
One of the new core features for MSFS 2024 is the new career mode. Microsoft are calling this a comprehensive and immersive experience following roughly what real world pilots do through their aviation careers.
You can start your career at any airport on the planet. From there you do your lessons, take a job anywhere, and progress through your piloting career. A certification tree will give you the opportunity to learn how to fly different types of aircraft and different missions will be on offer including Search and Rescue, Firefighting and Commercial Flights. Apparently you can earn points enabling you to “buy an airplane” and eventually buy a fleet of aircraft.
You’ll even be able to more carefully craft your virtual pilot’s appearance with a wide range of faces, hair styles, and clothes. It feels a bit The Sims and frankly that’s ok because the same character system is being used to populate passenger aircraft. Look in the back and you’ll see all kinds of people rather than a few hundred clones.
New elements are being added to the gameplay experience. Pre-flight procedures include walking around your airplane where you’ll be able to examine various parts of the aircraft, remove covers, inspect control surfaces, and more. That goes from small aircraft like a Cessna 172 right up to Asobo’s new 737 MAX 8.
The world of MSFS is getting an update too with AI driven scenery generation that produces shrubs, agricultural fields, and determines materials such as sandbars and rocks. The world will be populated by various kinds of animals (the models for the animals are coming over from Planet Zoo), there will be real time ship tracking, FlightRadar24 data is being fed in for more accurate and realistic aircraft tracking… the list goes on! It boggles the mind how much stuff is being pulled into the sim to make it work. We’ve heard and seen some refinements to the clouds and weather systems as well and I’m sure we’ll hear more about that on the road to launch.
Finally, we’ve heard a bit about it already but today’s updates also mentioned that the new sim has a new flight planner which is more detailed and can mean less reliance on third party flight planners to get your more complicated IFR flights in. The system sounds flexible enough to be a simple flight planner if you want it to be or a more complex planner for your airliner flights.
World Updates and more will be in the cloud
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably got significant chunks of storage space dedicated to your flight simulation install. MSFS is among the biggest on my system right now taking up huge amounts of space for the world updates, the aircraft I’ve installed, and more. MSFS 2024 moves more to the cloud with the install size reportedly coming down to just 30GB. World Updates will still be a thing but you won’t need to install them locally anymore… everything will just stream in.
According to Asobo Studio’s Sebastian Wloch, overall bandwidth consumption is actually lower now than previously with what sounds like a more intelligent pre-cache system that downloads less data unless its needed. Should be interesting to see in action!
Third party store content will remain stored on your hard drives so you’re still likely to need quite a bit of storage space. Just less than before!
A bit more about aircraft and the marketplace
As it turns out, the leak yesterday with the list of aircraft was completely accurate. There are 95 total aircraft with 40 of them being new types being introduced into the sim.
Asobo were keen to highlight that the sim will be bringing in some impressively detailed avionics packages for aircraft like the 737 MAX 8 but also for some other types like the 747-400 LCF which is better known as the Dreamlifter. Connections with Boeing helped to make it happen which is great!
We already know that the marketplace will be, from day one, populated with aircraft, scenery and other packages ported over from the 2020 version of the simulator. Just how much of that will be visible and available to us on day one remains a bit of a question but it sounds like Marketplace should be a place where things will continue on with minimal disruption in a lot of cases.
There are new features coming such as gifting and rentals with the ability to rent an aircraft for a period of time at a lower price and then turn that rental around and move towards buying full access to it.
Pre-order information
The other big news is that Microsoft Flight Simulator is now available for pre-order! Everyone who pre-orders gets instant access to the De Havilland Canada CL-415 for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 so you can already start enjoying new content. That also makes me a little bit more optimistic how easily it will be for content to jump between products.
These are the versions:
- Standard Edition will come with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports.
- Deluxe Edition comes with 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports.
- Premium Deluxe has another 15 aircraft.
- Aviator Edition includes all of that plus 30 Microsoft/partnered planes released for a total of 125 aircraft.
There’s one more version that comes with some physical stuff and isn’t just a digital purchase. You get a An-225 die-cast model, flight bag and 6-patches, collectible retail box, instruction sheet, logo pin, flight tag/key-chain, collectible lithograph and a letter to fans. That one will set you back the most in your local currency.
Pre-orders are available here!
Messages from a couple of developers
Following the announcement we have learned some interesting information from developers too.
Miltech Simulations reports that the C-17 Globemaster III revealed in the aircraft set is infact theirs! They say that the simulation depth is at a “very good” level with the caveat that some features on the jet are classified. They say all displays and systems are well represented. Better yet, the sounds are recorded from a real jet and the aircraft will come with a bunch of cargo options for it. Terrific!
For the past 8 months we have been secretly working on that has become by far the most ambitious project we have embarked on. The C17 Globemaster III is most versatile cargo aircraft to enter the airlift force, and a key logistical assets for many airforces around the globe. We had the opportunity to create this incredible aircraft for the upcoming MSFS2024 and I must say – we are incredibly proud of the result. This is by far the BEST product we have ever created. I know you will have many questions, so I will answer a few here. Bare in mind, this is very much still an active development and we are still under NDA, so there are questions we cannot respond to at this time.
Miltech also report that the CH-47D in the aircraft list is not theirs and they don’t really know anything about it. They do say that they are committed to supporting their CH-47D so that is, of course, great news for current owners.
Meanwhile, Got Friends put out a statement about how excited they are being a partner and delivering five aircraft for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
After launching the F4F-4 Wildcat, we never anticipated going “Cold and Dark” for most of the year. However, as you’ll see, we’ve had an incredible year behind the scenes. We’re beyond humbled to announce that we’ve been collaborating directly with Microsoft on the upcoming Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. What began as a simple conversation with Jorg to remaster the AeroElvira Optica for the next-gen sim has blossomed into something much bigger—five remarkable aircraft in total!
We don’t know the complete list of aircraft that the team has contributed, however, the Draco X was confirmed at FSExpo 2024 in Las Vegas and it seems like that some of the bushplanes and gliders that have been included in the aircraft list might just be theirs. I’m beyond excited for them!
More developers are likely to weigh in over the coming days and weeks.
Round-up
Several content creators were lucky enough to be flown to the Grand Canyon where they were treated to about an hour of access with the sim and the ability to record gameplay. Here are some highlights that I think are worth watching and reading.
BluGames first does an overview of the Career Mode which sounds very exciting after the walk through here.
We’ve also got a very brief and exciting look at the 737 MAX 8 here with a short test flight. We can hear the sounds, see the cockpit, and get a sense of what it’s about.
AvAngel takes on bush plane flying in MSFS 2024 and what she shows off is just incredible with the sandbar digging in with terrain deformation we haven’t seen before. Landing on different surfaces and with different types of wheels are going to have big impacts on how that landing goes!
Jeff Favignano does an overview of the sim and some of the features in this video.
The same goes for Squirrel who shows off some of the key features for MSFS 2024.
Fellow Canadian Cpt Canada does a Q&A on his hands on experiences with the sim here.
Let’s follow those videos up with some love for some of the written content creators out there. Sometimes we get a little overshadowed by the flashier YouTube channels but it’s great to see written media getting some attention too.
Sergio over at HeliSimmer attended the event and gives his thoughts on what he saw here.
FSElite has been doing a bunch of articles on their experiences complete with interviews of what they saw. There’s this interview with Sebastian Wloch from Asobo on helicopters and then they talk with both Working Title and Got Friends in this video.
There’s going to be a lot more coming our way in the coming days and weeks so stay tuned for all of that!
Stormbirds 
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