MS Flight Sim 2024 in the news

Microsoft has recently been announcing a bunch of new features for the
up-and-coming newest version of its venerable "Flight Simulator"
franchise, imaginatively named "Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024".
These features include a better flight model, nicer visuals (natch)
and, most unusually, the ability to get out of the plane and walk
around.

(I'm reminded of the advice given in 1997's "Interstate 76" game, when
an NPC warned, 'Never get out of the car'.)

I was rather late coming to the 2020 edition of the franchise; I toyed
around with it a little bit in... I dunno, 2022? but didn't really
engage with the game until late last year. It's an impressive piece of
tech, even if my appreciation of the flight simulator gameplay has
diminished over the decades. But it doesn't really feel like a game
that needs replacing yet; the sim still has legs.

But new games are what bring in the sales, so I get why Microsoft is
pushing forward with the sequel. Still, I look at this news with some
trepidation, because the 2020 version of the game has a giant boat
anchor hanging off it than could sink the game quite easily.

Namely, the game is entirely dependent on Microsoft's good graces -and
online services- to play. If Microsoft pulls the plug, the 2020
version is dead. And Microsoft doesn't have the best of reputations
for keeping old services and products.

Of course, Microsoft /says/ that players of the 2020 game have nothing
to worry about; not only will the services stay in operation, but they
will be dually updating both games for a while yet. And good ol' Papa
Microsoft is so incredibly trustworthy, so I'm sure it's true.

Obviously, this isn't a problem unique to MSFS 2020; just ask any
player of a Ubisoft game, right? These online entanglements threaten a
lot of classic games. But rare is the single-player game so dependent
on online assets as the 2020 Flight Sim.

(Technically, it is possible to play MSFS 2020 offline... if you're
willing to spare a couple petabytes to caching all the data.)


So, TL;DR I'd love to get all hyped up for this newest version of the
long-running Flight Sim franchise... but all the news about the
impending release of the 2024 edition reminds me of is how short lived
the 2020 version may be. Hardly the sort of thing that inspires me to
pay out more money.