It’s encouraging to see a new sim update (although only minor) for FS2020 today. In conjunction with the work being done on SU5 — and with the recent Playstation release — perhaps the silence is just indicative of a team working overtime?
If FS2020 is still getting love, there really shouldn’t be any reason to suspect the imminent abandonment of FS2024.
I understand wanting clarity. Silence definitely creates room for speculation. This community has been conditioned to frequent dev updates and livestreams for years. A few months without the usual updates suddenly feels like a crisis to a few on the forums. Honestly says more about how well supported the sim has been.
Come on people! The Cm has told us that the rumor is fake. Joeg has said msfs will not be dropped. What more do you want?
Why are people complaining now that a rumor that they themselves have created is followed by a silence?
I read this as: we have told the community so many times that we will continue to improve the sim for many years to come. And still these rumors come back to life like a zombie. We are dumbfounded, and lost for words, and don’t know what to say anymore…
Do you get the picture?
Also my opinion: I find it hard to read these recurring rumors. I find it even harsh, unfair, and unthankful.
I’m unsure what these rumors are that are being referred to.
I’ve read this thread and nearly everyone is just worried. No one has stated that X is happening or Y is happening.
I’m strictly of the belief that since the Xbox division has said one thing and then done the other (with other titles), that we really cannot know what will happen regardless of what we are told. We simply have to see what the future actions are, and that will reveal all.
What good does speculation do? We’re here to fly simulated airplanes. We shouldn’t have to concern ourselves with the corporate affairs of the sim’s publisher. Regular development updates would put these questions to bed for the most part.
And so we come full circle. There is a hankering for a dev livestream which is perceived/received by some as delayed/denied, depending on one’s anxiety level and/or point of view. Thus the regularity of these development updates are in question here in the forums and that has folks worried and/or upset. Without stirring the pot too vigorously, I would posit that we, meaning the user base at large as well as the enthusiast community, do not need these livestreams or updates as frequently as in the past now that 2024 is relatively stable and recovered from a rocky, unfun, launch over a year ago. Thoughts?
You bring up a good point. However I would argue that since a decent amount of the bug fixing is done, the community is now asking for updates on promised features, requested features, and general improvements to existing features. And I think this request is fair. I’m perfectly happy with how the sim works for my use case, but I sympathize with those that are struggling with their use case. Feeling like you’re being left in the dark is not a good feeling.
I would sit back, fly, and wait for FSWeekend
The simple truth is, the community manager’s “MSFS isn’t going to be shut down” line is ambiguous, at best. If they abandoned further development of the sim, they could (quite rightly) come back here and claim their response was accurate and reasonable, because ‘shutting down’ is a world apart from ceasing further development. The servers supporting FS2024 could carry on till 2035 and their claim not to have shut the sim down would be entirely valid. Nuance of language in the corporate world matters.
Yes, there are a few coincidences that have unsettled the community. Understandably. But any positive coincidences (such as the new minor SU for FS2020) are largely ignored because this thread has primed us to only detect and interpret negativity. If things were being heavily consolidated or abandoned, the outdated sim would be first for the chop.
I honestly don’t think we’ve anything to worry about. But that doesn’t mean I don’t share the mild unease others are feeling.
But let’s consider some facts: MSFS is a flagship gaming product. MS were quick to announce 2020’s successor and I doubt that successor would have been released had demand for the original sim not exceeded expectations. We already know the release of FS2024 was rushed, presumably to quickly capitalise on a nicely-rolling snowball.
There are just as many arguments against the doom and gloom narrative as there are for.
My Personal Comment & Observation
The reason for the lack of recent development livestreams could be quite simple:
Jorg, Seb and Martial have been working on the development plans and schedule for 2026 and beyond, but before making the 2026 schedule public, wish for it to be reviewed and approved by Asha Sharma.
Even if the 2026 schedule had been previously finalized and approved by Phil Spencer, it would be prudent to also get the approval of the new CEO too. It is quite common when there is turnover at the executive level for all future plans - for all departments - be temporarily paused while the new executive gets up to speed in their new job.
Alternatively, and just to muddy the waters and spread totally unfounded rumors, it could be that Jorg, Seb and Martial are incommunicado whilst vacationing on the International Space Station! 
Jorg or Asobo could easily just tweet something
The silence is just fueling the fire, and lots of new spot fires around the world compared to just last week isn’t there?
You just gave away the next official ‘surprise’ freeware project! The ISS for FS2024… 
Doesn’t sound much fun, though…
Either an official date for the next dev stream or at least something like “after FSWeekend”. I thought the intention was to provide more regular bi-monthly dev streams, not twice a year. But even if that intention is no longer the case I’d appreciate an official statement to adjust my expectations. I’m not worried about the future of MSFS. I’m just a fan of communication instead of silence.
Like others, I wasn’t aware that the 16.1 beta was going live this week. I would have expected to see that date mentioned in last week’s MSFS Weekly Briefing, where there are always plenty of updates about the ongoing status and progress of various FS2024 beta builds. Is there a reason that an update like this related to this FS2020 beta wasn’t covered in the weekly briefing? We shouldn’t have to separately check ‘Official News and Announcements’ for this kind of news. Even something simple like ‘We are nearing the close of the beta/flighting stage for SU16.1’ would have been helpful.
Hello @CaphollandX,
The reason we didn’t announce that MSFS (2020) 16.1 was releasing yesterday in last Thursday’s Weekly Briefing is because the 16.1 release date wasn’t set at the time of publication.
If you’d rather not read the Official Microsoft Flight Simulator > News & Announcements section of the forum for the latest update news, you can also follow MSFSOfficial on any of the below popular social network platforms. We always post an announcement on all of these whenever there is a new Sim Update, World Update, City Update, Beta build, new aircraft, or any other release.
Thanks,
MSFS Team
Thousands of dollars in 3rd Party models, scenery and supporting software designed for MSFS makes that a fairly unappealing prospect.
Plus a significant graphical regression!
Ouch! Hopefully the entrepreneurs will port scenery to Xplane, and offer a fair price to existing customers.
my dude flight sims have development spans in quarters not weeks. We JUST got the California update. MSFS24 has a long, healthy life ahead of it.
Quite profound words, those, from “Tom & Jerry”, huh?
