Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator says 'we're not a game [...] what we're doing is accurate aviation activities'
FlightSimExpo came in for landing in Texas last week, during which developer Asobo gave a presentation on Microsoft Flight Simulator 24. The game was a surprise announcement during the Xbox Games Showcase, and even caused a little disquiet among its audience who were unclear about whether this was a whole new game or basically a fancy expansion with a new name.
Jorg Neumann is the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator and, after saying the Xbox announcement video had been «paper thin», came out all guns blazing (thanks, RPS). «Just to give you perspective, there's many tens of millions of people watching [the Xbox showcase],» said Neumann. «It is good for our hobby to show up in these places».
Neumann then went on to address some of that initial reaction from the core Flight Simulator audience. «Some of you correctly asked 'What the heck is this, is this just an acceleration pack or some such thing? Nope nope nope. This is the biggest undertaking ever in flight simulation. No doubt about it.»
The team's focus is, perhaps unsurprisingly, aviation activities, with Neumann saying that Asobo reckons from its data that around three million of the current Microsoft Flight Simulator's players are «core gamers», while the other nine million are «more casual people». The one common element the studio found between the two types of player was that «people wanted more stuff to do» in the simulation.
«We said, 'okay, cool, fair enough, let's go make things like that,'» said Neumann. «But we are not a game. So we're not making game-y type missions at all. What we're doing is accurate aviation activities. We're working with lots of organisations across the planet that do these things. That do firefighting, that do search and rescue
Read more on pcgamer.com
