January 5th, 2023 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

Screenshot by HeKa48 (Forum)

Happy new year and welcome to 2023!

We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday season surrounded by friends and family. The MSFS team has returned from holiday and are now once again hard at work to bring you tonnes of great flight sim content in 2023. Coming up first is Aircraft & Avionics Update 1 (AAU1), which is currently in public beta testing with a full release planned for later in January. Yesterday, we deployed a new build to beta testers; you can see the release notes here.

AAU1 is the first of several updates scheduled for 2023. We have already revealed some of our plans in the 2023 development roadmap, including the next World Update (New Zealand). We also have a few surprises in store for later in the year, so stay tuned for more information about those!

On behalf of the team, we’d like to wish everyone a peaceful and prosperous new year. The sky is calling!

MSFS Team

Development Roadmap & Feedback Snapshot

A new Development Roadmap and Feedback Snapshot will be available in an upcoming Development Update.

Marketplace Update

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Marketplace Update.

There are 14 new and 32 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT. Below you can find the Marketplace Update from December 29th, 2022.

14 NEW PRODUCTS: 7 ON PC, 7 ON XBOX
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
	New on PC

32 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 16 ON PC, 16 ON XBOX
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
	Updated on PC and Xbox

Marketplace Update – Dec. 29th

The following Marketplace Update went live on December 29th, 2022.

There are 20 new and 51 updated products in the Marketplace today. Marketplace updates generally go live on Thursdays between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT. Below you can find the Marketplace Update from December 29th, 2022.

2 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 1 ON PC, 1 ON XBOX
	Updated on PC and Xbox

20 NEW PRODUCTS: 9 ON PC, 11 ON XBOX
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox		New on PC and Xbox

51 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 28 ON PC, 23 ON XBOX
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC	Updated on PC
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC	Updated on PC	Updated on PC
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC	Updated on Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox

SDK Update

JOIN THE WORLDHUB ADVENTURE!!!

- If you missed our presentation of the new WorldHub, you can find it here! And if you want to subscribe and be part of the 50 alpha testers who will help us improve the airport logic, all you have to do is apply here. With the WorldHub, the Earth is calling.

JavaScript NavData API:

- We have fixed the naming for departure, arrival and approach transitions to better match what appears in the real avionics databases. (AAU_01)
- We have added approach vertical angle to the approach procedure data object so that vertical angle can be read by avionics units for a given approach via the API. (AAU_01)

Bleed Air System in the Sim:

- We have fixed a longstanding issue where engine bleed air could not be used to start another engine. Now, you should be able to start other engines with engine bleed air as long as the running engine bleed air is selected or the bleed air system is set to AUTO. (AAU_01)

Third Party Update

As of 12/31, we have now approved 290 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 175 (+1) have released 1,610 products on PC (+18) and 1,321 on Xbox (+25).
In total, 2,574 products (+54) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 655 products (+43) from 3^rd party developers are in production (322 announced, 333 unannounced). In total, over 3,229 3^rd party products (+97) have either been released or are in development.
Airports:

- 1,751 airports (+32) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 1,525 airports (+29) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 965 airports (+7) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 114 airports (-9) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 112 airports (+12) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.

Aircraft:

- 488 aircraft (+15) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 189 aircraft (+6) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 132 aircraft (+5) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 104 aircraft (+6) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 188 aircraft (+5) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 111 aircraft (+4) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.

Scenery:

- 848 scenery packs (+41) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 741 sceneries (+16) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 256 sceneries (+2) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 20 sceneries (-2) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 87 sceneries (+27) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.

Mission Packs:

- 142 mission packs (+9) are either released or are in various stages of development.

- - 119 mission packs (+3) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 45 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 23 mission packs (+6) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.

Community Fly-In

For our first fly-in of 2023, we will be visiting Iceland, one of the countries featured in World Update V: Nordics! Iceland is a stunningly beautiful country with some truly fantastic natural scenery. It’s also the home nation of Eurovision contestants Fire Saga, known internationally for their hit song “Ja Ja Ding Dong”. Our flight plan will take us to a popular aviation-themed Icelandic tourist destination, the wreckage of a DC-3.

Event details are available here. All are welcome to participate!

Community Video

With 2022 now in the rear-view mirror, YouTuber SimHangar Flight Simulation recently posted his Top 3 flight sim hardware peripherals from the past year. What products made the list? Watch the video to find out!

Screenshot Challenge

You can submit your screenshot via Twitter with #MSFSchallenge or the Weekly Forum Post! This week’s screenshot challenge: Ringing in the New Year

This past month our Screenshot Challenge was “Winter Wonderland“

There were many fantastic entries, so we chose a couple extra runner ups: