As streamable version launches today.
But there remains a key sticking point: hardware.
And the end result, says Neumann, has the power to be transformative.
“Flight simming seemed so far away for so many people for so long,” he says.
- but I would say…hundreds of thousands if not millions, actually stuck around.
“My wife was not at all a simmer,” Neumann offers as an example.
I think it opens up quite a lot of scenarios.
And Neumann sees major advantages for the development of Flight Simulator itself too.
and literally it takes me 15 seconds now…friction-free development is a beautiful thing.
Packaging up and sending it to your Xbox, that takes hours of your day.
And we’re right at the beginning of feeling it.
And the future appears bright for Flight Simulator.
“I always said we made this for core simmers,” he replies.
“That was the most important thing.
Those are the people who love [Flight Simulator] and have been loyal for decades.
That much is clear.
And I feel very safe, as long as it’s an authentic aviation experience.”
Well, no, because I actually spent almost two years talking to Reno pilots.
I’ve sent all these emails to the team.
And I was like, guys, look, we did it.
We represented aviation correctly.
And it’s authentic.
And everybody’s feels great about that.
So I think we’re thinking about this a lot.
How far do we go to make it game-y?
And I think the answer is it’s not going to be a game.
“We have real-time weather, we have seasons, real-time everything.
And the answer is not quite yet.
But this is something we want to do.
And then you have aircraft.
And then people said, ‘Yup, I have my Chopper ready, let’s go.’
But we want to do it on a global scale, which is just a fascinating challenge.”
Are they the real thing?
So I think the core simmers have really accepted us.
And they see that we’re sort of the genuine article.
So I think we are well on our way.
“We feel really welcome by community,” he continues.
“I think there was an incredible amount of humbling praise given.
And we’re very well aware of this, that we are living up to very high expectations.
So it’s not like we did everything from scratch.
And, you know, we are the inheritors of a great heritage.
And we’re trying to evolve.”
