Microsoft Flight Sim's next World Update is taking on the USA
America, The Big Apple
Following this week's brief trip to Japan, Microsoft Flight Simulator is already booking its next intercontinental clean-up flight. It seems the gigantic flight sim has decided to take on the United States of America for its next World Update, bringing a similar mix of photogrammetry-improved cities and higher-resolution terrain in another World Update before the end of the year.
That news comes courtesy of this month's Q&A with Asobo CEO Sebastian Wloch and head of MSFS Jorg Neuman on Twitch this week (cheers, Twinfinite). During the stream, the pair announced that World Updates should be hitting on roughly a 2-3 month schedule, with the USA taking focus sometime later this year.
Like this week's Japan update, it's likely we'll see some stateside cities get the improved photogrammetry treatment, along with more hand-crafted airports and improved terrain resolution. The USA is a fair bit bigger than Japan of course, and I'm curious to see whether any update scales up in kind, but expect there to be new challenges to show off whatever cities and airports end up getting uplifted.
Beyond sprucing up corners of the Earth, though, the devs also teased work on a broader "Sim Update" aimed at tidying up some of the flight sim's rougher edges. While the details of such an update are in the air (hah!) for now, the team have been poring through top requests from the game's community - chief among them being the removal of the seemingly-redundant "Press Any Key" screen. Scrubbing through the hour-long vid, I can't confirm whether or not the team plan on fixing the giant abyss that's swallowing Brasil in their simulation.
While not mentioned, it also looks like sign-ups are now open for VR testing. Instructions on getting in can be found at that link - though, like most Microsft PC stuff these days, you'll need to register as an Insider for any pre-release goodies.