The cost of Xbox Series X/S games is officially set to increase next year.
In a statement to IGN, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed that the price of first-party games for its current-gen consoles will increase from $60 to $70 USD (roughly $95 CAD) in 2023.
Canadian pricing wasn’t confirmed, but other current-gen titles cost $90 CAD, so it’s likely that Xbox will follow suit. We’ve reached out to Xbox for confirmation and will update this response once a response has been received.
“This price reflects the content, scale, and technical complexity of these titles,” the representative told IGN, noting that all of these games will also be on Xbox Game Pass on day one.
That said, Xbox Game Pass has been offering day one access to all Xbox first-party games since 2018, giving consumers an alternative from paying full price to purchase titles. Xbox Game Pass costs $11.99/month on Xbox and PC or $16.99/month for Game Pass Ultimate, which includes the service for both platforms as well as Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Cloud Gaming and EA Play.
Xbox raising game prices brings the company in line with several other publishers. Sony has been charging $90 CAD for PS5 titles, while third-parties like 2K and EA have been charging the same amount for most of their big games. Ubisoft also confirmed in September that its upcoming AAA games will cost $70 USD. As it stands, Nintendo continues to sell Switch games for $60 USD/$80 CAD.
The Xbox games price increase comes shortly after Xbox chief Phil Spencer confirmed that consoles themselves won’t see a price increase until at least after this holiday season. It also remains to be seen when Game Pass itself may see a price hike, especially if the big games it includes, such as Starfield, are set to cost more.
“Some games and apps might experience lower than expected performance or stuttering on Windows 11, version 22H2. Affected games and apps are inadvertently enabling GPU performance debugging features not meant to be used by consumers,” reads the blog.
As a safeguard, Microsoft had initially applied a compatibility hold, which prevented devices that were likely to be affected by the issue from being offered or installing Windows 11, version 22H2. Further, for those already on the 22H2 update, Microsoft recommended updating their games, and gaming-related applications to the latest version available.
Now, however, Microsoft has removed the Compatibility Hold, and a new Windows Update KB5020044 is available to install that offers a fix to the performance issues. That is all that the company said. It did not mention what exactly was causing the problem, or what it changed to fix it.
However, the company did share that the update includes regular bug fixes that Microsoft normally includes with its monthly releases, alongside new Windows Spotlight features, OneDrive subscriber storage alerts, total OneDrive storage visibility in the ‘Accounts’ page, and more.
Read the complete Windows Update KB5020044 release notes here.
If you’ve ever worried that your Xbox controller might get cold when you’re not using it, Microsoft has got you covered.
Right on time for the holidays, the tech giant is now selling a $34.95 ‘Xbox Mini Controller Hoodie’ which wraps snugly around your gamepad for maximum comfort and cuteness.
“It’s the time of year where you may want to cozy up with a nice hoodie. This winter don’t let your controllers feel left out with a mini controller hoodie,” reads the official product description on Xbox’s website.
The mini hoodie has ‘Xbox’ written on the front with the Xbox logo in the back, plus a zipper and tiny “arm” holes. This extremely essential gaming accessory comes in one size in both black and white.
At the time of writing, orders are expected to arrive between December 15th and 30th, so act fast if you want to hopefully get it in time for Christmas. Given how much your controller does for you, the least you can do is give it some love this holiday season.
You can order the Xbox Mini Controller Hoodie from the Xbox Gear Store.
Microsoft’s pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard could face a major roadblock from the U.S.’ Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Politico, citing “three people with knowledge of the matter,” reports that the FTC will likely file an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft in an effort to block the tech giant’s takeover of the Call of Duty maker. While the publication notes that the FTC hasn’t yet made a formal decision, the agency is nonetheless skeptical of Microsoft’s case for purchasing Activision Blizzard.
As the deal has faced regulatory approval across the globe, a key point of contention has been Call of Duty. Rival Sony has argued that Microsoft owning the massively popular first-person shooter franchise would provide an unfair advantage.
“Call of Duty is not replicable. Call of Duty is too entrenched for any rival, no matter how well equipped, to catch up. It has been the top-selling game for almost every year in the last decade and, in the first-person shooter (‘FPS’) genre, it is overwhelmingly the top-selling game,” wrote Sony in a filing to the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). As an example, Sony mentioned that EA’s Battlefield, which is a direct Call of Duty competitor, “cannot keep up” with Activision’s series.
Microsoft, in turn, has said it’s willing to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for many years while arguing that it would still be third in the gaming market after Sony and Tencent even upon acquiring Activision Blizzard.
“The suggestion that the incumbent market leader, Sony, with clear and enduring market power, could be foreclosed by the smallest of the three console competitors, Xbox, as a result of losing access to one title, is not credible. Sony’s PlayStation has been the largest console platform for over 20 years, with an installed base of consoles and market share more than double the size of Xbox,” said Microsoft in a November 23rd statement to the CMA.
However, Politico reports that FTC investigators are also concerned about Microsoft’s plans beyond Call of Duty. The outlet notes that there’s uncertainty surrounding how Microsoft could use future unannounced Activision Blizzard titles to boost its business. So far, Microsoft has only said it intends to make these titles available on its Xbox Game Pass service. Microsoft has also outlined plans to leverage Activision Blizzard to create an app marketplace independent of Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store, which it claims will offer consumers more choice. Naturally, such a move would also face significant regulatory scrutiny.
Interestingly, Politico adds that Google is also opposing Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard bid. While the search engine giant’s gaming efforts will be limited to Android games following the January 2023 closure of its Stadia streaming service, Google’s issues with Microsoft reportedly concern other matters. Specifically, Politico reports that Google is alleging that Microsoft purposefully degrades the quality of its Game Pass service on Google Chrome in an effort to steer consumers towards Microsoft products and services. Google claims that Microsoft owning Activision Blizzard would only bolster Microsoft’s efforts in this regard.
Ultimately, it remains to be seen what action the FTC will take. Politico reports that investigators may move ahead with an antitrust case as early as December, although it could opt to do so later down the line, given that Microsoft is currently subject to in-depth probes in both Europe and the U.K. As it stands, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard aim to close the deal by June 2023.
Alongside the Surface Pro 9, Microsoft released a new version of its Surface Laptop, the Surface Laptop 5. Also like the Surface Pro 9, the Laptop 5 is a minor, iterative update offering little more than a spec bump and new colour options.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course. The Surface Laptop series already offered some of the best designs and hardware of all Windows laptops – that hasn’t changed with the Laptop 5. At the same time, it’s growing more clear where Microsoft could make improvements to the Surface Laptop line to modernize the hardware (most of which could be done without significantly altering the hardware).
So with all that said, let’s dig into the Surface Laptop 5 and look at what’s new, what hasn’t changed, and what Microsoft should upgrade for the Laptop 6.
Specs
Display: 13.5-inch PixelSense display, 2256×1504 pixel resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio
Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1265U
Memory: 16GB
Storage: 512GB
Dimensions: 308 x 223 x 14.5mm
Weight: 1,297g
Camera: 720p HD front camera with Windows Hello
Operating System: Windows 11
Battery: Up to 18 hours of “typical device usage”
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
Sensors: Ambient light sensor
Ports: 1x USB-C with USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4, 1x USB-A 3.1, 1x Surface Connect, 1x 3.5mm headphone hack
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
Note: The specs above are for the specific Surface Laptop 5 model I tested. You can find a full breakdown of specs for both the 13.5- and 15-inch models here.
You’ve seen this before
The Surface Laptop 5’s limited ports.
The Surface Laptop 5 looks like the Laptop 4, which looked like the Laptop 3. Not much has changed and, unless you pick up the excellent new ‘Sage’ colourway (which is what I tested for this review), there’s nothing visually different about the Laptop 5 from its predecessors. Along with ‘Sage,’ the other colours are ‘Platinum’ (which includes the Alcantara palm rest), ‘Matte Black’ and ‘Sandstone.’
Like previous models, the Surface Laptop 5 comes in two sizes, 13.5-inch and 15-inch. The 15-inch only comes in ‘Platinum’ (metal instead of Alcantara) and ‘Matte Black,’ however. Notably, the 15-inch Surface Laptop 5 doesn’t have an AMD Ryzen chip this year, instead only offering the 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1255U CPU and various RAM and storage configurations ranging from 8GB/256GB at the entry-level to 16GB/512GB at the high end.
The 13.5-inch Laptop 5 does offer some variants with the 12th Gen Core i5-1235U alongside more expensive versions with the same i7-1255U as the 15-inch. (An odd aside, my review Laptop 5 lists its CPU as the i7-1265U, not the i7-1255U it should have, according to Microsoft’s website. I’ve reached out to Microsoft to clarify these details, but the company did not respond ahead of publication.)
What would an AMD Laptop 5 be like?
Microsoft’s decision to go all-in on Intel chips with the Surface Laptop 5 this time around is particularly interesting, especially given that the 12th Gen Intel Core i7 in my review unit didn’t significantly outperform the AMD Ryzen 7 4980U from the Surface Laptop 4 I tested.
Unfortunately, I haven’t tested an Intel-powered Surface Laptop 4, so I can’t say how the Laptop 5 has improved, but I did test a Surface Pro 8 with the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1185G7. That’s the same i7 chip available in the 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 4 and, theoretically, should have similar performance.
The good news is the 12th Gen i7 in my Surface Laptop 5 outperformed the 11th Gen i7 in the Surface Pro 8. That’s expected, but it’s good to see it confirmed in tests. That should mean anyone sporting an Intel-powered Laptop 4 would get some performance uplift moving to the Surface Laptop 5, although I’d argue it’s not enough to warrant the upgrade.
As for those with a Surface Laptop 4 sporting the Ryzen 7 4980U, it’d be more of a lateral move. In some tests, the 12th Gen i7 in the Laptop 5 outperformed the 4980U while in other tests, like Cinebench, the 4980U remained king.
Plus, even with the Intel Xe graphics, the Laptop 5 isn’t really intended for gaming and you shouldn’t expect it to fill that role.
Keep it plugged in for the best performance
Of course, benchmarks are just one part of the story. In real-world use, the Surface Laptop 5 handled just about everything I threw at it with ease. Similar to the Pro 9, I ran the Laptop 5 as my daily driver for several days of work, which involved running a ton of Firefox tabs, Photoshop, streaming music, and more. I noticed some stuttering when I connected the laptop to an external display over USB-C, but beyond that, performance was fairly reliable.
I also typically ran the Laptop 5 in the ‘Best Performance’ mode when plugged in to eke out extra power. On battery, I kept it on the ‘Recommended’ setting since, like past Surface Laptops, this one continues the trend of limiting performance to extend battery life. I had thought the AMD Surface Laptops were bad for throttling performance, but the Laptop 5 throttles just as much. In my tests, the Surface Laptop 5 performed almost half as well when running on battery.
The upside, however, is that the laptop didn’t feel significantly slower on battery, even with the reduced performance. That is one note in the Laptop 5’s favour, since the AMD-powered Laptop 4 felt noticeably worse when running on battery.
Speaking of battery, the Surface Laptop 5 plummeted about 40 percent over about 2.5 hours of regular use (which mostly included writing in a Google Doc with about 20 browser tabs open and editing a picture in Photoshop). You could likely extend the battery life with lighter usage, but battery remains one of the weaker points on this laptop.
Thicc bezels
I really appreciate finally getting to test a 13.5-inch Surface Laptop. The past few Surface Laptops I tested were the larger 15-inch versions, but I tend to prefer smaller laptops since they’re lighter and easier to carry around. However, I was surprised by how big the 13.5-inch Laptop 5 is, especially compared to other Windows laptops with similar screen sizes, but which have much smaller bodies.
There are two main reasons for the size discrepancy. First, the Surface Laptop line uses a 3:2 aspect ratio for the display, which means it’s taller than the 16:9 and 16:10 displays you typically find on Windows laptops. The extra height is a nice bonus, however, especially for people like me who spend most of their day working in text documents.
While I don’t mind having a larger laptop footprint for the benefits of a 3:2 display, it’s worth noting that Microsoft could trim the bezels on the Laptop 5 significantly. With the right approach, the Surface Laptop 5 could fit a larger display into the same footprint, or even shrink the size of its laptops without significantly reducing the display size just by trimming the bezels.
From left to right: Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Lenovo ThinkPad Z13.
For example, this Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 offers a 13.3-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which means it’s not as tall as the Laptop 5’s 13.5-inch display. However, the smaller bezels help to significantly reduce the overall footprint of the laptop. Likewise, the Surface Pro 9 sports a 13-inch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. It’s a smaller screen, but the slimmer bezels again help to reduce the overall footprint of the device.
Ultimately, the size of the bezels on the Laptop 5 are a minor complaint. They don’t adversely affect the laptop beyond making it look slightly dated.
Moreover, the display still looks excellent. My only real complaint here is the lack of a high refresh rate. It’s a real bummer that Microsoft put a 120Hz refresh rate on the Surface Pro 9 but not the Surface Laptop 5.
Everything else
Don't talk to me or my son ever again.
Beyond that, there’s not much else to say about the Surface Laptop 5. The keyboard is still killer, and the trackpad remains good, although it could be a bit larger. The speakers sound good as well, although I prefer to use headphones whenever I need to listen to music or watch a video.
Like with previous Surface Laptops, the port situation is disappointing. There’s a Surface Connect port, which is Microsoft’s proprietary magnetic charger. On one hand, I like the Surface Connect port and it’s very satisfying to connect and disconnect the magnetic charger. On the other, just about everything has moved to USB-C now – I ended up not even taking the Laptop 5’s charger out of the box because I mainly used a USB-C cable for charging off the doc station I have at my desk, which conveniently lets me connect an external monitor too.
Microsoft does still include an old USB-A port, which is nice on the rare occasion I need one. Unfortunately, that’s it aside from the 3.5mm headphone jack. Three ports just doesn’t feel like enough, and I’d happily trade the Surface Connect port for another USB-C port.
Windows Hello remains a great option for unlocking the laptop, although as someone who still regularly wears a mask, it makes using the Laptop 5 a little more challenging when working on the go. It’d be nice to have a fingerprint unlock option as well for the times when I can’t use my face.
Surface Pro 9 (left) and Laptop 5 (right).
Finally, when it comes to price, the Surface Laptop 5 remains on the higher side compared to similarly specced Windows laptops. The 13.5-inch Laptop 5 starts at $1,299.99 for the i5 variant with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD and climbs all the way to $2,209.99 for the i7 variant with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD (the model I tested). The 15-inch starts at $1,689.99 and climbs to $3,119.99.
That puts the Surface Laptop 5 on the higher end – a quick search of laptops on Best Buy with similar specs to the Laptop 5 I reviewed revealed options ranging from about $900 to $2,000 or sometimes more. I bring this up mainly to point out that if the main thing you care about is the internal hardware, you can save a decent chunk of money going with other manufacturers like HP, Dell, Acer, and more. As an example, this HP laptop sports the same internal specs as the Surface Laptop 5, double the SSD storage and a 15.6-inch display for $1,149.99 (and it’s even on sale until November 24th for $999.99). Is the hardware as nice as what you’d get with the Surface Laptop 5? No. But for about $1,000 less, that might be a worthwhile trade-off for many.
After teasing its Black Friday pricing for several products last week, the retailer’s main Black Friday deal with over a thousand products is live now!
The promotion includes solid discounts on Apple’s 2021 MacBook Pros, Google smart home tech, Logitech’s peripherals and Nanoleaf’s smart lights.
Check out some solid deals from the promotion below:
It’s worth noting that the products mentioned above have varying ‘sale end’ dates. If you’re going to sit on the idea of purchasing something, note the sale end date and keep it in mind to avoid missing out on Black Friday pricing.
Similar to how iPhone users can use AirPlay to stream audio from their iPhone to a Mac device, Android users will soon be able to stream audio from their smartphone to a Windows 11 PC via Phone Link.
The new feature, which hasn’t been referenced yet by Microsoft, was showcased by blogger @ALumia_Italia, and is called ‘Stream audio to your PC,’ according to XDADevelopers.
“You spoke and we listened! Now you can hear and see things shared from your Phone on your PC. Change the device you’d like to stream audio from in Phone Link settings,” reads the app.
According to @ALumia_Italia’s Twitter thread, the feature requires a Samsung phone on Android 13 to function, and is currently only available on Windows’ Insider Beta Channel. The screenshot also shows an ‘Apps’ section, which only pops up when select Samsung and Surface devices are connected to Phone Link, further implying that the feature is likely not available on all Android devices.
In addition to audio streaming, @ALumia_Italia also mentioned that a new ‘Continuity Browser History’ feature is coming for the Phone Hub that will allow users to share browsing history between their Android and Windows devices. ‘Continuity Browser History’ is also a Samsung-exclusive feature and requires you to be using the Samsung Browser.
The Xbox Series S will be available for $309.96 ($70 off) at Walmart Canada for Black Friday 2022.
The deal begins online on November 16th at 9pm ET and November 17th in-store. Considering the current-gen console is celebrating its second anniversary this month, that’s a pretty solid discount. Notably, this is $70 in direct savings on the console itself; there isn’t a free game thrown in like the same Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bundle Nintendo has offered for the last several Black Fridays.
The Series S is the most entry-level current-gen box, supporting all of the same games as its more powerful sister console, the $599 Series X, at the same frame rates but at a lower resolutions. The only other difference is that the Series S lacks a disc drive, so it can only play digital media. And hey, with this price drop, the Series S is only slightly more than PlayStation’s $269 DualSense Edge controller.
Best Buy will also offer the Series S at a discount, although it will cost slightly more than Walmart at $319.99. We’ll update this story should more retailers announce that they’re taking part in this deal.
The Microsoft Store is leaking some of its upcoming Black Friday promotions, with some deals that are already active, and some that go live on Friday, November 18th.
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As I cruised through the skies in Microsoft Flight Simulator 40th Anniversary Edition, I found myself quite relaxed.
While I’ve played Flight Simnow that it’s on Xbox, I confess that I forgot just how calming the experience can be. Indeed, the game’s unique brand of tension-free virtual tourism feels fresher than ever, especially thanks to the meaty 40th Anniversary Edition update.
“It’s as big as a sequel,” says Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, at a preview event at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. He’s not lying — going through the in-game ’40th Anniversary’ section, I was impressed by the mix of new aircraft, locations and missions. Below is everything included in the update:
2 helicopters and 14 heliports
2 gliders and 15 glider airports
7 famous historical aircraft, including the Hughes H-4 Hercules (AKA the Spruce Goose)
4 classic commercial airports
24 classic missions from older Flight Sim games
It’s an appropriately sizeable update considering the franchise — Microsoft’s oldest product line that predates even Windows and Office — turns 40 this month. Naturally, then, the company went big for such a milestone.
A new lease on flight
Charmingly, Neumann says he views the update as a “box of chocolates,” and part of that sweetness meant listening to the fans.
The biggest requests? The inclusion of helicopters and gliders for the first time in the series since 2006’s Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Evidently, these handle completely differently from planes, so this left Microsoft Flight Simulator lead developer Asobo with a lot of work to do. Specifically, the process of implementing helicopters included at least six months of around 20 people internally playing around with the vehicles, as well as assistance from experts at fellow French company Helicoptres Guimbal.
“I think it’s a very different flying experience — the fact that you can stop anywhere, turn around and go somewhere else,” says Sebastien Vloch, Asobo co-founder and CEO. “On a plane, you’re always on a trajectory, you’re always going forward. And so you have to sort of control your trajectory. On a helicopter, you can pretty much do whatever you want, except when you’re cruising, the helicopter is a lot trickier to fly […] It adds a new way of flying — more capabilities, you can land pretty much anywhere.”
In a presentation, he showed off the helicopter in New York City alongside a nifty feature called aerodynamic visualization, which highlights all of the different ways the air is moving around the chopper. For people like me with no knowledge of aviation, it’s a simple but effective way of showing you a bit of the behind-the-scenes process while also helping you adjust positioning accordingly. For more seasoned pros, it adds even more to the experience.
“Going back to my own flying days as a helicopter pilot, I wish I had that technology to see airflow going through. Your understanding of physics, and the data visualization, is so compelling and so beautifully done,” says Tyson Weinert, president and CEO of the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.
Meanwhile, Vloch says the choppers can add a fun challenge.
“It reminds me when we started flying with the first airplanes — we had contests for who can land in this field. We’re doing the same with helicopters now — who can land here on this roof, who can land there. And that’s super interesting, especially if you add some wind or take out assist systems.”
While Vloch admits that there isn’t much in the way of tutorials for the helicopter because of development time constraints, I found it relatively easy to get the hang of, especially with the regular assistive settings enabled. In fact, the most fun I had in 40th Anniversary Edition was in the chopper, precisely for the reasons Vloch pointed out. In my own demo, I also flew through New York, and I found it actually peaceful. Normally, that’s not a word you’d ever use to describe New York, but it certainly applied here. In real life, New York is bustling and loud, while virtual excursions to the Big Apple, like Marvel’s Spider-Man, are also generally about getting around at high speeds. But to get to experience NYC through a realistic helicopter simulation with a chill, low-key vibe? Well, that let me see the city in a refreshingly different light. It has me eager to explore more locations with a helicopter and, hopefully, find more beauty where I perhaps wasn’t expecting to.
By contrast, I wasn’t as in love with the gliders, though they’re not without their own charms. With their almost comically wide wing span, they certainly aren’t fit to traverse metropolitan areas, but that also just lets them complement the helicopters quite nicely. In fact, they’re also not like traditional planes, as they’re unpowered and instead rely on naturally occurring currents of air. At first, this threw me off, but I came to appreciate how it required a surprisingly engaging back-and-forth of sensitively tilting the sticks to gain speed. While not my preferred method of transportation, the glider undeniably adds even more variety to an already content-rich game.
Flight Sim as a means for education and connection
When I spoke to Neumann earlier this month, he mentioned how his broader ambition for Flight Sim is preservation. He envisions the series moving beyond just aviation to capture the world as it is in a given moment for future generations to look back on and study. It’s a fascinating idea, and it speaks to where this long-running series could go well beyond 40.
But for now, Flight Sim is doing a bang-up job of honouring the past, and nowhere is that more apparent than in 40th Anniversary Edition. My personal standout: the aforementioned Spruce Goose. If you’re like me and didn’t know about it before Flight Sim, the Spruce Goose was created by famed business magnate and engineer Howard Hughes to be the largest seaplane and wooden aircraft ever. That said, it was only ever flown once, given that it was intended for use during World War II but came two years too late.
I learned much of this at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, in which the real Spruce Goose is housed, but Flight Sim offers a much more accessible version of this fascinating history lesson. Of course, having older planes isn’t new for Flight Sim, but it was a good reminder for casuals like me about the unique appeal of the series. The fact that everyone can fly a plane that was otherwise only ever piloted by one man is extremely cool, especially when I had the real ship right for reference.
The Spruce Goose.
What’s more, you can rest assured that, in typical Flight Sim fashion, the virtual Spruce Goose will be sufficiently authentic. According to Tyson Weinert, president and CEO of Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, a member of the board reached out to Neumann to express interest in adding the Spruce Goose to the game. Over the course of about 18 months, Neumann and Weinert’s respective teams worked closely to make this happen, and the level of attention to detail in doing so might surprise you.
“[Neumann] and his team had to make a very specific decision to simulate the Spruce Goose on the date of its flight. And that’s the experience to simulate with the rest of the world through the 40th Anniversary Edition. And so I absolutely respect and honour that decision, because it’s very special,” says Weinert. “Which means that his team had to be very intentional about getting all their scans, and actually removing some of the components that wouldn’t have been there [like the fire suppression system]. So by using the drawings and other photos and everything, they could correlate between what was the original configuration.”
In a similar vein, 40th Anniversary Edition lets classic commercial airports be born anew. “What I really liked was [Chicago’s] Meigs Field. If you played the old flight sims, it was always the beginning airport. But it was closed in 2003. So we didn’t have it when we launched the new sim. And we’re all kind of bummed about it, because we’re like, ‘where’s Chicago? What’s happening?’” says Neumann with a laugh. “And so we went in and did Meigs Field, we did Kai Tak in Hong Kong [closed in 1998] […] And that feels great. That feels like we’re really celebrating this the sim itself, like the series of the sim — it’ll feel very true to people who play the old ones.”
That’s to say nothing of the classic aircraft that were added alongside the Spruce Goose in the update: the 1903 Wright Flyer, the 1915 Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, the 1927 Ryan NYP Spirit of St. Louis, the 1935 Douglas DC-3, the 1937 Grumman G-21 Goose and, for Canadians, the 1947 Havilland DHC-2 Beaver.
The Beaver.
For Weinert, whose career is obviously focused on preservation, such content makes Flight Simulator an especially remarkable game.
“Part of our vision is around that connection between being curious, so having that learner’s mindset, that growth mindset, and then having the courage to do something about your curiosity, and then that will connect you to experiencing more confidence in life and whatever it is you want to pursue. Before [Flight Sim], all of our global visitors could have come here and they could have been curious. They may have had the courage to look into flight in some other way, and then maybe that built some confidence. But with [Flight Sim] in place now, I believe that that cognitive cycle is going to accelerate and scale to more people,” he says.
“Because if you’re curious about any one of these aircraft, especially the Spruce Goose, and then because of the accessibility that FlightSimulator offers, all of those curious learners can now have the courage to fly it in a safe environment, in a fun environment, in a delightful environment. And then who knows where that curiosity to courage to confidence — that journey — might look like for them?”
Key to all of that, undoubtedly, is Neumann himself. I’ve spoken to him on three occasions now, and each time he’s been one of the most enthusiastic, friendly and knowledgeable figures I’ve come across in the gaming industry. While he humbly praises the many global teams that assist with Flight Simulator — “all I have to do is pick the right people who know how to do the job and leave them alone” — it’s clear that his unbridled passion helps keep it all alive. Earlier in the pandemic, The Wind Rises and other masterworks of Hayao Miyazaki compelled me, in no small part, due to their celebrations of the joys of aviation. To quote Weinert, they certainly got me curious. But Flight Sim, fuelled by Neumann’s infectious positivity and the unique interactive elements of gaming, has offered me a platform to actually take that curiosity just a bit further, and it’s one I’ve genuinely come to like. All told, witnessing the many aircraft at the Evergreen Museum, all technical marvels in their own right, and then seeing how much love and care went Neumann and co. put into recreating that certainly resonated with me.
Neumann.
For Neumann, that’s exactly what it boils down to.
“If you care about planes, this is the best time ever. Certainly, if you play a simulation game about planes, that has always been somewhat on the side, people didn’t pay that much attention. It was sort of a geeky hobby to some degree. And now it’s totally not, and people are interested. Where I get my energy from is talking to people like yourself, or getting an email from an eight-year-old telling me that they fell in love with aviation. I mean, what else do you want out of life?”
That Flight Simulator has endured for so long, Neumann notes, is also a testament to the vast, wide-reaching and ever-evolving potential of aviation.
“First off, I believe aviation manages to connect the planet. We can sit here today because aviation exists. If that didn’t exist, we wouldn’t be here — that is just a fact. Then you can say aviation is self-aware enough that they need to change. Everybody knows it’s not exactly the cleanest industry ever; it pumps a lot of stuff into the atmosphere. What do they do? They come up with a bunch of solutions. I want to be part of that solution. If I can propagate electric planes, that’s awesome, I’ll do it right away. And there’s so much innovation going on — that’s cool. So we’re looking back, we’re celebrating the history of aviation, we’re making a cool digital twin — who doesn’t like that? And you get to be on the cutting-edge of technology that literally is important to this entire civilization of ours. It literally doesn’t get any better.”
The 40th Anniversary Edition is now available as a free update to Microsoft Flight Simulator on PC and Xbox Series X/S. Flight Simulator is also included with Xbox Game Pass for console and PC, as well as Xbox Cloud Gaming via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.