Instead of doing it one bit at a time, I wanted to do something really big. I had a little bit of distance and said, ok, we’re doing gliders, we’re doing helicopters… I had talked to the iniSimulations folks for while about doing a true-to-life level airliner, and then there was the 40th anniversary. I was actually on vacation… it’s good to take a vacation sometimes. It was always clear that in November 2022 we’d have the big anniversary, and we’ve always said: “We have to do something.”
We tried this last year with the Game of the Year Edition, and we always knew that it was the 40th anniversary this year. When you think about this, after being absent for all this time and coming back and being really welcomed back, it’s also time to give back.
We can sort of see that they come in without really knowing much, and you can tell because they start with the tutorials and then they spend more and more time in Free Flight, and then they try some other stuff, and then they try some airliners… You can sort of see them migrating, which is great. Then we launched on cloud streaming just in March, and that again brought in a large, large amount of people who have clearly never played flight simulators before, so we’re really really happy about how many people are enjoying the sim, and are learning about it. We Tried to listen and still do, obviously.Īnd then we launched on Xbox, and that basically doubled our audience. It brought in lots of the core simmers that we were hoping for, and we tried to do good.
When we first launched on PC in 2020, it did well. It’s an unspecific answer, but I think it has exceeded our expectations. Jorg Neumann: First of all, I’m glad that you think we’re generous because that’s kind of the whole point, honestly. Just how well is Microsoft Flight Simulator doing, that it feels like Microsoft has basically signed you a blank check? Yet, you always manage to surprise us with even more, to the point that this seems pretty crazy even for a game as a service. Giuseppe: Microsoft is already providing simmers with a ton of content at no additional cost with Microsoft Flight Simulator. In order to learn more about the edition and what we can expect over the next few months from the popular simulator, Twinfinite had a chat with the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, Jorg Neumann. Large amounts of content provided at no additional cost are not new for Microsoft Flight Simulator fans, but this goes much beyond what we’ve seen before. And there appears to be more that has not been announced yet.
While the name may make you think about a fancy (and pricey) limited edition, this is actually a completely free update to the base simulator, featuring plenty of new aircraft, including a high-definition airliner, four historical planes, two helicopters, and two gliders. During its recent Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, Microsoft announced the 40th Anniversary edition for Microsoft Flight Simulator.