The first Microsoft Flight Simulator came on a single 360kb 5.25 inch floppy disc. Back then you had to run the program directly from the disc, as it wasn’t designed to be installed on a rare-at-the-time hard drive.
That was back in 1982: fast forward 38 years, and the forthcoming 2020 version of Microsoft Flight Simulator comes on a whopping ten DVDs, amounting to 85GB, meaning the original Flight Sim could fit on those discs at least 236,000 times. Maths!
Aerosoft is the official retail partner for Microsoft Flight Simulator, and if you’re averse to giant downloads or just like physical game boxes, the package looks pretty sweet. In addition to the ten discs there’s a printed manual, which is a pleasant novelty indeed in 2020.
It probably goes without saying, but buying the physical version won’t allow you to play the game with no internet connection: Microsoft Flight Simulator is heavily reliant on the cloud. “This is very much a simulator that depends on the cloud if you want to use it to its full potential,” an Aerosoft spokesperson wrote. “So the boxed version makes it possible for people on a slower internet connection to get the sim installed without downloading the ‘content’.”
The Microsoft Flight Simulator release date is surprisingly close: after a closed beta kicking off July 30, it’ll be available for everyone on August 18.