Microsoft Resurrecting Flight Simulator Franchise

One of the casualties of last year's layoffs at Microsoft was the Aces game studio responsible for the company's long-running Flight Simulator game.

At the time, Microsoft promised that the flight simulation franchise would continue in one form or another. This week, Redmond confirmed that it is indeed following through with a new title: Microsoft Flight.

The game is in its early development stages, with an alpha version nearly ready for internal testing, according to Kevin Unangst, a senior director in Microsoft's game unit.

The company is offering few details on Flight, but Unangst said that it is looking to appeal to flying enthusiasts with the realism, accuracy, and fidelity they expect, but also imagines including other types of gameplay that might appeal more to novices.

"It's an opportunity for us to branch out even more into something that's approachable," he said.

It will mark the first new flight simulation title for Microsoft since the 2006 release of Microsoft Flight Simulator X. The company's first version dates back to 1982. The company has also licensed some of its technology to Lockheed Martin for a forthcoming military training program called Prepar3d.

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