Microsoft Flight Simulator is officially getting VR support, the studio today revealed. It’s not coming day-one, but VR support is expected to arrive alongside (or very near) the launch of HP’s upcoming Reverb G2 headset, which is slated to arrive sometime this fall.

Update (July 30th, 2020): Microsoft today announced in a blog post that official VR support for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator will arrive as a free update to the base game sometime this fall with the release of HP Reverb G2.

Eurogamer reports that HP Reverb G2 will be the first VR headset supported by the game.

“We’re starting with them,” Microsoft’s head of Flight Simulator Jorg Neumann told Eurogamer, “There’s some extra work to be done for some of the others. I mean, we’re going to bring it to all the devices – all the common ones. It’s just going to take a few more months after that.”

An official HP retailer was spotted clearly advertising a September 15th release date for the headset, however HP confirmed with Road to VR that it hasn’t announced a date any more specific than ‘Fall 2020’. Whatever the case, it appears VR support will come fairly close to its late summer launch on August 18th.

Update (July 13th, 2020): Pre-orders for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 are now live, with a launch date slated for August 18th. A new FAQ posted on the game’s official Discord channel stated today that while still unconfirmed at this time, VR support is still a “top wish list item post-launch.”

We were hoping for more news regarding when VR support can be expected, however the studio is staying mum on any further talk of VR support.

Original Article (October 10th, 2019): Speaking to AVSIM, head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jörg Neumann reveals that although VR support wasn’t initially on the drawing table, that they’re trying to make it a possibility.

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“It honestly wasn’t our plan [to support VR], but we are listening, and we heard it, so we will try our darnedest to make it happen,” Neumann explains. “Whether or not we’re going to pull it off for launch, […] we can’t commit to that at this point in time, but we have the desire.”

Microsoft Flight Simulator is slated to release on Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs sometime in 2020 (see update).

“Given that we genuinely want to make the sim that simmers want, we will try to prioritize that over other things,” Neumann continues. “In general, that is our outlook. We made a plan years ago of what we’re making, and we’ll adjust our plans based on feedback that we’re getting.”

You can listen to the entire audio of the interview with Neumann and CEO and co-founder of Asobo Studio Sebastian Wloch here, which touches how the project started in 2016, and more details on the inclusion of real-world weather, traffic and imagery to the sim.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Shem

    At this day and age who’d want to play it any other way?

    • Raphael

      Unfortunately flat-earth gamers are still a thing and they think a triple monitor or projector image is the greatest tech ever.

      • antonio mora

        “flat-earth gamers” lmao! g1

        • Raphael

          Yes, I’ve been calling them that for a year now and a friend of mine who also uses VR abbreviates it to “FEG”.

        • JesuSaveSouls

          Yeah they believe vr and 3d games are not real but only 2d side scrollers are real.

          • Raphael

            Lol. Yup. I would actually like a VR side-scrolling shoot-em-up.

      • JesuSaveSouls

        Flat earth isn’t real ?

        • Raphael

          According to jesus it’s fake.

          • Jonathan Winters III

            pre-emptive strike ;)

      • JesuSaveSouls

        I never could understand that.Buying like a physical plane body to put in your room and using all those flight controls to make the game realistic instead of just saving time,money and space and playing it on vr.

        • Kataki kun

          Then you don’t know anything about flight simming at all. The VR part is what makes it immersive but it cannot replace anything other than the monitor. You still have to get the flight controls and it’s up to you if you want to make a home cockpit

          • arczi79

            “You still have to get the flight controls”
            …but you don’t have to:
            “physical plane body to put in your room”
            ;)

          • Pre Seznik

            The tactile feel of a real cockpit is great, sure, but you don’t “need” it, if everything is there virtually (but sadly not tactile). Depends on your priorities, of course.

          • Doon1

            Pointctrl.com

          • Helleno Rodrigues Rosa

            I played Elite Dangerous enough to say I can’t see real buttons with my VR headset :P. I can’t imagine how people will use those hundred of buttom boxes we usualy see in flight simulators (other than monitor, as you said) if they can not see it. lol

          • MasterElwood

            The difference is: you can build the perfect home cockpit – but then you can fly JUST THAT plane.

            Having the cockpit in VR enables you to fly EVERY plane….

        • Chris Gill

          Well, I don’t know about the plane body, but recreating the planes interior makes more sense.
          The fact is, if you are a pilot, you will get more real life training out of a modeled interior vs a VR headset. Try using Foreflight or reading a VFR map with a VR headset on.
          Having said that, nothing quite makes you feel like you are actually there then a VR headset.

      • Jeremy Walcott

        What’s so bad using a monitor I use VR and I don’t like it for simulators,hope this one is different.Vr is not special tech in my book,flight simulaton will get real when I’m able to throw up while flying and feeling the forces of the plane which VR don’t give.Its not special,you guys make it seem like it magically changes everything

        • Raphael

          Why are you even here? Clearly you don’t get VR at all. It’s really not worth my time trying to educate you on something you should be able to figure out for yourself given that you apparently have VR. Unfortunately you represent the downside of VR heading towards mainstream and becoming accessible to all… It falls into the hands of people who don’t really understand it. Back when I started with vr in 2006… It was owned pretty much exclusively by enthusiasts.

        • Javed Asghar

          But the flat monitors do give those feelings? hmm ok.

        • raeldor

          My instructor said the downside of simulators is that you don’t get into the habit of checking the airspace around you. VR should allow you to do that and get you into better habits. Downside is you don’t get to touch real controls and instruments.

        • Kataki kun

          Well you’re on the wrong place and you don’t know sh*t about flight simming. Now frick off will ya

        • Patrick Sugrue

          The most likely explanation for your very strange opinion is that you DON’T actually have VR

        • Augusto Molina

          Idiot!

    • JesuSaveSouls

      Unless they skip vr and go one step further like offering real actual flying

      • MadHenGSH

        not everyone has the chance to fly beyond the PPL though..

        • JesuSaveSouls

          Much safer in games too.That guy who designed flyinside ,daniel church did something remarkable making fsx fully vr.

    • mrsilent3051 Nonya

      Those old retard AVSIM dummies who still live in the 1990s

    • Moe Curley

      Now that Vr exists you can’t really call a non-VR app an actual “simulator” anymore. It’s not really simulating the environment it just presenting a cross section of it.

      • Jeremy Walcott

        That’s such a stupid thing to say,a flight sim is about learning instruments and procedures.Not some ridiculous headset won’t change everything.You want to fly and have realism get a ppl or take a discovery flight

        • Moe Curley

          Stating an opinion is just stating an opinion. Calling someone stupid is a punk stupid thing to do.

        • Moe Curley

          Why are you doing at a site dedicated to VR if you think VR Headsets are ridiculous?

        • GunnyNinja

          Looking at a sim on a monitor is like looking through a window. VR puts you in the seat. No comparison. You can look over your shoulder in VR. In a plane with a canopy, you can track a target. You aren’t doing that with a flat screen.

          • Major Kevin John Simon

            Absolutely Agree. VR changes EVERYTHING in Flight Simulation…for the Better….Immersive Better.

    • MadridiCooL

      If a flat-earth Sim game runs at 90+ fps it can easily beat a 30- fps VR Sim game in visual fidelity .

  • gothicvillas

    Without VR it is just a pretty picture frame on your desk.

    • VR4EVER

      BADUM TSS!

    • Raphael

      Yes, flat and lifeless, miniature and compressed.

  • blue5peed

    Talk about incredulous you’d think VR was a foregone conclusion for a flight sim. Also does this mean Xbox has no VR strategy for the next console generation? Sony and Nintendo are going to have a field day if that is the case.

    • Jonathan Winters III

      Good insight – and very revealing that MS is still off the VR train.

      • silvaring

        Except they aren’t… but by all means continue pushing this false narrative, I understand how scared all the other major VR companies are of Microsoft dominating the VR eco system.

    • Kataki kun

      XBOX will probably never get VR cuz Microsoft is arrogant AF

  • Raphael

    ““It honestly wasn’t our plan [to support VR], but we are listening, and we heard it, so we will try our darnedest to make it happen,”” <<< This statement should worry VR users. The dev site stated VR support was planned and then last week the youtubers started reporting no VR support at launch and only a vague maybe down the line.

    A development team should be clued in on the competition…

    Prepar3d
    DCS World
    X-Plane
    IL-2 all support VR.

    • Kataki kun

      VR support won’t be available at launch but will come in future updates

  • GunnyNinja

    I don’t fly without VR. I’ve been a FS fan since before it was on PC’s and have had every version of it since. As much as I want this one, I don’t see me flying it on a monitor. I can wait until they figure it out.

  • Stupid Microsoft. What else is new. And I like Microsoft, but they are missing the boat on VR.

  • Rosko

    If x-plane 11 runs at single figure fps then surely it would be next to impossible to run this?

    • Rudl Za Vedno

      x-plane 11 has old shitty game engine. It only uses one CPU core. 8C/16T CPU will be a norm by the time FS is released as it will be in SP5/new XBOX in combination with 14 TFlops GPU (todays 2080 Super equivalent). Anything below these specs will be outdated hardware by 2021 as console devs develop game engines to new consoles capabilities. Mainstream PC hardware will have to do catch up. GPUs like 1660TI/2060/2070/5700 will be gaming history by 2021.

      • Jonathan Winters III

        One core? Are you serious? That’s ridiculously archaic!!!

    • Raphael

      The performance requirement has dropped somewhat by performance boost features like ASW and the steam version designed to lower the hardware requirements. Thus a flight sim can be perfectly smooth in VR at 45 fps.

      There really is no excuse for not delivering VR. They could also deliver a massive performance boost by utilising VR hardware features built into Nvidia GPUs. VRworks brings big performance gains. Vulkan would boost drawcalls significantly as well. DX11 is outdated and loses significant amounts of performance from a GPU.

    • crim3

      I would feel more confident if this new engine were build on DirectX 12, but not, still DX11 tech : /

    • Zam

      im in the alpha and i can run 4K and get good frames (except flying very low with tons of trees). using DirectX gives an advantage as far as performance, over xplane. the game seems to have been designed extremely well. i dont think it would be a big issue to run VR.

  • Arcticu Kitsu

    Well, its better than hearing developers whine and moan how “hard” it is to implement VR, or how there is low population when they should instead support VR to grow a market. I’m confused by the comments below, yet happy to hear that the developers shall force a VR out for Flight SIm. I guess I do agree it may be shady for profit, its something they should do regardless.

    Awesome.

  • sebrk

    It’s either me or Microsoft who in 2019 has the market wrong. I’m sure VR is a far cry from the general player base but then MS Fly Sim isn’t released every year and last time I checked VR is where it is at when it comes to sim. Who the F wants to sit with five monitors playing sim when VR makes it about 2000 times better even in lower resolution? It is all about immersion and 2D has nothing on that.

    • dogtato

      it not only isn’t released every year, it was basically cancelled. This is a big comeback for the series and has a lot of cool tech, namely that it will have a high quality map of the whole planet. maybe they overlooked it because vr wasn’t a consumer product when the last version released

    • Kataki kun

      This is microsoft we’re talking about. They’ll always stay oblivious of VR with their arrogance. Thanks to Asobo studio they partnered with, they listen to the community and the devs love VR so we’ll get the support later on

      • GunnyNinja

        I would agree with you except for that whole WINDOWS mixed reality thing…

        • silvaring

          I love how oculus and vive people continuously pretend like WMR wasn’t this huge deal for the industry, and talk as if their companies are the only thing keeping VR alive and it would die without them. Hyperbole much!

  • Jonathan Winters III

    Great news!

  • Sounds a little half hearted so won’t hold my breath on this one. Remember that Ark Survival Evolved and Subnautica devs said the same thing before launch to pull VR people in but then delivered a rather weak VR implementation.

  • dogbite

    As one who went VR because of flight and racing sims and has never gone back, if no VR then no sale here. With most simmers flying DCS, Il2. Aerofly and Xplane. all of which have added VR support. I think MS is missing the boat if they don’t do VR. I mean the terms simulation and virtual reality are like almost synonyms.

    • Zam

      they made a brand new flight simulator and had no intentions of including VR. that should tell you everything about what to expect from microsoft. has anyone at microsoft ever tried VR?

      • Maxime Pare

        and they have the windows mixed reality platform that they built…wtf

  • Pete Sparks

    Of course its going to happen. Its a smoke screen before they drop it with the next gen 2020 xbox and PCs.

  • Emmanuel Anthis

    For me personally, if FS comes anytime in the future with VR support, it will be time to make a nice huge rig with the best in that time VR headset, just for playing FS!!!!

    • kalqlate

      Time is come ~September 15, 2020.

  • Wow dude

    Why would you play this on a tv

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    Are you hyped? I need a new rig and VR headset ASAP… Good bye summer holidays. My wife’s gonna divorce me over this, but who cares. I’m happy to exchange her for a pilot sit in a virtual Boeing 787 Dreamliner :)

    • Toby Dammit

      Just rent or lease a pussy. It’s much cheaper in the long run and you don’t have to listen to all the bullshit all day long, and you can do whatever the fuck you want.

  • TechPassion

    Huge company can’t afford to hire 5 to 10 people to add support for their own platform Windows Mixed Reality in SteamVR. Seriously, WTF is wrong with Microsoft?!

    • Rudl Za Vedno

      VR is happening, just not on the release day. Devs said they wanna do it right, aka full clickable cockpits, 100% right scale, no missed 2D “objects” etc. That will take A LOT of work and time on their part, but t least we won’t get Dirt Rally 2 kind of half baked VR experience.

      • Zam

        im a programmer. thats not how you develop things. you dont complete a product, and then try to jam something into it that fundamentally changes it. you develop the game with VR in mind, even if you dont implement it right away. so that when time comes for VR, you don’t have to rip out all the wiring and framework you have built the game on. it would have been much easier to develop it with VR right away.

        • GunnyNinja

          I guess you never heard of X-plane. It didn’t start with VR support.

  • Jonathan Winters III

    Wait….”top wish list item”? I thought they committed to including VR a while back.

  • Jim P

    Yeah was really wanting VR. I guess I’ll wait until they make it a reality.

  • arczi79

    No VR == No buy.
    Simple as that ;)

  • Thomas Hall

    I won’t lie- I am a bit disappointed about this, but I’ll buy it when the VR support is added.

  • Samuel Kline

    Have Oculus Rift on a 9900k/2080TI rig. Still preordered MS Flight sim. Looks great

  • Mxnfella77

    Oh microsoft, I really wanted to give you my money on launch day. Hell, I’d have even sprung for the fancy pack with airplanes I’m never going to fly. That’s what credit cards are MADE for. But no native VR support YET? Where’s the “Don’t worry, I’ll wait” meme when you need it…. https://media0.giphy.com/media/Vh1b7Mmcy6D6/giphy.gif

  • It will be so cool to play this in VR

  • Pre Seznik

    I’m sorry, but a flight sim without VR is just a no-buy.
    I get it “free” on gamepass anyway, but you know what I mean.
    It’s like the exact genre VR is perfect for.

  • ChicagoBlah

    Based off the statement, it sounds like VR is not happening, if it does im sure it will be an upcharge

    • kalqlate

      Free ~September 15, 2020.

      • ChicagoBlah

        ERRMAGAHD! I’ve had too many of my own releases go out without wishlist features that we never get to implement, nice to see this is coming so soon, thanks for the update

  • david vincent

    Let’s see how well this behemoth runs on flatscreen first…

  • Ozz

    Was looking forward to this but i will pass until vr is supported

  • Doon1

    I’ve been in the Alpha since February. I’ve logged less than 10 hours flight time. It is, and by far, the most beautiful flight sim I’ve laid eyes on. I just can’t fly on a monitor though. And I have a 65″ 4K OLED TV as a monitor. I won’t be buying it until it goes VR.

  • bliglum .

    I get it, they can’t really mention the VR in the hype train content because they’re selling it for Xbox as well.. Xbox does not do VR… So, in order to avoid confusion, it’s just going to be a post launch update/patch for PC, and it’s going to work wonderfully!

  • Patrick Sugrue

    I would rather play xplane 11 or DCS in black and white wire frame in VR than full color 4K on multi monitors.

  • Patrick Sugrue

    I suspect that Microsoft has just painted themselves into a corner because the entire point of MSFS 2020 is the hyper realism of the scenery and we just don’t have the VR hardware to translate that into VR at this time so they would have to downgrade the resolution so much to make the FPS that it would basically be a different game.

    • DeenVR

      > the entire point of MSFS 2020 is the hyper realism of the scenery and we just don’t have the VR hardware to translate that into VR at this time

      Wrong. G1/G2 look great @ 2160×2160. No VR blur. If you’re on a crappy Oculus HMD, yeah don’t bother.

      • Patrick Sugrue

        Cool. I was wrong and I am very happy to be wrong. Microsoft woke up and they are listening. I was already getting close to pulling the trigger on a G2. Now I guess I have to do it and I will also pay Microsoft the money for MSFS 2020 as soon as I see a review with it working OK in VR. Well done Microsoft!

  • mfx

    Can you please make new articles instead of old ones updates ?

  • Major Kevin John Simon

    I saw Tremendous Potential for MSFS 2020, however with no VR capability, I am Simply NOT INTERESTED. Unless and until you ”Fly” in VR, you are NOT Inside the Aircraft, not INSIDE a 360 degree Experience. Instead you are ”Watching” a Flat Screen. How in the World MS could spend resources for this level of Technological Development and NOT have a VR capability, is absolutely Incomprehensible, actually it’s just IDIOTIC. Someone asked at E3 ”Was MSFS 2020 developed in a Dungeon?” VR Technology Changes EVERYTHING in Flight Simulation. VR is the most Important Technological Advancement for Flight Simulation, since the development of Dedicated Graphics Cards in the 1990’s. Again as I will continue to Enjoy ”Flying” other Flight Sims in VR. MSFS 2020 is a JOKE without VR. Even if it was Given Away for FREE, I could care less. I am NOT Interested in Looking AT a Screen, when I can ”Fly” INSIDE the World, in my P-38J or F/A-18.

  • Richard Amiss

    Yup… what is this, 1982? I’m not purchasing until they support VR.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    G2 + FS 2020 = my childhood dreams coming true :) Thank you Asobo Studio & HP.

  • crim3

    I didn’t even know that it was possible to support a specific WMR model and not the others. I guess HP had to pay a lot for this strange exclusivity.

  • mfx

    That’s so technically BS that it can only run the Reverb G2.
    That’s totally a commercial agreement.

    • Popin

      Many people have expressed this same thing numerous times and they seem dead set on lazily updating 10 month old articles rather putting in the effort to delve into an “update” deep enough to make a new article.

      This is the only reason I barley come back to this site for VR news. It’s a poor experience to see a headline for something 10 months old, thinking it’s a new article, and then noticing its an “update” with 3 sentences. It’s also super confusing for the comments which further compounds their poor moderation of the comments.

  • Hivemind9000

    Good to hear, but it makes you wonder just what is going on inside Microsoft when they have to get community feedback before realizing VR is the future of simulations. Combined with their other VR oversights (XBox Series X, I’m looking at you) I’m not confident this is going to be a priority for them.

  • antonio mora

    “Sort by newest”
    Ok this is great news, we now need an official VR relase for Odyssey please FD.

  • “Few more months” for the other devices… it is just a timed exclusive for Microsoft’s device… technically speaking there is no other reason to wait

    • Lhorkan

      I give it a day before support is modded for all headsets.

  • Rudl Za Vedno

    Forget about running this sim at minimal recommended specs. Here are performance results from Digital Foundry’s and Obsidian Ant tests (closed beta version of a game):

    R9 3900X/2080TI -> 4K ultra = 47fps, 4K high =58fps, 4K medium = 68 fps, 4K low = 99 fps
    i7 6700K/2080S -> 4K high 30 fps (over city), 1080p ultra = 42fps (city)/67fps (high altitude), 1080p high = 50 fps (city)/85 fps (high alt) 1080p medium = 100 fps (high alt), 1080p low = 110 fps (high alt)
    i5 8400/RX 580 ->1080p high = 35fps, 1080p medium = 45 fps
    i5 8400/GTX 1060 -> 1080p high = 43 fps, 1080p medium = 53 fps

    This fps are approximation, but should give you an idea what kind of performance to expect. Most of the frame rates were captured at low altitudes over cities (most demanding), expect much better fps higher/less populated areas. As you can see AMD GPUs run like shit, but that’s probably drivers issue at this stage of the game. FS 2020 is a power hawk there’s no doubt about it. VR, especially supported HP Reverb G2, which resolution is 12% above 4K, will need 2080TI or equivalent to run it decently. I really hope upcoming RTX 3070 will be on pair with 2080TI:ohwell:.

    • david vincent

      FS2020 VR is the new Crysis… Maybe in 10 years time we’ll be good (if we didn’t collapse until then)

  • Alexisms

    I watched the Digital Foundry video on the preview of this and it needs a pretty beefy pc to start with. Marry that to VR and it’s wallet straining time :-)

  • mfx

    If you play VR, you are running Windows.. so since your OS is Microsoft, why is it an extra issue that your game is ?

    (not a MS lover writing)

  • Chaven Yenketswamy

    Will the Standard edition have VR capability?

  • GunnyNinja

    Now that the game is out, I can say that I was involved in the alpha and beta, and as good as it looked, quickly lost interest without VR. Not even going to buy it until the G2 is available.

  • Chris Gill

    If they “didn’t plan to have VR” then they didn’t plan very well.
    How shortsighted can you be?