Flight Sim World is now live on Steam Early Access

Flight Sim World was announced earlier month as a general aviation aircraft simulator featuring "an unprecedented level of realism and detail." Developer Dovetail Games, the studio behind the even-more-niche game Train Simulator, said it expected that the new game would debut on Steam Early Access later this month, and yesterday, it did. 

The initial release of the game includes seven aircraft, tutorials and missions, the ability to "free fly" from over 24,000 airports worldwide, and the mission editor. The Steam page warns that Flight Sim World "is not feature-complete and you may encounter bugs," but the studio said in a dev diary video released last week that the Early Access strategy includes both bug fixes and "milestone deliveries for new features and improved content." 

"We have a roadmap, things that we're really excited to bring into Flight Sim World," community manager Cryss Leonhart says in the video. "Cold/dark starts, the opportunity to start your plane right from the beginning instead of just being ready for takeoff, alongside Workshop functionality so that people who are using the Pro Mission Editor can share the missions they've been working on and the other content they've been creating, their flight plans and that sort of thing; improvements to the flight planner and instrument reading; big updates to weather effects; and full Steam multiplayer functionality."

New content will also be coming from third-party studios, and Dovetail will hold regular livestreams to receive feedback from sim fans "to shape the future of Flight Sim World." 

Flight Sim World is available on Steam Early Access for $25/£20/€25. Details about the game are up at flightsimworld.com

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.