A buggy initial release and months of silence on the issues from Hype Performance Group have ended with a significant statement indicating what has happened, what is happening with the MSFS 2024 included H225 helicopter, and a little on what they plan to do next.

The word from HPG

Hype Performance Group made a bit of a splash back in the early days of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 with the release of the H135 freeware, H145 and H160 helicopters. That together with their action pack for the H145 was among the earliest groups to offer that kind of mission based experience for the sim. More recently, however, things have been very quiet and that was unusual especially for a group that was a partner with Microsoft and Asobo on the release of the H225 for MSFS 2024.

Now we know a bit more about what has been going on and what is happening with their various products. The short version is this: One of their key developers reportedly took a break after a few years of busy development. The team was able to work through that break time but there appears to have been a bigger split as they were unable to make consistent contact with that developer following the break. Plans became significantly delayed as a result. With that developer apparently on the way out, there are also issues surrounding intellectual property for the H145 and H160 helicopters.

HPG have meanwhile brought two new developers onboard for future products, are planning to release the long awaited H160 action pack, and they’ve made a decision and an agreement with Microsoft on the fate of the H225 as well.

Hype Performance Group and Microsoft have agreed that Microsoft will transition future development efforts for the H225 to a new team. HPG delivered a final H225 build to Microsoft containing over 20 bug fixes and enhancements, and the new development team contributed additional fixes and improvements on top of those completed by HPG. These combined efforts were included in the H225 update released alongside Sim Update 4.

Indeed I have tested out the SU4 version of the H225 which is quite a bit more enjoyable than the early release though it does seem like it needs a bit more work. With hopes that the H225 will continue to evolve under the development of a new team while HPG are able to work through the issues with their back catalogue.

More directly from the statement here. Bugs with the H225 should be reported on the official forums now rather than on the HPG Discord.