MSFS 2024 FAQ now up

[anden145 2,300]

What if this is solely an extension - a standalone sim - derived from the existing MSFS2020 core/code, with only missions etc possible to satisfy the casual gamer/flyer on consoles etc?
After all, we haven't seen anything other than missions in the trailer/teaser so far.

Now I don't know what to make of their "FAQ" and their vague sales language... but so far, I'm not ruling anything out...

[Bt103504 30]

1 minute ago, Cognita said:

In all honestly, I am excited for this development and looking forward to next year. From what ASOBO has said it certainly seems like the vast majority of our addons will continue to work in the new version of the sim, and that makes sense from both a technical and a business standpoint. I do plan to hold off on purchases until there is more clarity on what will work and what the various developers position on upgrade fees will be. But I am not too concerned about the transition, as many have said it has always been this way with a new version being released every two to three years. 

I 100% agree with you Dan. I think the somewhat "out of the blue" announcement from ASOBO was well intentioned but showed a lack of awareness to a large part of their community including but not limited to 3PD's. Rather than looking at this new sim as an obstacle or something that takes away from 2020 I instead view it as a even bigger opportunity for 3PD's since its coming with an updated SDK, new assets, mission and career system which includes new abilities of aircraft (rescue winching, transport, skydiving, etc), and what appears to be an avatar mode, really breaks open the door for creators and developers to make the experience even more immersive and take it to new exciting levels.

What really has me heartbroken though is the gatekeeping that seems so apparent in this hobby when it comes to ASOBO taking chances to draw a wider audience into a very niche experience. We all dearly love aviation, and to one degree or another exploration. I imagine that many of us would love to spread this passion to others who may never have though about a career in the industry or adopting the flight sim hobby. Rather than viewing these approaches of ASOBO as "gameification" of the sim or a rabid "cash grab". Instead, I would encourage people to consider this as an opportunity to draw more people into the hobby and inspire future generations. 

Don't get me wrong I do have some concerns about what the exact upgrades this new version has over the existing platform (dx12, multi core support, lighting, physics and handling) but I'm very much taking a wait and see approach. I do expect they will receive quite the grilling from 3PD's and the community at the upcoming convention and will likely try to answer many of the questions folks have at that time.

[lwt1971 7,496]

1 hour ago, g-liner said:

I liked the idea of the 10 year project but did think it might be getting a bit creaky by then. 
Isn’t this all part of the same project? I mean Jorge and asobo etc still seem passionate about the sim and want to make it as good (however we define that) as possible. 
 

When MS/Asobo first mentioned the "10 year project" thing and further clarified multiple times afterwards what they mean is that they plan to remain committed to MSFS (i.e. Seb saying he anticipates retiring before MS stops progressing MSFS), I took it as just that... i.e. they'll keep innovating and developing, progressing the sim, and are in it for the long haul, and certainly not pull a sudden exit move like they did after MS Flight. And given all what we've seen so far and their investments in MSFS 2020, and their ambitions for 2024+, that certainly seems to be the case. I certainly did not assume we'll just keep getting all this for free for 10+ years.  What we've gotten for free since 2020 is unprecedented AFAIAC, and if they keep pumping out new tech and a new core platform every few years with the intention of supporting pre-existing add-ons as best they can (and also supporting older platforms like 2020 beyond the release of newer ones like 2024), I'd say it's a win win for all.
 

Edited June 12, 2023 by lwt1971

[Brandon01110 407]

9 minutes ago, Dominique_K said:

I do not understand why they should make this announcement now, a year in advance.

microsoft knows people might need a year to save up their hobby money thats budgeted by their wives.

*not applicable to me, thankfully

Edited June 12, 2023 by Brandon01110

[g-liner 398]

1 minute ago, Bt103504 said:

What really has me heartbroken though is the gatekeeping that seems so apparent in this hobby when it comes to ASOBO taking chances to draw a wider audience into a very niche experience. We all dearly love aviation, and to one degree or another exploration. I imagine that many of us would love to spread this passion to others who may never have though about a career in the industry or adopting the flight sim hobby. Rather than viewing these approaches of ASOBO as "gameification" of the sim or a rabid "cash grab". Instead, I would encourage people to consider this as an opportunity to draw more people into the hobby and inspire future generations. 

 

Nicely put. 
 

Im not “heartbroken” though just mildly surprised. 
 

FS2020 has been fantastic at attracting new people to flightsim. Nobody owns this hobby. It’s entirely up to whoever makes the base game how it goes. Obviously devs and modders can then do their thing too. 
 

looks like great times ahead an MS/asobo, are committed to constantly improving the sim for everyone. 

[sd_flyer 6,108]

24 minutes ago, F737MAX said:

Fine, except two critical points:

1. Add-ons weren't really 'a thing' until FS2002, IIRC. Add-on compatibility wasn't a big concern, so each sandboxed flight sim was gleefully taken as an improvement on what went before.
2. On a related point, each of these were sims were relatively well developed at launch. A later upgrade for both FS9 and FSX made the former incredibly stable as a platform and the latter more appropriate for then current gen tech.  

While I personally think 4 years is a very fair amount of time between releases, it did take nearly 2 years to bring MSFS2020 to a respectable level. There are some fundamental issues that still haven’t been addressed and excellent third party aircraft have been around for a year or less.

I think there's enough reason for people to be concerned as there was an expectation (rightly or wrongly) of "10 years of support."  Also, announcing a full year in advance (again) has the ability to trash third party developer sales (again). I hope some further clarity over compatibility is given so that all parties can take a breath and look forward to the new sim.

Well, as I remember there were plenty freeware addons and panels for aircraft around. Of course not as many payware as right now.

I agree with you on MS PR early MSFS2024 announcement is ill conceived  move . I can't justify rational behind it  

[snwboardn 87]

10 hours ago, The Moose said:

"We will continue to support Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) post the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launch."

That's all I wanted to hear.   Would have liked to hear for how long they intend to support it post FS20204, but as long as I can keep using for the next few years that's good news.

See to me that’s weird…

so I’m PMDG MSFS pushes sim update X for 2020 but also update Y for 2024, both have separate issues. Am I really going to keep trying to support multiple versions? 
 

The ONLY way this makes sense is if 2020 and 2024 always share the same underlying code but 2024 just adds missions and more gamification.

i honestly would rather they say “all your addons will convert over, moving forward 2024 will be the new sim that receives updates” otherwise what are devs and freeware guys going to do support two branches of their stuff? Makes no sense.

 At this point they really should just follow their Office 365 model and make us pay a subscription if they need to keep the lights on. We already pay 3rd parties subscriptions for our nav data. But they really need to stop screwing over the devs, without them MSFS is a cool toy, they are the ones who make this an immersive sim.

[Muds 31]

32 minutes ago, Bt103504 said:

What really has me heartbroken though is the gatekeeping that seems so apparent in this hobby when it comes to ASOBO taking chances to draw a wider audience into a very niche experience. We all dearly love aviation, and to one degree or another exploration. I imagine that many of us would love to spread this passion to others who may never have though about a career in the industry or adopting the flight sim hobby. Rather than viewing these approaches of ASOBO as "gameification" of the sim or a rabid "cash grab". Instead, I would encourage people to consider this as an opportunity to draw more people into the hobby and inspire future generations.

Yep! and it even starts to be insulting toward ppl that actually fly these kind of jobs .... that for most are more challenging and demanding than flying a 737... some ppl here need to realize that aviation is not only tubeflying .... i don't get why having a more realistic and visually appealing way of doing firefighting, lifting, dive dropping is going for the gamerzzz  ....

so i guess ppl that bought the HPG 145 + action pack are surely all gamers not interested by aviation ....

[Steven Silva 27]

 I hope AI TRAFFIC, ATC in AIR & GROUND in ON/OFFLINE mode will work as it should. I hope the same for maritime traffic, that there is more realism in the WEATHER (storms, ice in clouds, more real turbulence ETC.) I hope that the tracks have pollution, dust, rain, smells ETC. that in the end all the planes have condensation due to rain, temperature changes, pressure, ETC… I just want more and more immersion and realism for my planes and airports and everything that makes it look real in MSFS

[V1ROTA7E 718]

I really don’t think the new stuff is “gamifying” MSFS at all…Look at the popularity of DCS, for example. Highly realistic air combat. I, for one am not interested in shooting things, but there are a bunch of folks out there that are — and do not identify as gamers. Firefighting, air ambulance, SAR, and cargo transport are things a bunch of “simmers” already do, but instead of having neat and realistic visuals to accompany their fantasy, it’s all done in their imagination. Maybe the reason more people, especially younger generations, don’t participate in swimming is because they grew up with much more tangible and dynamic game experiences, and MSFS, though neat, lacked what will push them over the edge. When you can actually see you SAR passengers, and drop your actual cargo, it brings a whole new layer of realism that we have never seen in any flight simulator to date. This is a welcome change and I’m so excited to see how the sim evolves over the coming years. 

[snwboardn 87]

Just now, V1ROTA7E said:

I really don’t think the new stuff is “gamifying” MSFS at all…Look at the popularity of DCS, for example. Highly realistic air combat. I, for one am not interested in shooting things, but there are a bunch of folks out there that are — and do not identify as gamers. Firefighting, air ambulance, SAR, and cargo transport are things a bunch of “simmers” already do, but instead of having neat and realistic visuals to accompany their fantasy, it’s all done in their imagination. Maybe the reason more people, especially younger generations, don’t participate in swimming is because they grew up with much more tangible and dynamic game experiences, and MSFS, though neat, lacked what will push them over the edge. When you can actually see you SAR passengers, and drop your actual cargo, it brings a whole new layer of realism that we have never seen in any flight simulator to date. This is a welcome change and I’m so excited to see how the sim evolves over the coming years. 

I think there are very few that are using the word "gamification" in a derogatory way. I mean I use OnAir company to give my flights purpose, that is a gamification but I don't think it is bad, I don't think it would be bad if something like that were built in to the sim either.

I think what annoys most in THIS forum is when gamification features take priority over simulator fixes or when it is obvious that api support takes a back seat in development because it can't be used by Xbox. 

[rjquick 240]

Since there is a pilot shortage worldwide, Boeing and Airbus may want to consider adding some 'adventure packs' to their training simulators to reach a wider base.

[Dominique_K 10,152]

 

 

6 minutes ago, snwboardn said:

think what annoys most in THIS forum is when gamification features take priority over simulator fixes or when it is obvious that api support takes a back seat in development because it can't be used by Xbox. 

This ^^

Making gamification an issue is a strawman. 

 

[Wildblue 253]

So we will have two different versions going forward then in the future???
This seems a bit odd and confusing to me. I mean, will the only difference between the two in the end be missions or no missions?
So, sort of a deluxe version with missions and a basic version without missions? Then why not simply add an option to buy missions for FS2020?
Now personally, i like the shown missions very much, (been fantasizing about helicopter cargo transport (and delivery!) since around fs95 or so, but i'd also like to know for sure that along with the missions the core of the 2024 sim isn't going some different direction than MSFS2020. I'm confused and with little answers about future directions of the two sims, it's very hard to make a choice isn't it?

 

[Tuskin38 6,697]

6 hours ago, Jeeeno said:

Updates are one thing, a useless sequel is another thing. 

It’s way too early to call it useless