Months after its announcement, Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio revealed that the highly-anticipatedMicrosoft Flight Simulatorwill have standard, deluxe, and premium editions when it releases August 18. These differentMicrosoft Flight Simulatoreditionshave varying amounts of content for those who purchase the game digitally on PC. However, it was also announced that there will be two boxed physical versions that each include 10 discs.
The physical release ofMicrosoft Flight Simulatorin Europe is being handled by Aerosoft, a developer and publisher that focuses primarily on simulation games as a whole. Aerosoft’s Mathijs Kok discussed the box sets on Aerosoft’s site forums Monday, saying it will begin shipping around August 21 with the DVDs and printed manuals.
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Kok said the discs include four major parts: The simulator code, around 90 GB of content depicting the world and aircrafts, optional online streamed content, and third-party files. This content will be “100 percent the same” as the digital editions, just without having to downloadMicrosoft Flight Simulator’s massive file sizethrough the Internet. He also confirmed that the box sets will come with a code to give players a choice if they would prefer to download it digitally.
On Tuesday, Aerosoft posted both versions of its box sets to pre-purchase. The “Standard” edition costs €60.34, while the second set is a combined “Premium Deluxe” edition that costs €112.06. The content included in all versions are robust; featuring live traffic, real-time weather, and animals among its to-scale Earth; but those who opt to go for the Premium (digital) edition ofMicrosoft Flight Simulatorcan access to ten more airportsand aircrafts.
Leading up to the game’s release, Microsoft held a closed alpha, and will be holding a beta for those who are part of the Xbox Insider Program. TheMicrosoft Flight Simulatorbeta will begin on July 30, and given what has been made available about its technical specs and ambitious design, it should be interesting to see the game in more of a finished state.
That being said, it already looks like an incredible spectacle based onMicrosoft Flight Simulatorscreenshots released on Twitter, and Kok said the game made his “jaw hit the floor” when he first saw it in August 2019. The series has come a long way since its first entry in 1982, and fans can look forward to getting their hands on the in-depth simulator soon.
Microsoft Flight Simulatorwill be available for PC on August 18, with an Xbox One version in development.
