“Gran Turismo” celebrates its 25th anniversary in December, “Call of Duty” turns 20 next year. But all of them are easily overshadowed by “Microsoft’s Flight Simulator”, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary these days.
We were at the anniversary event in Berlin and look back on four decades. Microsoft chose the perfect location for this event, the Technik Museum in the heart of the German capital. Surrounded by aviation history classics and other historical exhibits, the anniversary of the “Microsoft Flight Simulator” (MFS) took on a very special significance.
An anniversary edition for gourmets
In the midst of so much history, the game stations seemed almost futuristic to visitors – equipped with the latest hardware, anyone could try out the “Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition”. Released in 2020, this special version of the base game features a slew of new content, including the “Airbus A310-300”. A passenger plane that many fans have longed for.
The same, according to Microsoft, applies to helicopters and gliders, which are also brand new, and seven famous historic aircraft such as the “Hughes H-4 Hercules” (also known as the Spruce Goose). Microsoft bridges the game’s past not only with the legendary planes, but with 24 missions that stem from previous offshoots of the series. By the way, this extra content is free for players who already own the game or use it as part of the Game Pass.
By the way, MFS add-ons have a long tradition, as even the uninitiated realized during an informal discussion at the event. Because one of the speakers was Andreas Mügge, co-managing director of games manufacturer Aerosoft. His company released the first Flight Simulator add-on 30 years ago, he reports, and many more followed over the next three decades.
Together with three other panel members, he reports on the world of flight simulators, in which the two content creators Toni and Pascal Schmidt are also working as pilots in real life. The two, like Eckhard Voss, the president of the Flight Simulator Club (FSC), emphasize that behind the enthusiasm for the game lies a real love for aviation. And what’s more – the “Flight Simulator” even helps the pilots to prepare for real flights and tests, because the game is modeled so close to reality in many ways.
Red wine and professionalism
This meets the requirements of the developers, who want to best represent the realism, accuracy and authenticity of the flight in the game. How seriously many players take the “Flight Simulator” is shown by the depiction of club life. Although there is also a group of “Red Wine Pilots”, where things are very relaxed, some players from the more than 280 club members place great importance on professionalism on game nights. Flights that take place in real time are often simulated. If a flight lasts several hours, the gamers sit in front of the screen just as long and relax in a program that is hardly inferior to the real flights – including virtual air traffic controllers.
While fun and community are central to the streamer Pascal, flying jobs are often taken seriously: “I’m often very impressed with how serious it is, there’s a real workload in the cockpit! People read it very well and sometimes you even feel like an amateur because a lot of people are so deep into the subject.”
Germany has traditionally been one of the countries where, at least from Mügge’s point of view, there is a particularly large number of MFS fans. A third of his company’s add-ons were sold domestically, while another third went to Europe and the rest of the world.
However, no virtual master has yet fallen from the sky – the “Flight Simulator” is a complex game and takes a lot of time. This is where Pascal Schmidt comes full circle, because in both worlds there is no escaping the infamous “conditions” among pilots. It is said that this is the only way to gradually master it. The expert advises interested parties, with the agreement of the other stage participants, to take a small plane with a small airport and just get down to business.
Explore your own city, find the house and then level up and eventually travel around the world. The entry threshold has become a lot smaller with the new game, after all, the “Flight Simulator” is now also available for Xbox consoles and no longer just for PCs. And as mentioned, “Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition” is now available.
The Anniversary Edition is an ideal sandbox for gamers, where you can simply blow off steam – without taking the risks of the first pilot pioneers who risked their necks with self-designed aircraft more than 120 years ago.
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