September 14th, 2023 Development Update - Microsoft Flight Simulator

This week’s Screenshot Challenge winner is Forum user JohnStarp, featuring a Boeing 787. If you’re interested in participating in our weekly Screenshot Challenges, check out the details in the Community section below!

The National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada have begun! Some of the members of the Microsoft Flight Simulator Community Team are attending with a booth set up where you can fly the Reno Air Races yourself with hardware provided by Thrustmaster, Next Level Racing, and MSI Gaming. If you’re at the Air Races, come say hi! For the occasion we are also holding a Reno Sale in the Marketplace. You can find a full list of sale items available here.

On September 11th we released a new test build (1.34.15.0) for the Sim Update 13 public beta. Full release notes can be found on the forums here. This test build continues to work on stability improvements in the beta, and testers continue to give valuable feedback as we approach Sim Update 13 public launch. Beta participants will have also noticed a small update on Wednesday 13th. This update has no release notes, but provided a few minor package updates.

Speaking of Sim Update 13’s public launch: we have a new Development Roadmap today, and readers might notice that the Sim Update 13 release has moved to September 28th. This is to allow the team more time to investigate and address some of the feedback that testers have provided over the course of the beta. Readers might also notice that the day prior, September 27th, is our next Developer Livestream! Senior Community Manager Jayne will be joined as always by Jorg, Seb, and Martial to discuss recent progress and take questions from the community.

Lastly, we’re sending well wishes over to Steam, and offer our congratulations for their 20th birthday! Can you believe it’s beginning its third decade? As part of their birthday celebrations you can save 35% on the Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Deluxe editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator until the offer ends on September 19th. Get in for a slice of that cake!

– MSFS Team

Development Roadmap

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Development Roadmap.

Marketplace Update

Click here for the web-friendly version of the Marketplace Update.

There are 41 new and 67 updated products in today’s Marketplace Update. Thursday’s Marketplace update generally goes live before 5pm PT.

41 NEW PRODUCTS: 20 ON PC, 21 ON XBOX
New on Xbox	New on PC	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC	New on PC and Xbox
New on Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC	New on Xbox
New on Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox
New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox	New on PC and Xbox

67 UPDATED PRODUCTS: 36 ON PC, 31 ON XBOX
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC	Updated on PC
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC	Updated on PC and Xbox
Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC and Xbox	Updated on PC
	Updated on PC

Marketplace Backlog

Current Backlog: 589 Total*

*The MS test process is currently going through iteration, so our backlog numbers are fluctuating.

BACKLOG: NEW PRODUCTS

	*Testing Status*
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Handed off to 3P for Functional Testing	Functional Testing in Progress by 3P	Functional Testing Signed off by 3P	Total
Aircraft	86	5	0	2	93
Mission	26	14	6	0	46
Scenery	57	1	3	8	69
Livery	38	8	5	6	57
Airport	93	13	4	10	120
Other	43	10	14	0	67
Total	343	51	32	26	452

BACKLOG: UPDATED PRODUCTS

	*Testing Status*
Content Type	Initial Processing and Validation by MS	Handed off to 3P for Functional Testing	Functional Testing in Progress by 3P	Functional Testing Signed off by 3P	Total
Aircraft	25	6	2	2	35
Mission	0	0	0	0	0
Scenery	5	0	0	1	6
Livery	22	10	2	0	34
Airport	34	9	11	3	57
Other	2	0	3	0	5
Total	88	25	18	6	137

SDK & THIRD PARTY UPDATE

The SDK and Third Party Updates will return in a future Development Update blog.

Community Fly-In

Community Video

Following on from last week’s cinematic video theme, this week’s community video is produced by Practically Geek, who is well renowned for their seamless releases in this genre.

Highlighting the ATR 42/72-600 aircraft, Practically Geek shows off the turboprop airliner throughout a variety of flight stages all over the globe, and in a plethora of different airline paint schemes.

The ATR 42 and 72-600 is the first edition in our Expert Series lineup and has recently received a new update, which can be downloaded via the Content Manager now!