Weekly Recap

Welcome PlayStation 5 simmers! On December 3, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launched in Early Access for those who pre-ordered the Deluxe, Premium Deluxe, or Aviator Editions. This rolling deployment based on time zone is fully complete, and MSFS 2024 is now available to all Early Access PS5 players around the world.

The full release of the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Standard Edition on PS5 is scheduled for next week on December 8, but if you want to start flying right away, you can take to the skies immediately by purchasing any of the Deluxe, Premium Deluxe, or Aviator Editions from the PlayStation Store right now. To see the launch time for the Standard Edition on December 8 in your local area, please refer to the map below:

We’re thrilled by the positive reception from the new PS5 players who have recently joined our flight sim community, and we hope you feel welcomed by all the PC and Xbox simmers! Please be sure to leave your feedback about the PS5 release and vote in our forum surveys here.

Speaking of PC and Xbox simmers, Sim Update 4 is getting very close to release on your platforms! Our goal is for the full release to launch next week, but as always this is a target, not a locked-in promise, and the release timing could possibly change. We follow the feedback from beta testers on our forums very closely, so be sure to vote in our beta surveys, submit bug reports, and leave comments if you are participating in the pre-release test!

The release notes for the current beta build (1.6.31.0) can be found at the link below:

Sim Update 4 Beta (1.6.31.0) Release Notes – November 28, 2025

Finally, we released updated versions of several first party aircraft for MSFS (2020) and/or MSFS 2024 today. You can find the release notes for each of these aircraft in this forum topic. The updated aircraft are:

Dornier Do J “Wal”
Dornier Do X
Focke Wulff FW200 Condor
Fokker F.VII
Grumman HU-16 Albatross
Junkers F13
Junkers Ju-52
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries MU-2
Savoia-Marchetti S.55 / S.55X
Waco CG-4A

We hope you enjoy reading this Weekly Briefing, the first edition of our newly re-vamped blog post! We’ll see you again next week when things in Microsoft Flight Simulator get turned Upside Down. 👀

Check out this week’s NEW and UPDATED releases for both the MSFS (2020) and MSFS 2024 in-sim Marketplaces.

Explore Products

Community Fly-In Friday

Join us for a group flight to Austria this week as we celebrate Krampusnacht!

December 6 is the Feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children and the inspiration of Santa Claus. According to Alpine folklore, while St. Nicholas gives gifts to well-behaved children, he is also accompanied by a demonic goat-like figure known as Krampus who punishes those who misbehave.

In modern times, Krampus traditions have been revived in Europe’s Alpine region. Today, many cities – including Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Vienna, the destinations of this week’s fly-in – celebrate Krampusnacht (“Krampus Night”) on December 5, an evening in which adults dress up as Krampus and parade through the streets.

We’re also thrilled to welcome Early Access PlayStation 5 pilots to their first Fly-In Friday event!

Click here for event details! All are welcome to join!

Recent Community Events

November saw a number of real-world flight simulation events taking place, including WorldFlight 2025. This annual charity event saw thousands of pilots navigate around the globe over the course of an entire week on the VATSIM network. Congratulations to all of the participants on another successful year of fundraising for great causes!

Popular Twitch livestreamer TwoToneMurphy hosted the first Bravo Alpha Romeo (B.A.R) event in Dublin, Ireland on November 15. This gathering of flight sim fans included a plethora of activities including hardware showcases, tech demos, exclusive previews of 3rd party aircraft, live VATSIM ATC, and a social event to wrap up the day. We hope all who attended the world’s first B.A.R event had a great time, and look forward to Murphy’s future plans!

upcoming Community Events

The Aussie Group Flight Team is celebrating their one thousandth community event next week! Join them for a flight over the Rocky Mountains departing from Colorado Springs. The flight starts at 1900 UTC on Tuesday, December 9 (0600 AEDT on Wednesday, December 10 for those in Australia). See this forum thread for the full event details.
The Netherlands will be the host country for the second B.A.R event, and the first of 2026. Held on January 17th in Maastricht, FlightSim Fest is a ticketed limited capacity event. Pre-registration details and further information about this event can be found on EventBrite here.

Community Video

With the PS5 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 now in Early Access, a range of content creators have been giving their first impressions of the title on this platform. Included in PS5 Early Access is the new Red Bull Air Races mode! If you want to get a first taste of this upcoming activity, check out this high energy video by Cow Town!