Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - Release Date, Aircraft, & Game Pass Details

The pre-eminent flight simulator franchise is returning with , and it's not long now until the game will finally sneak into a 2024 launch window. With a history that spans over four decades, the games have evolved from wireframe graphics to impressively realistic environments generated from satellite data. The mainline releases in the series saw a long hiatus between the release of 2006's and 2020's, punctuated only by the free-to-play spin-off Microsoft Flight.

Although is set to release after a much shorter gap, it's still promising a lot of major changes. New and reworked simulation systems are intended to improve aerodynamic calculations, track wear and tear, represent live traffic accurately, and more. Graphics and performance are also slated to receive improvements, including an overhauled lighting engine and the addition of ray-tracing. It's also now possible to exit a plane and explore the world on foot, vastly expanding the potential of exploration in 's representation of Earth.

Announced in June 202will release on November 19, 2024, with a simultaneous launch on PC and Xbox Series X/S. Although Microsoft has started to bring some exclusives over to competing platforms, is sticking to Microsoft systems for now.

Many Xbox owners are upset over the recent news that Xbox will be bringing more exclusives to the PS5, but there's a method behind the madness.

The price of still hasn't been confirmed, but the base version of the 2020 game commands a $59.99 price tag. It seems likely that will either go for a $59.99 or $69.99 price point, with the latter having become increasingly popular among AAA releases in recent years.

Microsoft hasn't yet released a finalized list of which aircraft will be available in, but promotional material for the game has showcased a number of new options. Until an official list is available, the best resource is a list provided by Flight Simulator Forums user Newspawnz, which compiles aircraft that have been confirmed to be in the