Two new videos have come out from Microsoft in the last 24 hours covering a wide variety of subjects from aircraft to activities to technology. We’ve got a partner video with the FlightFX and then the Global Preview Event presentation from several weeks ago now available for everyone. Let’s check it out!

FlightFX aircraft partner video

Let’s start with the aircraft partner video, the first of a few that they have planned. This one ended up being with FlightFX only (the other developers weren’t able to make it for this one) so it was an interesting and more focused discussion as a result. It featured Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Jorg Neumann, and then FlightFX’s Nick Sdoucos and Marwan Gharib.

The conversation focused on the three aircraft that they are adding that are brand new. The first is the Jeston One which they and others compared to a Star Wars style Speeder Bike….except its very much a real world aircraft. It looks like a ton of fun and obviously something that’s more on the bleeding edge of aviation right now with the worlds of battery powered drones and human flown aircraft combine. That bleeding edge experience continues with the Joby S43 and Archer Midnight with their multi-rotor electric designs. These are far more in-depth than I expected with custom flight models and detailed systems.

These are three aircraft that flew under my radar but now they are firmly on it. I look forward to trying them out and seeing how they fit into the experience. Of course, FlightFX are also contributing the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet which I hear is an incredible aircraft and now its just part of the sim. Lots to look forward to!

Global Preview Event video

This video dates back several weeks ago when a few dozen creators were at the Grand Canyon for a MSFS presentation. We’ve heard quite a bit about what was said there but now we can watch the experience too.

Jorg has quite a lead in presentation talking about some of the scale that MSFS is reaching in terms of the numbers of people that the sim has connected with. 15-million users and 1-billion flight sessions have been accumulated since MSFS 2020 launched. Far outstripping any other sim on the market and, critically, managing to appeal to multiple user bases. Jorg reports that a few million of those are hardcore simmers, more are more casual users, and a third group are people who play the game casually and are somewhat leery of the flying itself but use the sim for digital sightseeing.

Seb takes over the presentation and talks about all of the work that they have done with the core of the sim. The move to the cloud, the need to add activities and experiences, the improvements to the world, and more. Chris from Working Title jumps on after that talking about the EFB and adding more real world flight routing to the sim.

Jorg and then David talk about the activities that are going to be a part of the sim. Jorg makes the note that MSFS is a sim and so they don’t want a gamified experience but one that layers into the sim and that feels authentic to the real world. There’s a great exploration of what the sim does and how the layered progression system works.

Seb and Jorg talk about the digital twin nature of the sim. Most of this we’ve heard about at this point but I still think hearing them describe what they are doing as just a jaw dropping experience. It’s still hard for me to believe all of this technology is being employed.

Finally they talk about aircraft with a brief piece from Jorg and then Brandon from GotFriends talks about gliders and other aircraft that they are adding to the sim. Love to hear about the glider experience upgrades which is great as I’ve just been starting to get into that side of simming.

Check out the video above!