Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 won’t be as taxing on your PC

One of the biggest obstacles to playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is how taxing it is to run on your platform of choice, both in terms of performance and storage. For the next game in the series, Xbox and developer Asobo Studio are making it just a little easier to run.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will be around 30GB smaller at installation than its predecessor: 127GB versus 157GB. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 was one of the largest games around, and even prompted some people to purchase more powerful hardware for their PCs. And that installation number doesn’t even include all the extra content you could buy. While 2024 will still be quite big, trimming it down will make it easier to install on your drive, which probably wasn’t that big to start with if you have an original Xbox Series X/S.

Asobo did this by only loading in environments and textures that you need for your flight path. The game also utilizes the cloud to store all assets, textures, and other pieces. “Now, we integrated everything into the cloud, and it is all streamed and kept into a rolling cache on the hardware. You don’t have to install any new World Updates; they’re just streamed seamlessly,” Asobo CEO Sebastian Wloch told Xbox Wire.

The game’s November 19 release date was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase in June, but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available for preorder at the Microsoft Store, although it’ll also be on Xbox Game Pass on day one for compatible plans. All players who get their purchases in early will receive a De Havilland Canada CL-415 firefighting craft. There are four editions available, ranging from $60 for the standard edition to $200 for the highest tier.

• Standard edition: 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports ($70)
• Deluxe edition: 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports ($100)
• Premium Deluxe: An extra 15 aircraft ($130)
• Aviator edition: Everything in the other editions, plus all 30 Microsoft-published marketplace aircraft released between 2021 and 2024 ($200)

New additions to 2024 include a career system that allows you to build up your piloting skills. You can begin at one airport located anywhere in the world, and will learn about real-world pilot skills like preflight procedures and logging flight paths. Then, you can use your training to unlock missions like commercial flights. Once you’ve raised enough money, you can learn how to maintain your planes, helicopters, or whatever else you own.

Asobo will also be making improvements to the environments. The game is already known for its attention to geographical detail, but it’ll be upping the specificity of the environments “by a factor of 4,000.” There are also new “soft body simulations” for hot air balloons, which, yes, have a parachute system.