Microsoft Flight Simulator: Game of the Year Edition is Now Available

Microsoft today announced the immediate availability of Microsoft Flight Simulator: Game of the Year Edition as a free update for existing users.

“This new edition celebrates all the positive feedback, reviews and awards garnered, and is also a ‘Thank You’ to our fans—new and old—[who] have made Microsoft Flight Simulator such a phenomenon,” Microsoft’s Jorg Neumann writes. “The *Microsoft Flight Simulator: Game of the Year Edition* features five new handcrafted aircraft, eight new airports, six new Discovery Flights, and updated weather systems and incorporates all six World Updates.”

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New aircraft include the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, VoloCity, Pilatus PC-6 Porter, CubCrafters NX Cub, and Aviat Pitts Special S1S. There are 8 new airports in central Europe and United States, including Leipzig/Halle Airport (EDDP), Allgäu Airport Memmingen (EDJA), Kassel Airport (EDVK) Switzerland, Lugano Airport (LSZA), Zurich Airport (LSZH), Luzern-Beromunster Airport (LSZO), Patrick Space Force Base (KCOF), and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (KNKX), plus information about 545 previously missing airports in the United States.

There are also 6 new missions, 14 new tutorials, and several highly requested features by the community, including an updated weather system, early access to DirectX 12, and a dev mode replay system. And finally, in collaboration with Bing, there are several new photogrammetry cities: Helsinki (Finland), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany), Brighton, Derby, Eastbourne, Newcastle, and Nottingham (UK) and Utrecht (Netherlands).

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available on Xbox Series X|S with Xbox Game Pass, Windows 10 and 11 with Xbox Game Pass for PC, and Steam.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2021 - 4:12 pm

    <p>Love seeing them continue to improve the game. </p>

  • ngc224

    18 November, 2021 - 4:37 pm

    <p>Are there any Surface devices even capable of running Microsoft Flight Simulator?</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      19 November, 2021 - 8:51 am

      <p>Only over Xbox Cloud Gaming. :)</p>

      • ulrichr

        20 November, 2021 - 2:09 pm

        <p>Actually I successfully ran it on my Surface Book 3 albeit with graphics settings at Medium and the graphics output scaling to 80%. That worked fine for most places except heavy polygon areas like New York</p>

  • jdjan

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2021 - 6:23 pm

    <p>I love this game but I play it only every now and then and its usually several gigs of downloading updates each time. RIP my bandwidth with this one!</p>

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    18 November, 2021 - 11:02 pm

    <p>I love this <s>game</s> simulation </p>

  • bleeman

    Premium Member
    19 November, 2021 - 4:56 pm

    <p>I think one of the new i7 Surface Laptop Studios could run it as they have an RTX3050 graphics card.</p>

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