Why You Can Trust CNET Microsoft Flight Simulator takes off on PC
Playing before Sept. 30 will get you a free livery set.
Would-be aviators can take to the virtual skies, with the launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator on Tuesday. It's available on PC, Xbox Game Pass for PC and Steam.
The company is offering a free "Aviators Club" livery set to players who get the game before Sept. 30. It'll appear in the in-game marketplace on Wednesday, and can be applied to all of the game's aircraft.
"This all began as a demo of Machu Picchu in augmented reality for the Microsoft HoloLens and now we're here, re-launching the franchise after 38 years," Jorg Neumann, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, wrote in a blog post marking Flight Simulator's 2020 launch.
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The $60 standard edition includes 20 planes and 30 airports, the $90 deluxe option has five more planes and airports, while the $120 premium deluxe version has another five of each.
If you're waiting for the Europe-exclusive 10-disc physical edition, those will start shipping this Friday.
In terms of hardware requirements, you'll need a Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X or Intel i7-9800X CPUs paired with high-end AMD Radeon VII and Nvidia RTX 2080 GPUs with at least 8GB of VRAM, 32GB of RAM, 150GB of storage and a 50Mbps connection for the best visuals.
Microsoft also promised VR support would come later in 2020, along with additional planes and other content updates.