We’ve all heard the line from Microsoft that 99% of content from 2020 should work in MSFS 2024. I really hope that’s the case because I, like many of you, have invested quite a bit of money into aircraft and scenery over the last four years and it’d be really good if all of those just kept on working the way that they currently are in the new sim. With that in mind, I’ve been waiting and watching to see what many of the developers of these aircraft and scenery products have been saying. For this article, I wanted to collect some comments and then reflect on what we should expect on day 1 and beyond.
We still don’t quite have the full picture
As close as we are to release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, we still don’t quite have the full picture on just how things that we’re flying in 2020 are going to work in the new sim. We do know that Microsoft are bringing over all of the base sim aircraft as well as all of the Local Legends and Famous Flyers. The new Aviator Edition packages in all of those airplanes so I have no worries that they are, at a minimum, going to make sure that all of those still work in the sim. I would anticipate that they will be there on day one. If they aren’t, I expect we’ll be hearing some messaging about it around release as that would be a miss from content that’s promised.
Will all of those aircraft get some of the upgraded features that have been showcased? That part is much more unclear. Will, for example, Carenado and Microsoft’s Beechcraft Model 18 have the new walkaround checks, the new dirt layers, and the reliability features we’ve seen included in 2024’s Cessna 172? I don’t think we have a solid answer on that. Still, the aircraft should be flyable on day one from the sounds of things and that sounds good.
What are developers saying
What about the countless third party aircraft that are out there? What about all of the scenery packages? I don’t know if you’re like me but I’ve been collecting airports for quite a while now and some of them are expensive add-ons…even while on sale. Will they work? Will I be paying for them again if I really want them? The honest answer right now is that we don’t know. But there is a picture emerging and its kind of all over the place depending on who you ask and what the challenges are involved.
I start with some scenery developers and a recent purchase of mine from Impulse Simulations who do some great paid and free Australian scenery. A few days ago they posted the following on Facebook:
We have received our access to the dev build of 2024, While I can’t share much with you at all I would like to let you all know that based on current information. Migrating our products to 2024 to be fully compatible may be a much larger task than we initially thought.
Ok, that causes a bit of anxiety for those of us hoping that things would largely just work from version to version. Those of you who were a bit more pessimistic about this are probably shoulding “I told you so” right about now. They go on for a while but they make another great point here:
Those who own our products either directly or via one of our partners, will be able to use the current 2020 build on the new sim with partial support until we’re able to revisit and update every one of our locations. Currently, it looks like the marketplace won’t be able to bring our 2020 versions across until we submit a 2024 build of it (Yet to be confirmed).
Interesting. So we do know from updates earlier in the year that Marketplace content is being migrated to 2024 and that developers would then need to check and release their content. Does that checking process also mean that they need to convert it to 2024 first before releasing or is there a kind of compatibility mode for 2020 content operating in 2024. That second scenario has been mentioned before but if you’re as confused as I am about it, you’re not alone.
Another scenery developer, MK Studios, who have made some great airports from all over the world have said that scenery they’ve released in 2024 would get a MSFS 2024 release free of charge. Great! Older scenery apparently will need more work and it sounds like more extensive upgrades may be needed for best results. Here’s what they said:
As for MSFS2024 in general, all our 2024 releases will get a dedicated 2024 version free of charge. The older products, we’ll have to verify first as they’re done using a bit different techniques. It’s very likely that ground poly will need to be redone as well as LODs and other technical aspects. Of course it doesn’t change the fact that they may still work in the new sim, but we won’t be able to support the users if some bugs appear.
I do appreciate the commitment here and the fact that products produced more recently may be in a better place than older content.
iniBuilds is a first party developer for MSFS and have contributed quite a bit of content for both 2020 and 2024 as part of their partnership with Microsoft. They have said something interesting with their most recently released secenery, Innsbruck (LOWI) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, by saying that free upgrades would be available for purchases made between yesterday and the release of 2024.
Plus, with the latest MSFS 2024 news, we’re happy to announce that this product will be a FREE upgrade if purchased anytime between now (1st November) and the release of MSFS 2024
While that’s a nice feature, I am a little more interested to know what their plans are for content purchased before that. I have quite a bit of the iniBuilds developed scenery and I really do hope they all keep on working. Will upgrades be offered? What will the pricing be? We do know that their A300-600 is going to get a free upgrade to 2024, however, we know that the avionics package upgrade that they are planning will be a 2024 package only.
Switching over to a developer that combat sim fans know, IndiaFoxtEcho, have said some interesting things recently as well. First, we’ve learned through the latest developer stream that cosmetic weapons are now going to be allowed on the Marketplace. This is great news for developers like IndiaFoxtEcho because they won’t be forced to produce two different builds for each aircraft.
As may of you have noticed, in the latest Flight Simulator Developer stream, Microsoft has announced that COSMETIC weapons will be allowed on Marketplace items – contrary to the previous rules.
This is good news for us, if anything because maintaining separate Marketplace and Non-marketplace versions was a lot of work.
They don’t say much yet about their aircraft for 2024 but IndiaFoxtEcho have been very clear with their communication in the past and most of their recent status updates have indicated that they are waiting to see what the tests are like when they do get to test. Various aircraft like their F-35 have a lot of custom coding so how is that going to work in the new sim? It’s unclear.
Let’s switch over to SimWorks Studios who say they are testing and are logging issues with their aircraft. Interestingly they mention that there’s both issues that they can fix and issues that may need to be fixed by Asobo (hopefully prior to release).
Testing in the dev alpha of FS2024 is still ongoing, and we are logging issues to work through. We cannot give a definite answer to whether our products will work flawlessly in 2024 on day 1 as there are issues. Some of these we can work on and secure ourselves, while others are core engine bugs and need to be fixed by Asobo, who are actively interacting with developers and putting out updates.
SimWorks Studios
That’s an interesting set of statements. I own a lot of SimWorks Studio’s aircraft and I’m hoping they all work in 2024. SimWorks go on to say that they have done some surveys and they are talking to simmers about how much a charge for 2024 upgrades would be reasonable. Again, its going to be interesting to see how upgrades work.
Finally, PMDG are being typically circumspect about upgrades of their products. They haven’t committed to any specific policy just yet for 2024 and as of now we don’t know how their products will work. Hopefully that becomes clear soon.
We have some high level understanding of the process based upon publicly available information provided by the various Microsoft developer briefings, but the information is both plentiful and inconclusive at least in terms of helping us to fully understand what we will be working with- so we are saying nothing until we have a clearer understanding.
Your thoughts?
How about you out there. What have you heard? What are you worried about when it comes to upgrades? Let me know in the comments!
Stormbirds 
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