It’s becoming a running gag that “XYZ” will release with FS32. But im seriously asking if there will be a new game every 4 years?
Some devs are new or busy (or like me just dumb) and need time to catch up. After 6 years im still finding quirks and bugs in fs20.We plan to migrate our planes to FS24 soon and I feel like it’s just a waste of time.
I plan to continue FS development on the side. Planes are just cool. But I would like to know if I be repeating all of this again in 2-4 years?
This is something I would be interested in too. When MSFS24 was released I was feeling like MSFS20 had reached the point where it was really good. It therefore felt a bit unfortunate to me that it was “replaced” right at that peak point. For that reason I would prefer it if future versions of the sim are given a bit more time (maybe 6 years) so they can fully shine before being replaced by a newer version. This would also allow the Asobo team to avoid the problems that were seen with the release of MSFS24. I think most of us would rather wait a bit longer for a solidly running new sim.
There is something else to this discussion that I think is equally important. The change of project folder structure and new modularity made it quite difficult to continue developing a project that had originally been started and fine tuned in MSFS20. For that reason many projects will never see a 24 native version and devs have simply started new projects. For the future it would be great if the whole development process could be kept as close as possible to MSF24. In the optimal scenario we would simply be able to open up our MSFS24 projects with the MSFS30 sdk or whatever it will be without having to restructure the whole project to such an extent. Now that developers are starting to split up projects into many little attachments the future compatibility becomes even more important.
My understanding from the communication in the past was that MSFS20 had quite some FSX leftovers in the code which required this bigger change between MSFS20 and MSFS24. It would be great to hear some feedback from the Asobo team if future versions of the sim will be kept closer to how we are working right now.
I was pretty disappointed that none of my 2020 add-on liveries work with 2024. For that reason I chose not to upgrade, and have continued creating liveries & scenery for 2020. No idea what I’ll do if/when a new version arrives.
Microsoft is a notorious loose cannon. The next version is anyone’s guess but I assume everyone in planning now realizes 2024 should have been 2026.
2020 still needs finishing but that is never going to happen now since it was already sunsetted. (shrug)
Through the FSX + P3D era it was every 2 years, with some of those being massive changes. 4 years is a long time. FS2002 addons don’t work in FSX, a 4-year difference. 32 bit vs 64 bit P3D. I wouldn’t want to get in the way of progress and improvements in the sim, just because I’m too slow.
I wonder is there a detailled mapping table available for the SDKs for MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024, which may help with multi-sim development? I am interested especially on the mapping table for the scenery and airport design.
My worry is much simpler. What if Asobo or should that be xbox or microsoft or steam decide they have finished supporting MSFS 2020 and switch off the servers that are logged into every time we use the software? What am I left with of the near £100 I paid for the sim through steam. Every previous version I have had was perfectly capable, and indeed did keep running in the state they were when no further updates were issued and because I kept a copy of the software and updates I would have been able, and did, start from scratch and reload everything in the event of a major computer crash. I don’t mind developers stopping ongoing innovation and support for programmes that have been overtaken by the next “best ever” sim but I do want to be the one who decides when and if I will move on from the one I have bought and paid for and I have tweeked my PC to get the best performance I can out of. Unless there is some sort of guarantee of that I don’t think I will ever move from 2020 although I would consider moving to another software developer that promised software that they had no control over when it would become unusable.
True, I didn’t think about the customers true. I was only thinking about developers.
early on in 2020 they suggested they would ‘develop’ 2020 for 10 years
we are 6 years into that now
I would guess, since 2020 isnt streamed they would ‘support’ login function (at the least) for some time beyond that but there are no guarantees - all games have a shelf life, ten+ years is usually pushing that
I became really conscious of the issue when I changed my password for the Microsoft site a couple of months ago and although I could always log into Microsoft pages on the PC it never occurred to me that I had to also change my password on Xbox because I don’t have an Xbox and I never used the Xbox features in windows 11. Until I logged into Xbox on my PC with a new password there was just no way to log into flight simulator.
I was quite surprised that a website for a piece of kit that I have never owned or used had such a major impact on a sim that I had been happily using for years. I assumed that I owned my copy of MSFS 2020 just as I had with all the previous versions that I had owned since flightsim 5. Not so. If I get locked out of Xbox I can no longer use my flight simulator
many games use a launcher to log into now- most require internet access even for local games
this is no different, this game is a multiplayer plateform
I had the same issue, only mine was for the dev forum- since i had 2 accounts they didnt like that lol - took a while to get it sorted but its the hoops we have to jump thru in todays inter-connected gaming environment
Cheers
As I mentioned in this post, the only known example of the cancellation of an online version that one can draw an inference from, AFAIK, is Microsoft Flight:
So I’d expect a similar 1-2 year grace period between any announcement that development / support was to end for MSFS 2020 and / or 2024 and the inability for users to activate the product or access the on-line assets. I suppose it is conceivable just to stop development and continue to allow users to access to the authentication and assets infrastructure indefinitely, but I think that is unlikely.
I’m not expecting to see this happen any time soon, but then I did not foresee the demise of ACES studios or MS Flight either! 
I’m more concerned about the current issues w.r.t. AI datacenters consuming the bulk of hardware (CPU / GPU/ VRAM) that is contributing to their astronomical prices increases, and the media reports suggesting that this will continue for the next few years.
This must be influencing - and IMO probably restricting - the ideas and plans Jorg, Seb & Martial are considering not only for new designs & features for future versions, but also what might be included in the SUs planned for 2027 & 2028.
Based on the many comments on the official forums, many hardware configurations - be it PC, Xbox or PS - appear to have difficulty running 2024 at the higher graphical levels with acceptable performance, and if the majority of users are unable to afford to upgrade their hardware in the foreseeable future, then that really constricts the options that the executive team can consider for new features. Designing MSFS 20xx to run on platforms that market research indicates that only, say, 10% of the userbase can afford is probably not a viable financial / business decision.
Which is why, in answer to the OPs question:
I think it is more likely that the next version of MSFS -if it is to be released in the next 3-4 years - will be more along the lines of the FSX acceleration pack that extended the existing core architecture, rather than a major architectural re-write of 2024 that requires a major revision to the current SDK.
Jorg mentioned in a previous development livestream of how the original MSFS could be played on multiple platforms, so I would not be surprised to see the platform support to be continued to be extended in that area.
Perhaps, in order to reduce the demands on CPU, GPU & RAM, they could make changes that required a greater reliance on streaming, perhaps with some pre-rendering or computation done on the server side (though this is, admittedly, rather pie-in-sky thinking on my part).
Finally, I’m not sure at this point that the executive team can provide a roadmap for 2027 or 2028 - any plans that might have been made earlier this year as part of fiscal year 2027 (or 2028) planning are likely being revisited in light of the cost-of-hardware issues being experienced across the industry.
The majority of 2020 scenery is still streamed.
And I can still play FS95 in a virtual machine. 
Thanks for your insights into how these things impact on the development of games. My computer knowledge is very limited and I am very cautious about that lack of knowledge being taken advantage of to rip me off. I stuck with FSX for years and it just got better and better and more varied. Then I switched to 2020 and realised just how limited FSX had been. This needed a bit of money spent on a higher spec PC and I am delighted with the results. It’s unlikely I will spend that much on any more PC upgrades and I hoped that 2020 would continue to run. It would have to be a jump similar to the difference between FSX and 2020 to get me to invest in a newer simulator that required a PC upgrade so I would hate to feel that there was any pressure to upgrade before there are really big improvements to justify the costs involved. I am probably being a bit too suspicious of software companies using their power over the software to push me into ditching 2020 before I am ready to. I remain delighted with 2020 which I can continue to improve by investing in a more powerful graphics card and a higher resolution monitor. You have gone some way to reassuring me that I can keep pushing the limits of 2020 for a few years yet.