I was pretty excited to hear about the strategic collaboration between Microsoft and Embraer. The implications here are immense:
The MSFS community will get access to some quality renditions of some really great aircraft. Embraer gets some really great advertising and some additional public exposure and affinity for their products… products that are in tight competition with competitors. People like flying in sims what they fly on in real life or what they see out the window. Embraer is currently underserved here. Microsoft could benefit because it might sell a few more copies of MSFS and sell more aircraft from the marketplace.
People also like going with what they know and they like familiarity. This seems especially true in aviation. I mean think about this: New guys getting into aviation are going to boot up MSFS and see a G1000 Cessna 172. They are going to sim around with it a bit and if they decide to start training, they might just give some preference to a training outfit that has a G1000 172 rather than a certain low-wing competitor that is conspicuously absent from official representation in MSFS.
So, let’s look at this:
We are getting a Praetor 600 with WT Pro Line Fusion avionics. AWESOME! This will be amazing and a day one purchase!
FSReborn is currently working on a Phenom 300E that looks amazing. The Phenom has been the #1 selling light jet for years. I could see Embraer absolutely wanting to see a good Phenom 300E in MSFS, but we’re going to get that with FSReborn (soon?). I don’t see another MSFS 300E coming out to compete with that. Doing so would be silly.
The Phenom 100 very light jet is already out from Cockspur, so like with the 300E, creating another would be silly.
The Embraer E2 family is currently not represented in MSFS (besides for AI traffic), but Embraer is working hard to sell that family around the world. The Embraer E2 family uses Epic 2 avionics… fancy that… as developed by WT and in the PC-24!
I don’t think we’ll see an E-Jet from this partnership. That production line is mostly shut down and only open for the E175…mainly for US deliveries because the E2 family is currently too big for the scope clause in the US. Plus, FSS has already been working on the E series and Microsoft probably won’t nuke that effort creating a second version.
The ERJ family is old and production has ended. The military version is niche. FlightFX is working on the civilian family. I don’t think we’d see another effort besides that.
The EMB 110 and 120 would be cool, but production has long since ended. I would say I’d be surprised to see these, but Carenado has a EMB 120, so we know we’d see that sometime in the future.
This brings us to the military options:
The Embraer C-390 also uses Pro Line Fusion Avionics (like the Praetor). Embraer and Lockheed are fighting over countries buying C-390s or C-130Js for their tactical airlift needs. I’m pretty sure we’re going to see Microsoft announcing a C-390 with WT avionics sometime here in the future! And for that, I can’t wait!
The EMB Super Tucano is an interesting one. It enters many competitions right now around the world for military training and light attack duties. Interestingly, the T-6 and AT-6 (the current ones from Beechcraft, not the old ones from WWII) are AI models in MSFS. These aircraft are direct competitors to the Super Tucano and there are some nice T-6 representations in MSFS available from a couple different vendors, but not any Super Tucano’s. Will we get a blackbird/MILVIZ partnership with Microsoft for a Super Tucano/A-29? Might be a smaller market, but one can only hope…
Crop dusters! Embraer EMB 202 Ipanema. Currently being built. You KNOW we are going to get this one, especially with the career mode. Perhaps sooner than later.
Interesting to think about: It looks like Embraer builds some Piper aircraft. A version of the PA-34 and PA-28. Could this agreement get around Piper seemingly not agreeing to allow their aircraft in MSFS?
So, with this strategic partnership, in addition to the Praetor 600, I’m 100 expecting to see the EMB 202 (perhaps the first one released from the partnership?), E2, and C-390. And maybe a Super Tucano as a stretch goal?
In the end, these strategic partnerships are a huge win! WT and their avionics help enable these types of things and getting them aboard was a huge win. Someone is making some really good choices here!
It seems like Textron, Boeing, Airbus, Diamond, Cirrus, Pilatus, Cub Crafters, Joby, Archer, Garmin other like them understand some strategic benefits at play here.
I just look at companies like Dassault, Bombardier, Piper, and Gulfstream and wonder “what are you thinking???”