Flight simulator fans may find themselves in a slightly unique position come November when Microsoft unloads its much more advanced Flight Simulator 2024 onto the world, even though the version that came in 2020 and was promised a 10-year roadmap will still very much be installed on a lot of systems.
There will undoubtedly be those that do not make the jump to the new version for many reasons – cost, compatibility, or PC hardware so what if you are one of those people? Will you be left in the jet wash on the new shiny toy?
It seems as though you needn’t worry as Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator confirmed to FSElite in an interview last week that we can expect to see updates for the current sim right up until 2028 which just about ties in with the decade since release.
Microsoft is confident that the majority of mods, airports, and aircraft will function if brought into MSFS 2024 but there is still going to be a messy overlap with companies going forward perhaps having to develop two versions of an add-on, one that takes advantage of the new sim and one that doesn’t. More likely support for MSFS 2020 could ebb away quite quickly, although the fact that it has had 15 million pilots since it launched could shore that up a little. Nobody is walking away from a guaranteed user base for a brand-new one.
Running two comparable products alongside each other is not something that often happens in the game industry. If we are talking racing games, things such as Project Cars 2 completely disappeared from Steam when Project Cars 3 came out.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how it is handled – there will need to be a touch of sensitivity about it to avoid some people’s noses getting out of joining.
In the meantime, if you are looking to improve your cockpit ahead of playing Flight Simulator 2024 you may want to check out the new Flight Simulator Pro Military Edition from Next Level Racing that recently launched.
