As the months go by, excitement in the flight simulator community is growing as the launch window for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 draws ever closer. News on the latest version of the popular sim has been a bit thin on the ground since the end of last year but in a dev stream, Microsoft and developers Asabo have some more to say, including potentially an accidental clue as to the release date.
The potential slip-up came while talking about one of the included aircraft – an upgraded version of the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, of which the current model is available to buy in the in-game store.
Jorg Neumann of the Microsoft Flight Simulator team was talking about potentially pulling the download from the store so as not to upset anybody who bought it in September, only to discover right after that that it comes in MSFS 2024. Does that mean we are looking at a September/October launch? Time will tell.
Microsoft will be present at FlightSimExpo 2024 in Las Vegas at the end of June so we are definitely expecting them to be showing the sim in all its glory by that point.
A whole new world
We did learn that the entire planet in 2024 will be updated using the very latest data from Bing maps. While mountains are unlikely to have moved much, certain areas of the inhabited world will greatly benefit from updated data.
A brief mention was made that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will feature ray tracing and that this is being worked on at the moment, but whether this is something that will appear further down the line is unclear at this point.
With plenty more updates for the current version of MSFS before we get to launch there should be lots to talk about in the coming months.
