A couple of days after Got Friends announced the Deluxe rebuild of Man’s Best Friend, the pack is out. It’s available now on the Got Friends website at $9.99 USD, and a single purchase covers native downloads for both MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024.
For the full background on how the freeware favorite became a payware product, and what Avitar Nest actually does, our announcement coverage has the details. This piece focuses on what’s worth knowing now that it’s available.
The numbers grew
The companion count ended up higher than the announcement suggested. Got Friends now lists more than 40 animal types with three or more variants each, for over 120 companions in total (127, by their own count). The cat lineup in particular expanded, from three types at announcement to six on the final product page. The rest of the roster holds, with 28 dog breeds at the center and a small miscellaneous group made up of a duck, a rabbit, and a tortoise.
One caveat for MSFS 2024 pilots
On MSFS 2024, the pack works through the simulator’s native copilot system, but there’s a tradeoff. Got Friends says that because Asobo disabled support for additional copilot presets, installing Man’s Best Friend replaces all of the selectable human copilot presets with the animal companions. If you want your human copilots back, you remove the add-on from your Community folder. In other words, on the newer sim it’s animals or humans, not both at once, at least for now.
The console version also isn’t here yet. Got Friends has submitted the pack to the Marketplace, which is the route to Xbox Series X|S, but that submission is still in process. Once the Marketplace approval clears, this would be the first time Xbox pilots can bring animal companions into the simulator, so it’s worth watching for anyone flying on console.
Got Friends isn’t done with releases this month. Their Taylorcraft BC-12D, which will be their final aircraft for MSFS 2020, is targeting a July 31st release.
Got Friends is one of our Captain’s Club partners. If you’re a member, you get 20% off on all Got Friends add-ons through their website!
