Back in September, we learnt that Microsoft Flight Simulator was jetting off to PS5 this year - and now an interesting interview with an Xbox developer talks about the series' interesting journey to PlayStation platforms.
Speaking with XDA, Microsoft's Flight Sim lead dev Jorg Neumann talked about the upcoming port and how it all started. Neumann says that he suggested moving the series over to PS5 after 2020's Microsoft Flight Simulator (an idea that MS shot down), before a Sony dev came back to him a little while later.
"I proposed, probably two and a half years ago, to go to PlayStation. It was probably a little bit before its time because I was told no. Then, somebody from Sony who grew up with flight simulation thought it would be a great addition to the Sony portfolio. They reached out proactively to our President, who then came back to me and said, "Hey, remember when we talked about the PlayStation thing a year ago? Sony is also interested."
Neumann says that shortly after this exchange, the team started to plan for PS5 - after finishing up the Xbox and PC versions of the 2024 release of course. The MSFS developer also says they "think that really kicked off a whole avalanche of Xbox titles coming to PlayStation", although we're not entirely sure on that one given that the multiplatform shift seems more related to the ActBlizz deal than anything else.
Either way, it's pretty interesting that Sony itself suggested getting MSFS on PS5, and indeed that some internal Microsoft devs actually discussed it way before the company went full multiplatform. MSFS has ended up on PS5 in the end, then, with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 making its debut today, December 8th.