June 29th, 2023 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is forum user HeKa48. If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!

The team was absolutely thrilled to attend FlightSimExpo 2023 in Houston last weekend! We loved meeting many members of the flight sim community at our booth on the convention floor. Earlier today, we posted a re-cap article where several members of the MSFS team discussed their personal highlights from the event. We also recently updated our Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 FAQ page to include the new information shared by Jorg and Seb during their keynote.

Another big highlight for us was Jorg Neumann and Sebastian Wloch delivering a keynote address at the expo on Friday night. During their presentation, Jorg and Seb shared new information regarding Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, including answers to some of the community’s most-asked questions following the teaser trailer at the Xbox Games Showcase on June 11. If you missed it live, you can watch the video on our YouTube channel.

Also during their presentation, Jorg announced three new content updates for the current version of Microsoft Flight Simulator. The first of these, Famous Flyer 06: Ford 4-AT Trimotor was released as a surprise drop live during Friday’s keynote. As a special gift to the community, we are pleased to offer this plane free for a one-week period to all players who claim it from the in-sim Marketplace prior to 11:59pm PDT on June 30!

The next announcement was City Update 03: Texas. This scenery pack features photogrammetry for several Texas cities and is available now as a free download from the Marketplace.

Finally, we will release the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the next plane in our Local Legends series, tomorrow (June 30). The Stratoliner is a civilian derivative of Boeing’s famous B-17 bomber and was the first airliner in the world to feature a pressurized cabin. We’re sure sim pilots will love flying this vintage bird from the 1940s!

– MSFS Team

Feedback Snapshot

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Feedback Snapshot.

Development Roadmap

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Development Roadmap.

Marketplace Update

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

There are 160 new and 15 updated products in the Marketplace this Thursday, and 4 products that are new from earlier this week. Thursday’s Marketplace update generally goes live between the release of this blog post and 5pm PT.


Released Friday, June 23^rd	Released Thursday, June 29^th:
New on PC and Xbox, Free until June 30^th	New on PC and Xbox

160 NEW PRODUCTS: 81 ON PC, 79 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	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	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
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	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	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
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
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	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox

15 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 7 ON PC, 8 ON XBOX
Updated on PC	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox

Marketplace Backlog

Current Backlog: 362 Total

Marketplace submissions are assigned a priority (P1-P4, with P1 being the top priority) based on defined internal processes and metrics. We review and update the priority system regularly to ensure it is best serving both our players and 3rd Party Developers.

BACKLOG: NEW PRODUCTS

CONTENT TYPE	P1	P2	P3	P4	Total
Aircraft	8	3	28	2	41
Mission	0	6	38	0	44
Scenery	0	0	9	25	34
Livery	0	8	28	14	50
Airport	2	2	39	24	67
Other	0	2	19	5	26
Total	10	21	161	70	262

BACKLOG: UPDATED PRODUCTS

CONTENT TYPE	P1	P2	P3	P4	Total
Aircraft	2	3	19	1	25
Mission	0	2	0	0	2
Scenery	0	2	0	13	15
Livery	0	2	10	8	20
Airport	0	6	19	12	37
Other	0	1	0	0	1
Total	2	16	48	34	100

SDK UPDATE

Asobo

No Update this week.

Working Title / MSFS Avionics Framework

MSFS Avionics Framework
- Check out MSFS Avionics Source Code Mirror to access the latest Avionics Framework source code.
- Find documentation about the avionics framework here: MSFS Avionics Frameworks and Instruments.
- Upcoming framework updates:
  - Adding EFB framework for Boeing aircraft. (SU_13)
  - Adding external flight plan import utility class to the Framework to support SimBrief imports. (SU_13)
  - Adding ability specify whether Meters should be a supported unit in AltitudeSelectManager that allows avionics to not support metric (currently they all do). (SU_13)
  - Improving VOR/LOC intercept behavior by separating the behavior into an intercept behavior and a tracking behavior. (SU_13)
  - Adding AeroMath.DENSITY_SEA_LEVEL_ISA and supporting methods to AeroMath. (SU_13)
  - Adding support for step-climb calculations to framework and Boeing SDK. (SU_13)

THIRD PARTY UPDATE

As of 06/12, we have now approved 210 (+0) third parties into the in-sim marketplace and – so far 196 (+1) have released 2,198 products on PC (+49) and 1,911 on Xbox (+56).
In total, 3,135products (+4) have already been released in 3^rd party stores and the in-sim marketplace. Beyond that, another 819 products (+6) from 3^rd party developers are in production (350 announced, 469 unannounced). In total, over 3,962 3^rd party products (+10) have either been released or are in development.
Airports:
- 1,973airports (+5) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 1,729 airports (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 1,185 airports (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 121 airports (+0) beyond the released airports have been announced.
  - 123 airports (+3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an airport is in production.
Aircraft:
- 610 aircraft (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 251 aircraft (+2) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 186 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim PC marketplace.
  - 167 aircraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim Xbox marketplace.
  - 206 aircraft (-1) beyond the released aircraft have been announced.
  - 153 aircraft (-1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that an aircraft is in production.
Scenery:
- 914 scenery packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 814 scenery packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 337 scenery packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 22 scenery packs (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 78 scenery packs (+1) are not announced but the dev let us know that scenery is in production
Mission Packs:
- 184 mission packs (+1) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 159 mission packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 98 mission packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 mission packs (+0) beyond the released missions have been announced.
  - 25 mission packs (+1) are not announced, but the dev let us know that they are in production.
Livery Packs:
- 248 livery packs (+3) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 158 livery packs (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 153 livery packs (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 1 livery pack (+0) beyond the released scenery has been announced.
  - 89 livery packs (+3) are not announced, but the dev let us know that scenery is in production.
Ships & Watercraft:
- 33 ships & watercraft (+0) are either released or are in various stages of development.
  - 24 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released on the platform so far in various stores.
  - 14 ships & watercraft (+0) have been released in the in-sim marketplace.
  - 0 ships & watercraft (+0) beyond the released scenery have been announced.
  - 9 ships & watercraft (+0) are not announced, but dev let us know that scenery is in production.

Pride Liveries

Fly the Pride flag in Microsoft Flight Simulator! In celebration of Pride Month, check out some of these player-created freeware mods based on the Pride liveries of several real-world airlines!

Community Fly-In

July 1 is Canada Day! To celebrate the national holiday of the Great White North, our fly-in this week will be a trip along the St. Lawrence River to the nation’s capital city of Ottawa. We will depart from Quebec City, fly over the famous Château Frontenac hotel then continue on a southwesterly heading towards Montreal to see such landmarks as Olympic Stadium and Habitat 67. Finally, we will head to Ottawa for a full-stop landing after a fly past of Parliament Hill.

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

Community Video

If you weren’t able to travel to Houston to attend FlightSimExpo in-person, YouTuber Blu Games has you covered with this video recap of the event. Blu shows what it was like to see all the many vendor booths on the convention floor and also interviews several people from the flight sim community including expo attendees, popular Twitch and YouTube content creators, and even our very own Senior Community Manager Jayne!

Check it out!