The next generation of hyper-realistic flight sims is almost here. Microsoft Flight Simulator has a release date, just announced today, showing off the details via a new trailer. And with the reveal of the Microsoft Flight Simulator release date, it’s time to gear up and tune-up your engines for some stick time. Microsoft Flight Simulator will come out on August 18 for PC on Windows 10 and the Xbox One.
The game will come out alongside a release on Xbox Game Pass, allowing Xbox and PC players instant access if they have an Xbox Game Pass/Ultimate account that’s valid. Those who want to go another route will have to pre-order their copy. You can do that via the Microsoft store page.
Check out the new trailer for the game while you’re here.
The game features all the iconic and well-known aircraft that enthusiasts of the games love, and plenty of obscure ones. The hyper-realistic flight physics and cockpit creations return as well, with the developers putting tons of time into making the game feel as close to the real thing as possible with the game.
Another new addition that pilots will love is a massive expansion in scale. There will be over 40,000 real-world airports for players to visit, two million cities and towns to travel to, and it will all be filled with a populated world. The online experience is a big focus this year, with multiplayer being one big shared experience handling dozens of players in an instance. Real-World ATC and flight data will be tracked and piped into the world to make it feel more alive. So unless you’re really good about keeping track of things, there will be plenty of chatter and signals to help hide the small number of players.
And with all of the infrastructure in place, Microsoft Flight Simulator will allow players to group up and fly together. So if you wanted to fly 747s around with your friends and do stupid stunts, and those pesky physics and FAA regulations got in your way, it’s probably the best thing you can do to team up in Microsoft Flight Simulator.