Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is Going to be One of 2024’s Most Significant Releases

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was the most substantial generational leap in the storied aviation sim since the series began some four decades ago. Leveraging Bing’s satellite imagery and live weather data, plus the implementation of revolutionary next-gen graphics, brought impressively realistic levels of immersion. The sim brought in fresh players too, an audience beyond the hardcore simmers and aviation enthusiasts who’ve been the beating heart of the series since its origin.

According to the head of Flight Simulator at Xbox and Microsoft Jörg Neumann, 2020’s game introduced digital tourists, players Neumann identifies as wannabe pilots eager to experience the spectacle of flying over an exceptionally detailed digital world. The remainder of Flight Sim’s new audience, says Neumann, were “typical gamers” who – owing to Microsoft’s play anywhere ethos – had easy access to try out the game across PC and Xbox via Game Pass. Plus, as a speculative aside there was, of course, the influence of the stay-at-home obligation mandated across the world. Microsoft Flight Simulator provided a valid sense of escapism when, for many, the real world was closed.

Retaining and perhaps increasing Microsoft Flight Simulator’s 2020 audience is top priority for 2024’s upcoming iteration, and to do that Neumann and the teams at Asobo Studio and Microsoft are listening to their audience’s demands. These four pools of players – disparate in some ways – are all requesting the same thing: more content. Aviation enthusiasts, hardcore simmers, standard gamers, and digital tourists all want a more curated experience beyond simple flying.

Before we go on, it’s worth highlighting Microsoft’s lofty pledge that this year’s Flight Simulator is “the most ambitious sim ever undertaken,” and we’re not just talking flight simulators here, but any sim released to date whether it be racing, farming, city building, anything. It’s a bold claim but given Flight Sim 24’s immeasurable content via new careers and game modes, “most ambitious” might turn out to be right on the money.

First up is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s new career options, and straight off the bat its clear the game is aiming to satisfy anyone’s would-be real-life pilot fantasies. Load up a new career and you’ll be presented with the option to pin yourself to anywhere in the world, to use a global location of your choosing as a base to develop your wings, be it your hometown, favourite vacation spot, or somewhere exotic you’ve always fancied visiting. A mentor will be assigned, localised to your chosen position. It’s an impressive start, and the immersion grows from there. Before getting acquainted with the cockpit of your Cessna, your custom avatar will be invited to walk around the plane, to inspect every rivet as part of a raft of vital pre-flight checks. The onus is on you to ensure your craft is air-worthy, else you’ll run into problems later.  

Once satisfied your Cessna is ready to fly, your local flight instructor will guide you airwards for a simple take-off, pattern following, basic manoeuvring, landing, and taxiing, with the campaign expanding from there. Courses, certificates, and specialities emerge, branching paths you can follow in pursuit of your ideal aviation career. Maybe you want to experience the prestige of airline piloting or become a master at crop dusting. Perhaps a career in search and rescue is more up your street. Or maybe a job in cargo delivery is what you’re after. Well, whatever your chosen speciality you’ll need to undertake a range of certifications and exams. In fact, there will be sixty-four different training modules which focus on different aspects of aviation, from basic flying to more complex procedures. As you complete certifications you’ll unlock different pilot licences, which once acquired give you access to more varied aircraft and mission types. We’re really only scratching the surface of the career content on offer here; if you can dream it, chances are Asobo Studio have thought of it, and have built it into Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024’s career progression.

There’s a dynamism to missions too, reflecting a real-world necessity based on weather, urgency, and availability. Search and rescue missions, for instance, might only be available for a set time before disappearing given the persons in peril might be, you know, rescued before you get there. There’ll be no shortage of missions to undertake though, with the sim boasting a total of three million unique missions constructed via procedural generation that’ll come and go once you’ve acquired all your licenses.        

Flight Sim 24 isn’t just about the work though. Oh no, in satisfying the more casual digital tourists and armchair jetsetters there’ll be a new photography mode to envelop into. World Photography, as it’s known, comprises a bucket list of image worthy snaps across the globe, from elephants migrating across the Serengeti, to waterfalls and other natural wonders of the world, to man-made landmarks both ancient and modern. In secret, World Photography functions as another training mode for the casual crowd, a way for them to actively engage with the game’s flying mechanics whilst satisfying their desire to take in the splendour of the sim’s digital twin. The coordinates are given to you but snapping the best pics will still rely on your competence inside the cockpit alongside your artistic sensibility to set the best-looking time of day with the most glorious weather you can dream of.

Another new mode in Flight Sim 24, and one that’ll compliment the World Photography mode is the ability to land your craft, get out, and walk around your locale. Perhaps those elephants are eluding you from the air? Well, find a landing strip and you can park up, walk through the bush, take in the environmental finery, and hopefully pap a few elephants on your trek.

The level of detail promised by Microsoft Flight Simulator 24 is mind boggling. Sure, much of what we’re presented with – certainly on ground level – is generated procedurally and via machine learning, but the results – should the sim pull it off convincingly – have potential to raise the bar significantly for what games can achieve in terms of size and scale.

At present, there are grumbles that the sim’s ‘thin client’ streaming model will require exorbitant download speeds to seamlessly manufacture the globe’s wealth of terrain as you’re cruising at altitude, or that the game is overly exposed to server crashes and internet outages, but just imagine for a second this game working perfectly. It’ll be a marvel.

We’re running out of time in this feature, so all we can do now is briefly touch upon some of the other new stuff incoming. Most headline grabbing are the new airplanes, principally the Boeing 737 MAX 8. There’ll be global coverage for helipads, glider airports, and oil rigs. In-flight management is handled by an overhauled EFB, giving pilots access to more advanced route creation with a smorgasbord of graphs and charts to monitor anything from fuel load to flight efficiency. Oh, and there’s hot air balloons.  

There’re heaps more elements to discover once the game releases proper on November 19^th. And whilst Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was a revolution, Flight Simulator 2024 represents a through evolution, an overhauled simulation that’ll provide a more engaging experience over its predecessor for any would-be pilot, whether they’re keen to undertake a career in aviation or simply dream of hitting cruise control and absorbing the world below.  

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