As Xbox gamers weigh up last night’s Microsoft business update and the new news that four older games would be making a cross-platform leap, the move beyond these initial four titles (which we believe to be Sea of Thieves, Pentiment, Hi-Fi Rush, and the excellent but criminally underrated Grounded), what else will be interesting owners of other consoles, particularly PlayStation 5?
At the moment the Nintendo Switch is more limited in what is suitable, although the likes of Grounded would make a great Switch game, but the PS5 opens up a world of opportunity to surely bring Microsoft Flight Simulator to its second console.
After a hugely successful PC release, the sim made its way to Xbox where it spawned a new generation of players, and even people who bought the console to play who maybe could not afford the high-end PC hardware entry specs.
Companies even brought out flight sticks specifically for the Xbox and it is not a huge leap to suspect that Microsoft Flight Simulator could make its way onto Sony’s hardware, which is more than capable, before too long.
An article in The Verge says Microsoft has already been weighing up the possibility of bringing the franchise to rival platforms – that realistically can only be PlayStation as the Switch, in its current form, would melt.
With Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 slated for the middle of the year it is also a title that would not cause mainstream fuss, like a Halo, Forza or Starfield would. MSFS is a console exclusive to Xbox without anybody having really noticed that it is. Bringing it to PlayStation would also be a great move for the swathe of third-party developers who produce aircraft, airports, and scenery for the game’s marketplace.
There would likely be a few hoops to jump through to get Flight Sim’s marketplace on Sony’s hardware, but surely nothing insurmountable and it would bring pretty much a totally new genre to the gaming giant’s hardware and expand the game’s audience to a whole new level of players.
