Jorg, Seb and Martial were back for another Microsoft Flight Simulator Q&A developer stream. Like the streams before, it was a mix of topics, discussions, questions and answer, and a little sneak peak of what is next and when we can expect it. There’s a projected release date for Sim Update 3 and discussion about what comes next. This is a summary of some key points!

Watch it yourself or read the summary

Streamed yesterday and released on YouTube earlier today, the July 2025 Developer Stream is the usual mix of content helping to answer community questions and help fill is in on some of the things that are coming up next.

The Sim Updates, City Updates, and more

We’ve got an update on the 2025 Roadmap for Microsoft Flight Simulator with the usual panel of items showing us what has already released and what is still to come. Not quite everything is on there but most of it is covered.

Jorg confirmed that they plan to release Sim Update 3 for MSFS 2024 and Sim Update 16 for MSFS 2020 next week pending final tests. Those dates could slip if they find last minute issues that need to be resolved.

Some of the major features for Sim Update 3 include VRAM usage improvements, overall optimizations, live traffic fixes, 40 included aircraft have been worked on, ATC improvements, avionics updates, updates to the EFB, model matching, the web flight planner, fixes and polish for glider operations, and input setting fixes. This promises to be a significant update for the sim.

Coming alongside that is Sim Update 16 for MSFS 2020 users. The older sim still remains relevant and Sim Update 16 incorporates avionics updates, 500+ adjustments to airports and points of interest, and the backporting of some 2024 technologies. On that last point, it sounds like they want to make things as streamlined as possible so that updates for one sim can be more easily incorporated into the other sim. Items such as world updates and their associated points of interest are part of that. Also coming to 2020 are some MSFS 2024 aircraft. While some can’t be ported to the older sim, Jorg reports that a couple of aircraft will be coming at a time starting with the CL-415 and the AeroElvira Optica.

One of the worst parts of MSFS 2024’s performance problems has been its excessive VRAM usage. Most flight sims demand a lot of VRAM (looking at you DCS) but 2024 is probably the king of that right now and so part of the Q&A session involved some explanation by Sebastian Wloch on what’s going on and what they have been improving. First, he explained that the sim puts a lot of stuff into VRAM including the aircraft, the terrain, shaders, and the UI. Memory leaks and objects that take up too much space (4K texture where a 2K texture would be practically the same experience) are chief culprits. He also revealed that the last test he did suggested a couple of Gigabytes worth of gains have been found. No doubt that experience will vary depending on where you are in the world and what you’re loaded into. Still that sounds encouraging.

The last set of bigger news items surrounds City Update 12 and the final Make Good aircraft. Both are set to be revealed at Gamescon 2025 (August 20 in Cologne) so we’ll be looking forward to that. The City Update is reportedly focused on somewhere in Europe and the aircraft is some sort of “watercraft” which I mean to understand as an amphibious type. Start guessing now!

Microsoft Flight Simulator team not affected by Microsoft layoffs

At the beginning of July, Microsoft announced 9,000 employees had been laid off as part of their second round of layoffs that affected Xbox, sales and other divisions around the company. Many of us have been worried that the MSFS team may have been affected, however, Jorg reassured us that they had not been affected by the layoffs.

Jorg said it had been a “rough couple of weeks” and that he had lost some colleagues in the layoffs, however, Microsoft Flight Simulator is reportedly well regarded around the company and that the sim is fully funded several years out.

A possibly related stat also was provided by Jorg saying that there were more people playing Microsoft Flight Simulator (probably 2020 and 2024 combined together) this year than last year so clearly the sim continues to experience growth. That’s generally a good sign in a company looking to trim.

Flight FX interview

At the end of the Q&A, the team also brought in special guest Marwan Gharib from Flight FX to talk about the Marketplace Exclusive Cessna Citation X.

Marwan walked us through some of the features of the aircraft, the challenges of building their own HP 2000 avionics system including its FMC, PFD and MFD displays. He also espoused how fun the airplane is to fly and its impressive performance (Mach 0.92 and 51,000 feet ceiling). Also mentioned were how they were able to use detail maps to provide close up detail for some objects in the cockpit without the need to use tons of 8K textures (good for optimization).

Marketplace, activities and the future

Scattered throughout the Q&A we’ve also learned all kinds of smaller details. I haven’t captured everything but here are some of the items that stand out.

One of the bigger ones was the Marketplace. Jorg reported that they have now been opening up the rental system which lets people check out aircraft for a small fee and for a short period of time. The exact details will be set by each company but it does mean that you can try something out before you buy – complete with the ability to put the rental cost as a discount towards the final product if you then buy it. A smart way to try and then buy if you want to do that.

Another item that they reported on during the Q&A was the activity and mission system within the sim. Up until now, this has been done external to Asobo but that system is now moving in-house to Asobo where its expected to get more attention and see more activities come eventually. When asked about the Bushplane adventures returning to 2024, Jorg reported that they had indeed had conversations about that and that it is something they intend to do but definitely not before the end of this year.

We learned a bit more about World Hub which was tested as part of 2020 but not fully implemented. This system will let the community make adjustments to scenery (airports in particular) and submit them for inclusion into the sim. Similar to a system that X-Plane uses. Jorg mentioned efforts to harmonize the updates between 2020 and 2024 which is done with Sim Update 16 so they can now turn attention to bringing the World Hub back into development.

Other questions included answers including some efforts to further update the ATR project with Hans Hartmann, a lengthy list of liveries from airlines that are coming to the sim (probably in Sim Update 4), and word that Microsoft is working with Aviat to bring the Husky to 2024 – on that point Jorg relayed that they’d had conversations with the company and that they’d wanted them to bring a newer variant of the airplane to the sim which would be a whole new development. Apparently that has been sorted out but we’ll have to see how it plays out.

Finally, Jorg reported during the Q&A that they do expect that Sim Update 4 will also be mostly focused on bug fixing for MSFS 2024 and that the team are starting to think about new features and content coming after that release. That seems to suggest that the sim is finally going to start turning a critical corner and that they will no longer need to be working to sort out some of the mess of 2024’s initial launch and will then be able to focus on making the sim better beyond that initial state. Let’s hope!

That’s quite a bit of what we learned during the Q&A but of course I encourage folks to watch and see what stands out to them. Let me know in the comments!