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Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator Releases City Update 11: Northeastern United States 2

[p][/p][p]Launched in celebration of FlightSimExpo 2025, held in Providence, Rhode Island in late June, City Update 11: Northeastern United States highlights several areas of interest (AOIs) across four northeastern U.S. states: Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. This update comprises a spectacular mix of locations throughout this storied region of the United States, including portions of New England, one of the most important heritage areas in the nation. Microsoft and partners created each AOI using recent high-resolution aerial and satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs), and TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface texturing. City Update 11 invites exploration throughout the sights of this historically renowned part of America, where each flight is filled with expansive vistas and intriguing landmarks.[/p][p]Areas of Interest included, by state: [/p][p]Massachusetts[/p][p]Boston: The capital of and most populous city in the state of Massachusetts, Boston serves as the primary cultural, financial, and logistical hub of the New England region. Founded in 1630, Boston is one of the oldest cities in the United States and is one of the most renowned of the country’s heritage sites, notably due to its role in the American Revolution.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/1a887c0f5012c377bbdc0bf67b519912200bb580.jpg"][/p][p]Plymouth: The Mayflower Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620, making it one of the most important historical sites in the United States. Called “America’s Hometown,” Plymouth is located 40 miles south of Boston and is the oldest settlement in New England.[/p][p]New Jersey[/p][p]Northeastern New Jersey: Cities include Newark, Hackensack, and Paterson, all of which are members of the greater New York metropolitan area. Newark, one of the oldest cities in the United States, is renowned for its contribution to the industrial development of the country and as a modern transportation hub. Hackensack is known for its historical importance during the American Revolution where George Washington established a headquarters. Paterson became a key location in the Industrial Revolution due to the energy supplied by the Great Falls of the Passaic River, around which the city was initially constructed.[/p][p]Central Jersey: This AOI focuses on cities in the eastern portion of Central Jersey, including Elizabeth, New Brunswick, and Edison. Elizabeth was the first capital of New Jersey and is one of the state’s oldest cities. New Brunswick played an important role in the American Revolution and is an important university center. Edison (originally called Raritan Township) was named after famed American inventor Thomas Edison who established his research laboratory in the area and created several important innovations, including the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph.[/p][p]New York[/p][p]Brooklyn: Located on the western end of Long Island, Brooklyn is the most populous of the five boroughs of New York City. It lies just south of the borough of Queens and is connected to the borough of Manhattan by one tunnel and three bridges that span the East River. Brooklyn offers some of the most stunning views in all of New York City, notably of the Brooklyn Bridge, the East River, and lower Manhattan.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/0e31b5963fecbfcbe2f54419e760af57e897a3c6.jpg"][/p][p]Manhattan: Manhattan is one of the most renowned urban centers in the world. The smallest borough by area of the five boroughs that compose New York City, Manhattan is often cited as the capital of several global industries, including finance, media, and entertainment. Known for its iconic architecture, Manhattan is home to the tallest building in both the United States and the Western Hemisphere, One World Trade Center (1,776 feet tall), and the second tallest in the Nation and the Western Hemisphere, Central Park Tower (1,550 feet tall).[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/868432f997b1a24d6fd1e4874a46087da383a9da.jpg"][/p][p]Long Island’s East End: One of the most beautiful areas in the northeastern United States, Long Island’s East End is renowned for its pastoral landscapes, historic villages, colonial architecture, and maritime vistas. The update includes Southampton, one of the core towns of the well-known Hamptons resort area, and Montauk, the easternmost point in New York State and home to the spectacular Montauk Point Lighthouse.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/94f8500158ea990c60e1dff55d3b897ca4f823d0.jpg"][/p][p]Rhode Island[/p][p]The update’s Rhode Island AOI covers all major cities in the state, including Providence, Cranston, and Warwick. Providence, established in 1636, is the capital and most populous city in the state. Providence, along with the cities of Cranston and Warwick to its south, are located along the mouth of the Providence River at the northern extremity of Narragansett Bay, which opens to the Atlantic Ocean.[/p][p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/6bdca744679c3425b7a8e53d3520c1f0047ccf9e.jpg"][/p][p]City Update 11: Northeastern United States is available FREE to all owners of Microsoft Flight Simulator. Ensure that you have the latest simulator version installed (1.38.2.0 for MSFS2020 / 1.3.23.0 for MSFS2024 / 1.3.25.0 for MSFS2024 on Windows PC - Steam as of 06/27/2025), download City Update 11, and take to the skies above the Northeastern United States![/p][p]Microsoft Flight Simulator is available for Xbox Series X|S and PC with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Windows, and Steam, and on Xbox One and supported mobile phones, tablets, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming. For the latest information on Microsoft Flight Simulator, stay tuned to @MSFSOfficial on Twitter. [/p][p] [/p]

Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Summer Sale

[p][img src="https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/38414035/eef004b0b38fa826e52b3c01176eabcf440e2534.jpg"]
Enjoy discounted pricing during our Microsoft Flight Simulator Summer Sale![/p][p][/p][p]For 14 Days starting on June 26th, save up to 88% on more than 3300 items.          [/p][p][/p][p]To purchase these discounted items, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, scroll down to ‘Special Offers’, then select ‘See All’ and look for the savings.[/p]

Sim Update 16 Beta [1.37.18.0] Available Now!

Welcome to the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Sim Update 16 public beta test!

How to Join




  1. Open your Steam Library
  2. Right-click Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020
  3. Click “Properties”
  4. Click “Betas”
  5. Select “flight_sim_beta – Sim Update 16"


If you would like to exit the pre-release test before it ends and revert back to the live build, follow these instructions:


  1. Open your Steam Library
  2. Right-click Microsoft Flight Simulator
  3. Click “Properties”
  4. Click “Betas”
  5. Select “None”




RELEASE NOTES


If you are playing on PC, outdated packages in your community folder may have an unexpected impact on the title’s performance and behavior.
If you suffer from stability issues or long loading times, move your community package(s) to another folder before relaunching the title.

How to install a new update safely



Stability & Performance



  • Improved memory management on Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X to improve stability


General Bug Fixes



  • Fixed bugs on Timezone system. In addition, data is now more accurate (country coasts and borders, islands, etc)


World



  • Changed the way water bodies polygons work so that overlapping polygons of the same type no longer cancel each other


Read full release notes

Microsoft Flight Simulator Releases City Update 10: United States I



This release spotlights a diverse selection of the country’s most beautiful locations, from Dallas, Texas to Honolulu, Hawaii.

Microsoft Flight Simulator City Update 10: United States I delivers five spectacular cities throughout the United States in vibrant detail: Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas; Denver, Colorado; San Francisco, California; and Honolulu, Hawaii. Each city has been crafted using the latest aerial and satellite imagery, digital elevation models (DEMs), and TIN (triangulated irregular network) surface texturing. The exquisite detail offered in this latest release will inspire aviators to explore these storied cities and admire their landmarks throughout every season, at any time of the day or night.


Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas


Dallas, and its sister city to the west, Fort Worth, were established in the 1800s as railroad hubs to serve the cotton, livestock, and oil industries of Texas. Today, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, a key urban anchor in north Texas, is the most populous metropolitan area in the state. The region is a major international hub of several industries, including manufacturing, defense, finance, and tourism. The metroplex offers spectacular sights, including the iconic Fountain Place and a 720-foot-tall modernist skyscraper in Dallas; 777 Main Street in Fort Worth, a striking building that stands 525 feet tall; and the 561-foot-tall Reunion Tower, one of the most recognizable buildings in Dallas.


Denver, Colorado


Known as the “Mile High City” (its official elevation is 5,280 feet, exactly one mile above sea level), Denver is both the most populous city in Colorado and the state’s capital. Established in 1858 by prospectors who led what would come to be known as the Pike’s Peak gold rush, Denver became an important railroad city in 1870. It blossomed into a major metropolitan center in the 20th century, characterized by a stunning skyline set against the high Rocky Mountains. Some of the sights for pilots to behold include Republic Plaza, the city’s highest building at 714 feet; 1144 Fifteenth, one of the world’s most spectacular modern skyscrapers; the Rocky Mountains to its west; and the vast, oceanic plains east of Denver.


San Francisco, California


Called by many the most beautiful city in the world, San Francisco is squarely located where the San Francisco Bay opens to the Pacific Ocean. The city was formally established in 1850 due to the boom in population from the California Gold Rush, which began in 1848. Set along a spectacular section of Pacific Ocean coastline, San Francisco offers a wonderful selection of sights, including the world-renowned Golden Gate Bridge; the iconic Transamerica Building; Alcatraz Island; and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.


Honolulu, Hawaii


The capital and most populous city of the state of Hawaii, Honolulu is known for its beautiful architecture set against the tropical blue and green waters of the Pacific Ocean. Located on the southeastern coast of the island of Oahu, Honolulu boasts human history that dates back many centuries and was incorporated as a city in 1907. Meaning “sheltered port” in Hawaiian, Honolulu features numerous sights for the aerial visitor, including its spectacular skyline; Diamond Head, an extinct volcanic cone just to the southeast of the city; the waters of the Pacific Ocean; and the spectacular Koʻolau Range inland of the metropolitan area.



City Update 10: United States I is available FREE to all owners of Microsoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Ensure that you have the latest simulator version installed, download City Update 10, and explore. The sky is calling!

Microsoft Flight Simulator and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 are available for Xbox Series X|S and PC with Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass, Windows, and Steam, and on Xbox One and supported mobile phones, tablets, and lower-spec PCs via Xbox Cloud Gaming. For the latest information on Microsoft Flight Simulator products, stay tuned to @MSFSOfficial on X (formerly Twitter) or visit www.flightsimulator.com.

 

Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Spring Sale



Enjoy discounted pricing during our Microsoft Flight Simulator Spring Sale!

For 21 Days starting on April 17th, save up to 85% on more than 3500 items.

To purchase these discounted items, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, select ‘Featured’, scroll down to ‘Special Offers’, then select ‘See All’ and look for the savings.

Black Friday Sale: 3500+ Items On Sale Now in the Marketplace



Enjoy discounted pricing during our Microsoft Flight Simulator Black Friday Sale!


For 6 Days starting on November 27th, save up to 90% on more than 3500 items.


To purchase these discounted items, visit the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace, select ‘Featured’, scroll down to ‘Special Offers’, then select ‘See All’ and look for the savings.

November 21st, 2024 Marketplace Update

Hello folks,

We have an abbreviated blog post for you this week as our team is currently focused entirely on resolving the launch issues for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. We will be back with a regular Development Update Blog next week. In the meantime, please see this message from Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann about the issues many of you have experienced this week:

We are seeing significant improvements to the capacity and access issues and are planning to gradually increase capacity while we monitor the situation. We are feeling optimistic that players will be able to access the sim and take to the skies. We thank you for your ongoing patience and will provide another update on Friday. - Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator

-Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator

Click here to continue reading the Marketplace Update!

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is Available Today

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is by far our most ambitious simulator to date, and we are incredibly excited for all of you – from our core sim fans to all gamers and those who want to explore the world with us – to join us on this journey. With authentic realism of all environments, aviation careers to pursue and the ability to explore our beautiful world with various kinds of aircraft, there is something amazing for everyone in this version of the simulator.

We feel very fortunate that Microsoft Flight Simulator has a vibrant, highly informed and passionate community which has been invaluable on our journey to continually improve the simulator. Our motto is “for the community – with the community”, which means that we will continue to carefully listen to your feedback and suggestions to help guide our development efforts – and it also means that we will continue to work with teams from the community to help us produce the best aircraft, airports, scenery, missions, and other features.


The team at Asobo is very much the core with the engine and key innovations all coming from the team in Bordeaux. We were able to substantially enhance the breadth and quality by inviting other creator teams from the flight sim community to help and bring focus to the many areas of this vast simulator. Aircraft were built by well-known and loved community teams like iniBuilds, Carenado, Got Friends, Blackbird, Hype Performance Group, MilTech, S&H, FlightFX, DC Designs, ATSimulations, BlueMesh and others to create the largest and most detailed fleet we have ever had (70 aircraft) for the base simulator. Other areas like airports, heliports, glider airports were mostly built by the talented team at Gaya, worldwide obstacles by Orbx & Puffin Flight, animals by Lakshya and via a collaboration with Frontier Developments, air racing by Climax, and many other elements like avionics and flight planning from Working Title. In total, we had over 800 people contributing to the sim and the result is beautiful and incredibly impressive.

The dream of flight is ingrained in us yet many people have been unable to pursue that dream due to a lack of opportunity to pilot their own plane … MSFS 2024 provides 70 highly diverse aircraft, our entire beautiful Earth, and many activities to suit your aviation desires.

Thank you for embarking on this incredible adventure with us. We hope you enjoy Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

The Sky Is Calling.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is now available in a variety of editions. The Standard Edition – available with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass — comes with 70 aircraft and 150 upgraded airports; Deluxe Edition includes 10 additional aircraft and five extra airports; the Premium Deluxe includes another 15 aircraft (total of 95); Aviator Edition includes everything from the Premium Deluxe Edition plus the entire fleet of 30 Microsoft-published Marketplace aircraft developed for Microsoft Flight Simulator between 2021 and 2024. If you own Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020) Deluxe Edition or Premium Deluxe Edition the additional aircraft and airports unique to these editions will automatically work in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.

November 14th, 2024 Development Update



There's only five more days until the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024! The launch will be a single global release for all time zones simultaneously at 8:00am Pacific Standard Time (1600 UTC) on Tuesday, November 19. To confirm the launch time in your local area, please consult the Arrivals Board below.



Yesterday, we hosted the final Developer Livestream prior to the launch of MSFS2024. This time, we were pleased to welcome aircraft developer Hans Hartmann to demonstrate two planes he created for MSFS2024, the Pilatus PC-6 and De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter! In case you missed it live, you can watch the VOD on YouTube here.

The next Developer Livestream is scheduled for Wednesday, November 27. The regular panel of Jorg, Seb, and Martial will be back to discuss Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 and answer many questions from the community. As always, follow our official Twitch channel and ensure notifications are enabled so you'll know whenever we go live.

As we announced last week, we are now regularly posting to Threads! If you're looking for the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator news and information on an alternate social platform, be sure to follow @MSFSofficial to stay up to date with all the latest announcements!

Finally, simmers who purchased the Limited Collector's Edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from Aerosoft may have recently received an email about a shipping delay to non-USA regions that will prevent delivery in time for the November 19 release date. We know everyone who purchased this edition are some of the most dedicated and passionate simmers in the community, and we have heard your disappointment that you won't be able to play on launch day. To make things right, we are pleased to offer all affected simmers one complimentary month of Game Pass (which includes the Standard Edition of MSFS2024 in addition to hundreds of other titles) plus a Standard to Aviator Edition upgrade token, allowing you to enjoy the new sim as soon as it releases. Please see this announcement post for more information.

- MSFS Team

Click here to continue reading the Development Update!

November 7th, 2024 Development Update



Yesterday we hosted another of our planned weekly Developer Livestreams leading up to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on November 19. Joining Jorg this week were Mike Johnson to showcase the Amphibian Aerospace Albatross and Cameron MacMillan and Pablo (a real-world Airbus A330 and A350 captain) from iniBuilds to demonstrate the Airbus A330, A321LR, A400M Atlas, and Beluga XL.

If you missed the broadcast live while it happened, you can watch the VOD on our YouTube channel here.



In the lead-up to the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, we know many of you are looking at different peripheral options so you can enhance your sim experience. All throughout this week, we have been posting spotlight articles on flight sim products from different vendors. You can check them out at the links below:

  • Pimax (VR headsets for PC)

  • Turtle Beach (flight control peripherals for PC and Xbox)

  • Tobii (head and eye tracking for PC)

  • Elgato (programmable multi-function control panels for PC)

  • Thrustmaster (flight control peripherals for PC and Xbox)


We have more peripheral spotlight articles coming in the next few days. Be sure to check them out!

Finally, for anyone looking for the latest Microsoft Flight Simulator news and information on an alternate social platform, we are now regularly posting to Threads! Be sure to give us a follow so you can stay up to date with all the latest announcments!

- MSFS Team

Click here to continue reading the Development Update![TAG-50]