Weekly Recap

Members of the Microsoft Flight Simulator and Asobo Studios teams have recently returned from exhibiting at gamescom 2026 in Cologne, Germany. Attendees were able to get a first hands-on look at the upcoming National Championship Air Races mode within Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, with 4-player private lobby races at the XBOX booth creating some thrilling gameplay! Thanks to everybody who came by our booth to try out this new activity which launches for all MSFS 2024 players on October 13th. Congratulations to the four fastest racers (one per day from Thursday to Sunday) who each received a remote control P-51 Mustang as a prize!

During the XBOX @ gamescom broadcast last Thursday, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann also had four announcements to share with the community:

We were also pleased to host a community mixer with members of the MSFS team and many flight sim fans who were in Cologne. We enjoyed some food and drink together while discussing our passion for flight simming and even played an aviation trivia game! Thank you to everyone who joined us!

In other MSFS 2024 news, a small update (Sim Update 6.1, version 1.8.16.0) is now available on all platforms to address a few issues identified since the release of SU6 three weeks ago. You can read the full release notes for SU6.1 here.

Also this week, the team at FlightFX have released the highly-anticipated V2 of the popular Cessna Citation X, available now via the Microsoft Flight Simulator Marketplace. This free update brings a plethora of improvements and fixes across all areas of this business jet. You can read the full changelog for v2.1.4 here!

Yesterday, Matt from the Community Team was joined by Cameron and Mike from the iniBuilds team for a first deep-dive look at their upcoming A380 Airliner for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. Covering everything from the external walk-around, to the high-fidelity systems depth, quality of life features, and even functioning showers, this broadcast showed off the hard work of the iniBuilds team as they approach the launch of the worlds largest passenger airliner. You can watch the full VOD of the livestream here:

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

Explore Products

Developer Spotlight: Got Friends

This week, Got Friends released their Taylorcraft BC-12D to the in-sim Marketplace on all platforms for both MSFS 2024 and MSFS (2020). We recently caught up with Jonx from Got Friends to discuss their journey as MSFS add-on developers.

Can you tell us about how Got Friends formed as a dev team? Who are the team members and what does each of them do?

Got Friends started pretty much exactly how the name suggests: we were a bunch of friends in the flight sim community who realized we were all good at different things and could probably make something pretty cool together. I’m Brandon, or Jonx, the Founder and Project Lead, focusing mostly on animation and systems design; Raimond, better known as Got Gravel, is our Lead Programmer and Flight Dynamics Engineer; Scott, or Mykrode, is our Lead 3D Artist; and Joshua, or twoseventyinc, is our Lead Texture Artist and Sound Designer.

Over the years we’ve naturally fallen into those specialties, although we’re a small enough team that everybody inevitably ends up wearing five different hats and helping wherever they’re needed. Somehow it works, and five years later we’re somehow still friends!

Many of the aircraft Got Friends has released thus far have been bush planes and gliders. What excites you about these type of aircraft?

We like aircraft that give you an excuse to actually explore the simulator. Bush planes let us look at a mountain and say, “Yeah, I can probably land there,” while gliders make you obsess over a tiny patch of rising air for the next three hours.

Both turn the world and weather into part of the aircraft itself, and from a development standpoint that gives us a giant playground for experimenting with physics.

In addition to aircraft, Got Friends has also created other add-ons that some might consider slightly unorthodox for a flight simulator such as Man’s Best Friend (which lets sim pilots fly with animal companions in the cockpit) and Project Crosskart (an off-road buggy for driving across the sim world on the ground). What was your inspiration when creating these products?

We’re not particularly good at being normal. We have this enormous recreation of Earth sitting inside Microsoft Flight Simulator, so every once in a while somebody asks a dangerous question like, “Could we put our dogs in the airplane?” or “Could we build a buggy and drive down that mountain?”

Unfortunately, the rest of the team usually says yes, and a few months later we’re explaining why there’s a Crosskart in a flight simulator.

You recently announced that the Taylorcraft BC-12D will be the final product Got Friends releases for Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020). What was the rationale for this decision, and what are the benefits of developing solely for MSFS 2024 with future products you have in the pipeline?

We’ve spent five years developing for MSFS 2020, and eventually you have to stop looking backward if you really want to see what the new simulator can do. The Taylorcraft felt like the perfect aircraft to send 2020 off with, while moving forward with MSFS 2024 lets us build around things like walkaround mode, avatars, new physics, environmental effects and all the newer SDK capabilities without constantly asking ourselves, “Okay… but how are we going to make this work in 2020?” We’re ready to take the training wheels off and see how far we can push things.

Are there any features in the Taylorcraft BC-12D that you are particularly excited about?

Honestly, it’s difficult to pick one because we basically spent a year asking ourselves how much stuff we could cram into a 65-horsepower airplane. The Craft Pad lets you change everything from avionics and equipment to propeller setup and realism options, but the thing we’re probably proudest of is how the aircraft actually flies and how that little Continental A-65 behaves. Hearing real Taylorcraft and A-65 pilots come back after release and say, “Yep, that’s my airplane,” has been pretty awesome.

Community Fly-In Friday

We are currently flying around the world as part of our celebrations for the 6th Anniversary of Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)! We started the journey two weeks ago in Bordeaux, France (home of Asobo Studios) and after three stages of flying eastbound, our group has now made it as far as Chongqing, China. The next leg will see us continue flying east to Fukuoka, Japan!

Suggested Marketplace Add-on: Shanghai City Times by SamScene3D. Please note that purchasing this product is entirely optional and is not required to participate in the group flight.

See Event Details

Weekly Flight Inspiration

The world is a big place! If you’re looking for ideas about where to fly this week, check out our Community Managers’ recommendation here!

City Update 16: Italy launched last week for all Microsoft Flight Simulator players. With updated scenery for a number of areas around the country, take a tour of Italy and check out this latest free City Update!

upcoming Community Events

FSimUK 2026: There’s finally a dedicated flight simulation event taking place in the UK again, with the inaugural FSimUK event taking place next month in Bristol. With some of the leading industry developers exhibiting, set amongst the stunning display of Concorde, this isn’t an event to miss! Registration can be completed here.

Regular Community Fly-Ins: If you’re looking to join in with group flights, or even host your own, the best place to begin is via our dedicated Forum category. With a whole host of groups organising regular events, there’s something for everyone! Find more details here.

Community Video

Earlier this week saw the release of the Got Friends Taylorcraft BC-12D for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 via the in-sim Marketplace. If you’re looking at picking up this aircraft, check out the in-depth video created by Dreamsofwings, with a picturesque flight around the Cairngorms National Park.