After a wait of 14 years, Microsoft Flight Simulator is ready to return to PC. The launch marks the renaissance of one of Microsoft’s most iconic products – up there with Word and Excel as a cultural touchstone – and in its latest incarnation, it’s an astonishingly ambitious creation. Working with Asobo, Microsoft has built the entire world, including some 1.5 billion structures, and trillions of trees. There is enough detail that you should be able to fly over your own home, even using local landmarks and scenery to guide you there. All in all, the $ 59.99 / £ 59.99 standard edition fare – including Earth in all its glory – does not seem unreasonably steep.
The thing is, though, Microsoft Flight Simulator is also available as part of Xbox Games Pass for PC. That means you have to pay $ 4.99 / £ 3.99 per month – or £ 1 for the first month for new sign-ups – to access the standard version, plus all those other games.
That begs a pretty obvious question: why pay your full price for Flight Simulator when Xbox Games Pass for PC gives you so much more for so much less?
The answer to that question may be ‘summers’. Microsoft is setting up Flight Simulator as a game made for the first time for summers – as, if you prefer, simulator enthusiasts. That is not to say this sim ‘- and let no one catch you calling it a’ game ‘- is not for all of us. Microsoft and Asobo have made many concessions to welcome the non-summer, and in conversation comes the enthusiasm of the development team for accessibility and democratizing passion for flight as sincere.
But summers are a different race. They are, of course, a varied bundle, and many of them might as well enjoy an FPS as a hyper-casual mobile game. But many are willing to spend up to £ 449.99 on Thurstmaster Pendular Rudder pedals, or drop £ 239.99 on some Honeycomb Aeronautical Alpha Flight Controls – both remarkable pieces of equipment, but much more can be spent on a sim-house setup. We probably all know the cliché of summer with an outdoor hut in the garden that hides a recreation of the cockpit of an airline.
All that investment in one game or genre can come at the expense of having time or money for many others. But sometimes all you need is one game or series to keep you going for years. Business point; many of Microsoft’s flight summer community are still playing and creating content for 2006’s Microsoft Flight Simulator X.
Why would those devotees just save some money to put on a rudder or yoke and go with the Game Pass version? Now, if they might just play Flight Simulator for the next decade, the subscription deal is suddenly not that attractive. Add those monthly subscription payments.
Of course, same summers are likely to buy the more expensive Deluxe or Premium Deluxe versions of Microsoft Flight Sim, which bring more content at a higher cost – and which are not available through Game Pass. But some with a lower budget may still want to opt for the Standard Version, because sometimes handing over money is about dedication.
There may be something in the psychology of spending involved – and parallels to the marketing concept of ’emotional branding’. In an age where so many of our brands and products and makers are integrating into our own identity, spending can give emotional devotion to a brand and even our own identity.
Some just chose to wear a Halo T-shirt, while others – wrongly, like me – spend £ 1000-plus on one PCB arcade game, when a port might be available on Steam for pocket change. That’s a wildly high amount to invest to say, ‘this game is a part of me’, but you can not put a price on self-identity.
A cynic might point to the scattered prices as inconsistent and even unfair, but perhaps Microsoft just offered a choice. And, most importantly, a choice for those of us who are not yet summery. Spend $ 1 / £ 1 now, and you could walk over your house in a handful of days, on your way to becoming a purebred simulation winner.
Maybe ten years fast forward, and you might find yourself in a peripheral packaged dish and you wonder ‘why would anyone get the Game Pass version?’.
