The flight simulation game Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 has been released today on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console, as announced back in September. On the surface, it’s only the umpteenth game published by Xbox Game Studios on the platform after the likes of Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 5, Age of Empires, Gears of War: Reloaded, and more, with the (once) brand-defining IP Halo also on the way next year.
However, in an XDA Developers interview with Microsoft Flight Simulator franchise head Jorg Neumann, we learned that it might have been this game that started it all. Neumann had first discussed the possibility internally around two and a half years ago and initially received a no for an answer, but eventually Microsoft came around, kicking off, in Neumann’s own words, the avalanche of Xbox games on PlayStation 5.
It was my idea, actually. With Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, we came out on PC first in August 2020. One year later, we shipped it on Xbox, and we found millions and millions of new fans on Xbox that had never seen the flight sim because they’re just not PC gamers. A lot of them thought it was great, and a lot of them stayed. In 2020, it was already 120 GB when we launched as a download. When we were in 2023, I looked at the install numbers, and it was 300 GB. Then we had our content roadmap, and there was so much new stuff that we were doing that we would be over a terabyte. I said,
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
