Third-party developers harnessed leaps in graphics and computing power, bringing complete simulations of real aircraft like Boeing’s Next Generation 737, 777, 747-8, Airbus’s A320 and then-Bombardier’s Q400 to life. In Microsoft’s absence, an entire economy sprung up around the platform to keep it (and Lockheed’s P3D) alive. The company walked away and the code was eventually licensed to Lockheed Martin to create its own simulation software called Prepar3D (pronounced Prepared) that it uses for professional air, land and sea training. The development team that built Flight Sim, known as the Aces Game Studio, was disbanded by Microsoft in 2009.
A decade ago, Microsoft Flight Simulator was a casualty of The Great Recession.