Microsoft Flight Simulator

This article is about the flight simulation series as a whole. For the first game in the series, see Microsoft Flight Simulator (1982 video game). For the 2020 release, see Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020 video game). For other uses, see Flight simulator (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Microsoft Flight.
Microsoft Flight Simulator
The logo introduced at E3 2019 for
the 2020 Microsoft Flight Simulator
Genre(s)Flight simulation
Developer(s)Sublogic
Bruce Artwick Organization
Aces Game Studio
Dovetail Games
Asobo Studio[1]
Publisher(s)Microsoft
Xbox Game Studios
Dovetail Games
Creator(s)Bruce Artwick
Platform(s)MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, PC-98, Windows, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Cloud Gaming
First releaseMicrosoft Flight Simulator
November 1982; 42 years ago (1982-11)
Latest releaseMicrosoft Flight Simulator 2024
November 19, 2024; 6 days ago (2024-11-19)

Microsoft Flight Simulator is a series of flight simulator programs for MS-DOS, Classic Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was an early product in the Microsoft application portfolio and differed significantly from Microsoft's other software, which was largely business-oriented. Microsoft Flight Simulator is Microsoft's longest-running software product line, predating Windows 1.0 by three years,[2] and is one of the longest-running video game series of all time.[3][4]

Bruce Artwick began the development of Flight Simulator in 1977. His company, Sublogic, initially distributed it for various personal computers.[4] In 1981, Artwick was approached by Microsoft's Alan M. Boyd who was interested in creating a "definitive game" that would graphically demonstrate the difference between older 8-bit computers, such as the Apple II, and the new 16-bit computers, such as the IBM PC, still in development. In 1982, Artwick's company licensed a version of Flight Simulator for the IBM PC to Microsoft, which marketed it as Microsoft Flight Simulator.

In 2009, Microsoft closed down Aces Game Studio, which was the department responsible for creating and maintaining the Flight Simulator series. In 2014, Dovetail Games were granted the rights by Microsoft to port the Gold Edition of Microsoft's Flight Simulator X to Steam and publish Flight Simulator X: Steam Edition.

Microsoft announced a new installment at E3 in 2019, simply titled Microsoft Flight Simulator, to be released initially on PC and ported over to the Xbox Series consoles at a later date. On July 12, 2020, Microsoft opened up preorders and announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator for PC will be available on August 18, 2020.[5] The company announced three different versions of the title – standard, deluxe, and premium deluxe, each providing an incremental set of gameplay features, including airports, and airplanes to choose from.[6] The Xbox edition was released on July 27, 2021.[7]

The newest entry, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, was released on November 19, 2024.

  1. ^ "Microsoft Flight Simulator | Asobo Studio". Archived from the original on September 30, 2019. Retrieved October 1, 2019.
  2. ^ "Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition Announced". Simulator Hardware. Retrieved August 17, 2022.
  3. ^ Stokker, Serban (September 18, 2006). "Flight Simulator X Lands On Gold". Playfuls.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2009.
  4. ^ a b Lai, Eric (January 25, 2009). "Flight Simulator will Soar Despite Microsoft Layoffs". PCWorld. Archived from the original on February 2, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2009. Bill Gates licensed Flight Simulator from its original developer, subLogic
  5. ^ Warren, Tom (July 13, 2020). "Microsoft Flight Simulator will launch on August 18th on PC". Theverge.com. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  6. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (July 13, 2020). "Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2020 will launch on August 18". techcrunch.com. Archived from the original on July 14, 2020. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  7. ^ D'Anastasio, Cecilia (June 9, 2019). "New Microsoft Flight Simulator Looks Uncannily Like Real Life". Kotaku. Archived from the original on June 9, 2019. Retrieved June 9, 2019.