The 2020 edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator sparked the debut of many new development teams in the flight simulation industry, who saw the opportunity to get into a market that was, in the last couple of years, completely reignited with interest and excitement.
Besides a large amount of new development teams and independent developers, we also have many old staples in the flight simming community investing in MSFS and establishing themselves once again as key players. Historic names such as Just Flight, PMDG, Aerosoft, Carenado, Orbx, and many more, some more than others, continue to leave their mark in the community.
There are, however, some notable absences… A2A Simulations is a glaring one (that’s hopefully about to change soon), and Flight1, the reason for this writing today, has only brought to MSFS an ATC utility… but they are up to something new!
Steve Halpern, Flight1’s CEO, took to the company’s forums a few days ago to look for a group of beta testers. This seems to be aimed at a new experimental project for MSFS, about which Steve doesn’t provide very definitive details… in fact, it’s all quite mysterious, but there are some hints!
Steve asks for testers to apply if they enjoy a few key areas, namely: VFR flying, geography, history, and flying under different weather scenarios. And then he shows some pictures that apparently preview the product in question in some way or another, but it’s hard to tell how. There are whales, elephants, and giraffes… and also vast and varied landscapes, always seen from a Cessna 172…
Those waiting to see an aircraft from Flight1 at this stage should probably continue to wait. This new product doesn’t seem related to previous beloved airplanes from the company, such as the Cessna Mustang, the King Air B200, or the ATR. These would be awesome additions to MSFS, but there’s no indication that Flight1 is planning to bring them to MSFS.
So, what are your best guesses about this new product? Some kind of adventure? Missions? Guided tours across the world?
We’ll have to wait for further word from Flight1 about this mysterious new product for MSFS, but it’s definitely great to see an important name in the industry investing more time in MSFS. Flight1 already gave us FSHud, a new air traffic management and communication tool that aims to replace the lackluster default ATC system, but there’s a lot more the team can offer to the community. We can’t wait to see what they are up to. Stay tuned!
