As the title says, take a look/listen below. In short, Asobo believe they have revamped the weather engine and graphics engine significantly to warrant a new release.
So, for those interested in taking a peak, the head of Xbox Game Studios Matt Booty and head of MS Gaming Phil Spencer briefly touched upon MSFS 2024 here in this very long interview:
Giant Bomb at Nite: Night 3 - YouTube[MSFS 2024 Phil and Matt talk]
I hold optimism but hard to tell with games now. Never know if they said the interesting stuff and left out the terrible stuff
Think thats what i wishbthe most for is honest and truthful interviews and discussions
I have confidence in Asobo tbh and making a simulator is no easy task.
Correct it is not but however they should relabel this a paid service pack for MSFSā¦ there was no MSFS2020 it just came out in 2020. I dont agree release a standalone product baded off the same engine with the same issues
You are making many assumptions, wait and see.
Not denying you dont neither am i with asobo. Finsih one product before moving onto another then proceed to crush the last product with state of the art technology without breaking anything
Finish a product? According to some peopleās definition of finished around here, that would be an impossibility. Amazing what people expect for 60 bux, yet these are probably the same people throwing money at some guy playing a game on twitch just so they can see their name on the screen for 30 secondsā¦ LOL
Thanks for thatā¦
Iām hungry for any info on 24ā¦
Phil said that the tornado in the trailer wasnāt a canned thing as it was dynamically rendered in the sim. Iād be curious how this would work outside of missions, as tornadoes are often guesswork even in the moment unless itās been visually confirmed. Perhaps it wouldnāt be in live weather but allowed as a preset?
Where have they said we will have to pay for it? People have been jumping to weird conclusions. If you understand Microsoftās business model its pretty clear existing users will be upgraded free of charge.
Companies like Microsoft sell services now not software. They care about monthly gamepass subscriptions and in market place purchases. Thatās how they make their money.
Calling this 2024 is just to generate massive interest if MSFS next year and attract a host of new users to the platform. We will obviously get the base 2024 sim for free, which will replace 2020 and they will sell an optional career mode add on for 2024 if we want it.
I hope we get these weather events in live weather. This is a simulation, ie. an approximate rendition of real life. So many people seem to confuse between simulation and actual real life. Obviously you cannot perfectly represent a specific tornado in real time, but you can certainly simulate one and I hope they do.
Just image the cries from the āweather didnāt match the metarā crowd when the simulated tornado ends up a few miles off track.
No chance. Theyāve done everything they can with the marketing to close that expectation out. Even though itās not a new game they are announcing it as one so they can sell it as one and charge for it again. That looks to be the most clear interpretation of the release so far.
But heck weāll find out next year, perhaps we can have a wager on it?
How much did you pay to upgrade from Window 10 to Windows 11?
Microsoft already make money from MSFS, from in app marketplace sales, and gamepass subscriptions. Announcing a new version is to draw in more new customers, not to charge the existing ones again.
Think of Netflix. When they release a blockbuster show like Stranger Things, do they a) Make their existing users pay extra to watch it, or b) Use the show and tons of trailers and hype to draw new customers to subscribing and to retain their existing customers by providing them with content to keep their subscriptions.
100 percent guarantee we will get 2024 free for existing members, with an optional paid add on for career mode.
How would they even make money else? They would have to host MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 at the same time and provide support for both. Bang goes their profits, and the goodwill of their customers.
You should show them this from the Q&A posted by Seedy today.
Will Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 be a completely standalone sequel, or will it also be offered as a paid update for existing players?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is a standalone simulator and the next-generation sequel to Microsoft Flight Simulator that launched in 2020. Current aircraft and airports that are in Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020), as well as virtually all Marketplace add-ons, will be supported in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
I paid nothing. But then I didnāt have windows 10 and didnāt upgrade it to windows 11. In fact I just bought windows for the first time, ready to install on my new PC that Iām building this week specifically to run MSFS. 40 years of computing and Iāve never had windows as the OS on any of my computers before. There you go, proof that MSFS has increased the sales of Windows 11. 
I think youāre probably right (like Iām up to 80% now) @Kjaye767 but in the spirit of discussions, how about:
Halo, Gears, Forza all charged for new updates on a 3/4 year cycle. As in, new $60+ titles, all from XGS. Is MSFS nothing like that?
The base data streaming might be compatible with 20 and 24. (I really wanted to be the first to use the term 'MSFS Legacy editionā¦). 24 might get a new engine, and even new data but it doesnāt mean the existing PG and textures all go away.
ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā ā , what an outlier you are, Didnāt think it would be possible to spend 40 years in computers without using Windows. Thatās like driving for 40 years and never travelling on a public road!
In any case, you might not realise that Windows 11, despite very much being a new, standalone sequel to Windows 10, is free of charge to all Window 10 owners? Why? Because they donāt want to make money on the sale of the software to consumers. They want to ensure everybody uses it to make money on licenses to business, PC builders etc, and to ensure that everyone moves to the new operating system so they have to provide support for as few operating systems as possible.
Microsoft simply couldnāt afford to host the servers for two versions of the same sim and pay Asobo to provide support and updates for them both. That would cost them more than they would in game sales, and destroy their userbase, the very userbase they are releasing the sequel in order to attract.
Ultimately, itās free. Yes, my source is ātrust me broā. But I have an elementary understanding of how business works, and I have got this right. Just trust me bro.
They are obviously not going to reveal that on a forum post though. Giving away a AAA title to their existing customers is something they will save for a big announcement.
So Iām not familiar with those games, but I suspect that they donāt have the same in app purchase model that MSFS has? I mean does Gears of War have a market place where people can spend hundreds, even thousands over a couple years?
Also, Iād assume that a Gears of War sequel is a fundamentally different game, and that players might still want to play both? Absolutely nobody is going to want to install both MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 on their system, my 2020 install is about 400 GB including community add ons, imagine doubling it!
2024 will replace 2020. It just makes no sense to have them both. Without knowing the other titles, Iām not sure, but Iād imagine people can enjoy every Gears of War game in the same way they can enjoy every Bethesda Elder Scrolls game? A new one doesnāt replace the other.
MSFS is more like Fortnite and other free to play titles that actually rake in more money than games through app purchases that you buy as a one off game sale these days.
The business model has changed.
They have pretty good DLC marketplaces, but maybe not to the extent of MSFS, plus they bundle into editions a bit more and often offer things you can player grind for instead. Steam DLC Page: Forza Horizon 5 (steampowered.com)
One thing we probably canāt reveal is the transaction percentage of being a MSFS Marketplace Partner, e.g. what Microsoft take per in app purchase as a fee and what the dev gets. Given itās an agency model, where you can see things yourself and at other stores, I wonder how the math works out in terms of paying for existing and future dev work with a big team like Asobo? Are the sales just from that really that healthy, like a comparison to a straight Netflix model works? I dunno.
The other thing to throw in the mix is the Gaming Division gets a lot of resources from other MS business units, and there is internal math on that (Azure, Bing, etc) that could offset the Gaming Pass āvirtual cutā a bit. I imagine it is pretty complicated budgeting and things might change over time.
I spend lots on MSFS so as bad as it sounds, I donāt really care either way too much. A $70 purchase every four years or so is fine compared to the hardware/add-ons Iāve put money into. I can understand the perspective of those that want all the bugs fixed first etc, even if I think that might not be how the gaming world works.
Weāll see soon enough I guess. 
Listen ive been part of this community since fs98. Every single time i have to pay for the new simulator. Even lockheed has it. If theyre advertising it a standalone simukator its 90% likely it will be a paid simulator vs a free SUā¦ hope they prive me wrong just to go with your comment
Hope everything is how you want it to be