Las Vegas took center stage as the global hub for flight simulation this weekend, hosting the dynamic 2024 edition of FlightSimExpo. The event was a paradise for enthusiasts, offering them a chance to connect with the creators they admire and follow closely.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator team was present in full strength, including, of course, Jorg Neumann and Sebastian Wloch, whose presentation on Friday stirred the community with excitement for what’s coming later in the year with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
This environment was perfect for exploring the team’s insights on the platform’s future. I had the opportunity to talk with Jorg and Seb for about 30 minutes, and MSFS 2024 was naturally a major topic of discussion. Both Jorg and Seb provided a lot of great insights, so go ahead and check it all out below!
Vasco: Jorg, yesterday you said something in the presentation that really struck me when you said, “Thank you for trusting us with this hobby.” Do you feel this weight on your shoulders?
Jorg Neumann (Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator): It used to be a real burden when we came back because Microsoft had stopped making Flight Sim for 15 years, which was a bit of a shock. When we returned, people didn’t know us or Asobo. There was no association with flight simming. Over the last four years of Flight Sim 2020, I think we’ve earned people’s trust. It’s good to remind ourselves that we are very thankful and feel the trust.
Vasco: You portrayed a very positive image of the success of MSFS, and it’s clearly very successful within the community. How successful is Microsoft Flight Simulator, from your point of view? Is it a good business for Microsoft?
Jorg: An interesting tidbit: when we start a project, we try to figure out what success looks like. We have a Target forecast, which includes a minimum forecast, maximum forecast, and something called a breakout. We have just surpassed the breakout. That’s how successful it is – it has really exceeded our expectations.
Vasco: There’s a reason why I’m asking this. Recently, there have been some changes in the gaming division at Microsoft, including studio closures and some Xbox exclusives launching on PlayStation. How does this impact Microsoft Flight Simulator?
Jorg: I don’t feel it at all. I’m super focused on Flight Sim and on making the Flight Sim community happy. That is all we can do, and I think we’re doing a good job. As you said, people react positively, and the business is good, so I’m very enthusiastic.
Vasco: It was clear when MSFS 2020 came out that you wanted to reach a greater amount of people than ever before. PC, Xbox, Cloud gaming… I can even fly on my iPhone! Are there any plans to take this even further with 2024?
Jorg: Well, on xCloud, we’re still missing mouse and keyboard support, which the platform doesn’t currently support. Asobo can’t do this on their own – this is a platform feature, and the platform feature was delayed. We have touch controls, but not mouse and keyboard yet, which is obviously important. When you sit down, I don’t know if you’ve ever played xCloud on your laptop, but I do. I have an old laptop that really has no business running Flight Sim, but it does, and it’s quite good. However, I have a trackpad, and I can’t use a mouse and keyboard. It’s strange. We’re working on it, and within the next 10 months or so, we should see it on both platforms, in 2020 and 2024.
Vasco: Could we possibly see MSFS on PlayStation?
Jorg: That decision is way above my pay grade!
Vasco: A big focus for MSFS 2024 is involving the community, “Built for the community, with the community”, as you said. It’s quite an openness to the work many developers do, but on the other hand, you are also implementing features – the new flight planner, for example – that are important businesses for other developers, like Navigraph. How do you balance that?
Jorg: I think Navigraph is great, but not many people want to spend $15 a month. We have lots of users who have no idea what Navigraph is or even what are charts. For us as a platform, I think it’s important to introduce people to these features for free. Navigraph will always go further than we are – they’re specialists. We had nothing that was appropriate, charts weren’t even in the sim, so let’s add that in so that people can actually get used to them.
For me, when we bring millions of people into the hobby, it’s all about the “when”. A lot of people have been doing this for decades, but we start somewhere, typically with a GA plane, and then you graduate up. I think we need to make that as frictionless as we can.
Vasco: Does having so many third parties involved make development easier because there are more teams and more people, or harder because of the scale/things to coordinate that aren’t in-house?
Sebastian Wloch (Asobo CEO): I think it’s pretty much the same. It can make it harder, but we’ve developed more processes and tools to integrate faster. I don’t see it as a problem at all, more as an advantage. The industry has matured and become more organized, so I view it as an advantage, something that enables us to move faster.
Vasco: Jorg, we continue to hear from some people in the community that you are more focused on gamers than hardcore simmers. Is this true, and why do you think there is still this perception in some in the community?
Jorg: The perception exists because our trailers appeal to a wide audience, which is intentional. Do I need to convince flight simmers that flight simming is cool? No – it’s their hobby. We need to ensure we fulfill their wishes, which is why we track wishlists and feedback closely. To make flight simming broader, we need to appeal to more people.
Some people say, “I don’t care about balloons and Zeppelins,” but some are afraid of airplanes, so we offer alternatives. We have many ultralights in Flight Sim 2024, which is how a lot of people get into flying. We want to cater to a broad audience, not just one group. I want to make sure that core simmers are happy, but many people who have never tried a flight sim see our trailers and decide to try it. That’s good for the hobby.
Vasco: Can you elaborate more on this Career mode and what’s a typical use case?
Jorg: We are not really talking about it yet. Coming up!
Vasco: And how does that new walkaround mode work?
Seb: Very simply. In MSFS 2020, you can spawn on the runway ready to go or cold and dark. Imagine another way, starting cold and dark but outside the aircraft. When you land somewhere, you can click the door and you’re outside. You can walk around, take photos, and interact with the aircraft, like the control surfaces, with a similar highlighting system that we’ve had for the in-cockpit checklists. That’s in the checklists, right? You’ll want to move every control surface to make sure it’s not locked. It’s very easy: you click the door, the door opens, and you’re outside.
Vasco: What about weather? Generally speaking, what improvements are planned for that? New cloud types, improved density?
Seb: We wrote down a lot of small requests. On a larger scale, we improved the cloud system, adding cirrus clouds and more definition. The most important improvement is lightning. The light scattering and the atmospheric simulation have been entirely redone. The line on the horizon is gone, that’s been fixed.
Regarding fog, we simulate the air with particle density, and in polluted cities, the air can get very thick. When visibility is reduced, it’s usually because the clouds are at ground level. With presets we can simulate that, the issue is more with live weather. We need to better sync with the weather provider to ensure accurate haze simulation, and we are working on it.
Vasco: What about ATC?
Seb: Can’t say anything right now but we will in the future.
Vasco: Yesterday, you also announced the 737 MAX. Seb, what can you tell us about that project?
Seb: It’s a very big team with a lot of focus. The system depth is very high, using all the new technologies. For example, I showed the A330 with the new surfaces, and the 737 MAX uses that. It has very good improved aerodynamics. It’s our biggest airplane, a very big project for us.
Vasco: Clearly, there’s a lot coming. The visual improvements are impressive, there’s ray tracing now. So, how’s the performance compared to MSFS 2020?
Seb: There’s improved detail and complexity, but also more optimization. For example, the surface system on the plane: in MSFS 2020, there were 500 to 1,000 surfaces on a plane. In the new aircraft, it’s 10 times more, but it’s multi-threaded and optimized, so the cost is about the same. Overall, performance should be similar.
Jorg: Similar or better. We are not changing the system requirements.
Vasco: You mentioned there will be new optimizations. There are a few popular mods that change settings on the fly to create a smoother experience, like AutoFPS. Are you planning something similar for better performance in critical stages?
Jorg: I think those mods are trying to make MSFS 2020 better. You should see what 2024 offers – the new system is very good and different.
Vasco: You said all aircraft shown until now will be in the base sim. Are there plans to release only one version of MSFS 2024 or will you continue to offer Premium options with more aircraft and airports and so on?
Jorg: Can’t talk about that too much, but there was that discussion about whether we should do something like that. It’s a business decision.
Vasco: What’s your plan for the next few months leading up to the release? What will you aim for in terms of the message that you’d like to convey about MSFS 2024 ahead of the release?
Jorg: We’ll have a dev Q&A, which will shift over to 2024. We’ll do the Feature Discovery series again, which was very successful. There’s going to be a lot more coming. Many people ask about the SDK. We’re hardening a build and ensuring stability and documentation. In a few months, we’ll roll out the SDK so creators can make adjustments if they want. Backward compatibility is important, so they don’t have to do anything unless they want to take advantage of new systems.
Vasco: Since Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is launching at the end of 2024, why not call it 2025?
Jorg: People ask that, even internally. We launched Microsoft Flight Simulator in August 2020, and people call it 2020. They could have called it 2021, but they didn’t. So, here we are; we’re launching in 2024, so we’ll use that. It’s fine.
