Las Vegas took center stage as the global center for flight simulation this weekend, hosting the dynamic 2024 edition of FlightSimExpo. The event was a haven for enthusiasts, offering them a chance to connect with creators they admire and follow closely.
The Microsoft Flight Simulator team was there in full force, including, of course, Jorg Neumann and Sebastian Wloch, whose presentation on Friday stirred the community with excitement for what’s to come later in the year with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 .
This environment was perfect for exploring the team’s insights into the future of the platform. I had the opportunity to chat 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 insight, so go ahead and check it all out below!
Vasco: Jorg, yesterday you said something in the presentation that really hit 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 came back, people didn’t know us or Asobo. It had nothing to do with flight simming. Over the last four years of Flight Sim 2020, I think we’ve earned people’s trust. It is good to remind ourselves that we are very grateful and feel the faith.
Vasco: You portray a very positive image of the success of MSFS and it is clearly very successful within the community. How successful is Microsoft Flight Simulator, from your perspective? Is it good business for Microsoft?
George: An interesting thing: when we start a project, we try to understand what success looks like. We have a target forecast, which includes a minimum forecast, maximum forecast, and something called a split. We have just passed the exit. That’s how successful it is – it has truly exceeded our expectations.
Vasco: There’s a reason I’m asking this. Recently, there have been some changes in the games division at Microsoft, including the closing of studios and some Xbox exclusives being launched on PlayStation. How does this affect Microsoft Flight Simulator?
George: I don’t feel it at all. I’m super focused on Flight Sim and making the Flight Sim community happy. That’s all we can do and I think we’re doing a good job. As you said, people are responding positively, and business is good, so I’m very enthusiastic.
Vasco: It was clear when MSFS 2020 came out that you wanted to reach more people than ever before. PC, Xbox, cloud gaming… I can even fly on iPhone! Are there any plans to take this even further with 2024?
George: Well, in xCloud, we still lack mouse and keyboard support, which the platform does not currently support. Asobo can’t do this on its own – it’s a platform feature, and the platform feature was delayed. We have touch controls, but not yet the mouse and keyboard, which is definitely important. When you sit down, I don’t know if you’ve ever played xCloud on a laptop, but I do. I have an old laptop that really has no business running Flight Sim, but it does, and it’s pretty good. However, I have a keyboard and cannot use the mouse and keyboard. Its weird. 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 see MSFS on PlayStation?
George: This decision is much higher than my salary!
Vasco: A big focus for MSFS 2024 is community involvement, “Built for the community, with the community” as you said. It’s quite open to the work that many developers do, but on the other hand, you’re also implementing features – for example the new flight planner – that are important businesses for other developers, like Navigraph. How do you balance that?
George: I think Navigraph is great, but not many people want to spend $15 a month. We have many users who have no idea what Navigraph is or even what charts are. For us as a platform, I think it’s important to introduce people to these features for free. Navigraph will always go further than us – they are specialists. We didn’t have anything that was appropriate, the signs weren’t even on the card, so let’s add that so people can get used to them.
For me, when we bring millions of people into the hobby, it’s all about “when.” Many people have been doing this for decades, but we start somewhere, usually with a GA airplane, and then you graduate. I think we should make it as frictionless as possible.
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 (CEO of Asobo): I think it’s about the same. It might 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 like an advantage. The industry has matured and become more organized, so I see it as an advantage, something that enables us to move faster.
Vasco: Jorg, we keep hearing from some people in the community that you are more focused on players than strong players. Is this true and why do you think this perception still exists among some in the community?
George: The perception exists because our trailers appeal to a wide audience, which is intentional. Should I convince fliers that flying stew is cool? No – it’s their hobby. We need to make sure we fulfill their wishes, so we keep a close eye on wishlists and comments. To make the flight wider, we must appeal to more people.
Some people say, “I don’t care about balloons and Zeppelins,” but some people are afraid of airplanes, so we offer alternatives. We have a lot of ultralights in Flight Sim 2024, so a lot of people get into the flight. We want to cater to a wide audience, not just one group. I want to make sure the main stew is happy, but a lot of people who have never tried a flight card see our trailers and decide to give it a try. This is good for the hobby.
Vasco: Can you elaborate more on this career mode and what is a typical use case?
George: We’re not talking about it yet. It’s coming!
Vasco: And how does that new movement mode work?
Seb: Very simply. In MSFS 2020, you can plant on the runway ready to go or in the cold and dark. Imagine another way, start cold and dark, but outside the plane. When you land somewhere, you can click the door and you’re out. You can walk around, take pictures and interact with the plane, like the control surfaces, with a similar highlighting system we had for the cockpit checklists. That’s on the checklist, right? You will want to move each control surface to make sure it is not locked. It’s very easy: click the door, the door opens and you’re out.
Vasco: What about the weather? In general, what improvements are planned for this? New cloud types, improved density?
Seb: We have written many small requests. On a larger scale, we improved the cloud system, adding cirrus clouds and more definition. The most important upgrade is lightning. The light distribution and atmospheric simulation have been completely redone. The horizon line is gone, this is fixed.
As for fog, we simulate air with particle density, and in polluted cities, the air can become very thick. When visibility is reduced, it is usually because the clouds are at ground level. With presets we can simulate it, the issue is more with live weather. We need to sync better with the weather provider to ensure accurate fog simulation and we are working on it.
Vasco: What about ATC?
Seb: I can’t say anything 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 depth of the system is very high, using all new technologies. For example, I showed the A330 with the new surfaces, and the 737 MAX uses it. It has very good improved aerodynamics. It is our biggest aircraft, a very big project for us.
Vasco: Clearly, there will be many more to come. The visual improvements are impressive, there is now ray tracing. So how does it perform compared to MSFS 2020?
Seb: It has improved detail and complexity, but also more optimization. For example, the surface system on the plane: in MSFS 2020, there were 500 to 1000 surfaces on a plane. In the new plane, it’s 10 times more, but it’s multi-threaded and optimized, so the cost is about the same. Overall, performance should be similar.
George: Similar or better. We are not changing the system requirements.
Vasco: You mentioned that there will be new optimizations. There are some popular mods that change settings on the fly to create a smoother experience, such as AutoFPS. Are you planning something similar for better performance at critical stages?
George: I think those mods are trying to make MSFS 2020 better. You should see what 2024 has to offer – the new system is very good and different.
Vasco: You said all the planes shown so far will be on the base card. Are there plans to release only one version of MSFS 2024 or will you continue to offer Premium options with more planes and airports and so on?
George: Not much can be said about it, but there has been discussion about whether we should do something like this. It’s a business decision.
Vasco: What is your plan for the next few months before release? What will you be aiming for in terms of the message you want to convey for MSFS 2024 prior to release?
George: We will have a detour Q&A, which will be moved to 2024. We will be doing the Feature Discovery series again, which was very successful. There will be many more to come. Many people ask about the SDK. We are firming up a build and providing stability and documentation. In a few months, we will release the SDK so that creators can make adjustments if they want. Backward compatibility is important, so they don’t have to do anything if they don’t want to take advantage of the new systems.
Vasco: Since Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is launching in late 2024, why not call it 2025?
George: People ask this, 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 good.
