Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is compatible with 2020’s Marketplace content, developer confirms

As Asobo ramps up the marketing machine for the upcoming release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, so too does the project seem more and more impressive. The presence of exciting new technology and improvements means not all of our Flight Sim 2020 content is going to transition, however.

Specifically, Asobo Studios higher-ups Jorg Neumann (Head of Flight Sim), Sebastian Wloch (Asobo CEO, co-founder), and Martial Bossard (Executive Producer) spent some time discussing the way the 2020 and 2024 builds of Flight Sim will interact. The topic comes up at about one and a half hours into the recent official Flight Sim developer stream, with the team clarifying some burning topics. We now know, for example, that the Steam and Microsoft Store versions of the 2020 and 2024 builds of Flight Simulator will be effectively interchangeable when it comes to official content licensing. Further, the official SDK will be available from day one onwards.

Flight Simulator 2024 is changing how Marketplace content works, but there’s no reason for concern

Community support and third-party content are of huge importance for most tenured Microsoft Flight Simulator players. Whether we’re talking about “simple” additions such as new planes or something more complicated, like driveable and customizable buggies, Flight Sim has historically been very good to its modders. The good news, then, is that this is bound to continue with MSFS 2024, too.

I highly recommend watching the featured section of the MSFS 2024 September devstream if you can, but here’s the TL;DW in case you need it:

• Marketplace content will be available for streaming to Flight Simulator 2024 instantly, with downloads optional for those who want them via the new ‘My Library’ UI.
• You will be able to copy any and all third-party store content into the appropriate directory on launch day (i.e. stuff purchased from OrbX, simMarket, Aerosoft, PMDG, etc.).
• All PlayFab content will transfer from Flight Sim 2020 over to Flight Sim 2024, regardless of the platform you’re playing on (Steam vs. Microsoft Store).
• Those who purchased the Premium Deluxe edition of 2020, and then purchased the standard edition of 2024 will get all the former’s Premium Deluxe content in 2024, too.
• All existing planes are being upgraded for all users; there will not be two different versions of planes in 2024.
• Premium Deluxe planes are available as an optional separate purchase for standard and Deluxe edition owners.
• There’s no dynamic bundle option to purchase Aviator Edition planes (i.e. if you only owned a few of the Aviator planes in 2020, the full Aviator bundle price will not be reduced in 2024).
• Owners of the Deluxe and Premium Deluxe versions of Flight Sim 2024 will receive special discounts on some official addons in the future.

It’s a lot of information, to be sure, but it’s good to hear further clarification on how content transfer will work between 2020 and 2024. The community has worked hard to massively expand the breadth of features, planes, and other assorted goodies in the previous build of Flight Sim, and it’d be a shame to lose all of that in one go.

Generally, then, we’re looking at a very exciting upgrade with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. It seems like Asobo is trying to be about as user-friendly as possible, and though there are some technical hurdles still in place, I’d be hard-pressed to call any of this a bad deal. Don’t forget that the official system requirements are more than reasonable, too! All in all, then, it seems like we’ve got much to look forward to with this one.