MSFS 2024: Soar to New Heights – Career Edition
While animals and virtual people add a nice touch of realism to the game, at its core, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is fundamentally about the aviation experience. Back when MSFS 2020 was launched, there was a global pilot shortage of around 800,000.
“I can genuinely say that the aviation industry is in a visible crisis,” said Neumann. “It’s not widely talked about.”
He emphasized that training pilots from a younger age is crucial, but building authentic simulators can cost up to $40 million. However, due to the success of MSFS 2020, which has over 15 million players according to Asobo, people can now get a taste of aviation right from their Xbox at home and progress from there. This easy access to flying, combined with the depth of the experience, has prompted aircraft manufacturers to actively collaborate with Asobo and the Flight Simulator team.
“In fact, almost all of them, except one, have reached out to us, asking for help with recruitment because they desperately need to bring in new pilots,” Neumann noted. This mutually beneficial partnership not only aids an industry struggling with demand but also improves the overall realism and quality of MSFS. “When I ask for their help, they immediately say, ‘You’ve got it.'”
This continuous enhancement of the simulator, supported by both aircraft companies and the player community, has led to the removal of traditional tutorials.
“I love that tutorials are becoming a thing of the past,” Neumann admitted, saying he wasn’t fond of the ones in MSFS 2020. “I fly quite a bit, though not jets and stuff in real life, so I had to take those tutorials. But I didn’t retain much.” The new philosophy in MSFS 2024 is to immerse players in real-world aviation experiences, particularly through Career Mode. Instead of going through step-by-step tutorials, players will learn by doing, which Neumann believes is a more effective way to teach. “I did the tutorials in the past, but I don’t really remember them,” he shared.
“I think we’re doing a better job at preparing people to become real-world pilots, and that’s really cool because it’s the only game I’ve worked on that connects to the real world.”
At the preview, I got the chance to try some helicopter training, something I struggled with in MSFS 2020. Microsoft had set up a full control system that mimicked real helicopter training equipment. That said, you don’t need an elaborate setup to get started. While I’d recommend building up your gear over time, you can dive into the lessons with nothing more than an Xbox controller or even just a mouse and keyboard. It’s a more traditional way of learning to fly, but the new Career Mode adds purpose. “Why am I practicing hovering? Oh, because I’ll need to use my sky crane to lift a scaffold later in my career.”
Even with all these advancements in graphics and physics, MSFS 2024 is designed to take up less space on your hard drive than MSFS 2020 does now. If you’ve ever had to relocate the game or reinstall it, you know the frustration of downloading hundreds of gigabytes of data. Major updates alone can be 20-30 gigs, and at times it feels like half my time in MSFS has been spent waiting on downloads or load screens.
