Microsoft Flight Simulator - What We Know So Far

Microsoft will occasionally throw us a curveball during its E3 press conference, and that's precisely what happened at this year's show. The company gave precious stage time to a piece of software some don't even consider a game: Microsoft Flight Simulator. But after seeing Flight Simulator in action, we totally understand why it got a showing. And so do others, judging by the anticipation that's building around the title.

If you're a longtime Flight Simulator fan or you're all-the-sudden excited about this next entry in the series, we've put together a bit of information for you, including its release date, price, requirements, and trailer.

You can either view what we're about to say as good news or bad news.

The good news is, Microsoft Flight Simulator comes to both PC and Xbox One sometime in 2020. And the new year isn't all that far off. It's actually pretty soon! There's a good chance you'll be virtually taking to the skies before you know it.

The bad news is, Microsoft Flight Simulator doesn't come out until 2020. If you watched the E3 reveal for Flight Simulator and were hoping to get your hands on it as soon as possible, that won't be happening. The year 2020 is all we have, but as soon as we have a specific release date, we'll make sure you know about it.

We'd love to tell you how much Flight Simulator is going to cost; unfortunately, we can't.

Despite having a store page up for Flight Simulator on the Xbox website, Microsoft hasn't attached a price tag to the title just yet. Let us just say this, though: we'd be genuinely surprised if Flight Simulator comes in at a full $60.

The requirements for Flight Simulator are pretty barebones at the moment. We do know that you'll need either a PC or an Xbox One, and that PC will need to be running Windows 10. Otherwise, Microsoft hasn't quite filled us in on what kind of graphics card your PC will need, or how much RAM you'll need installed in order to see those gorgeous 4K visuals as you're flying.

As soon as we know more, we'll fill in the gaps.

Is there a trailer for Flight Simulator? There sure is. The trailer — which debuted at E3 2019 — is precisely why so many people are going bananas for something they probably never envisioned getting excited about.

And here's a fun anecdote: do you know why the video makes it clear the footage was "CAPTURED IN REAL-TIME 4K?"  When Flight Simulator was demoed for Microsoft's Phil Spencer prior to E3, he was so blown away by the graphics that he thought the crowd wouldn't believe they were from the game.

If that doesn't get you pumped for Flight Simulator, we don't know what can.