The highly anticipated ATR 42-600/72-600 for Microsoft Flight Simulator is being released next Tuesday April 25, as confirmed by Microsoft’s latest roadmap update.
The launch will also be accompanied by a new trailer, as has been customary for DLC launches by Microsoft and Asobo.
The ATR project has been in development for at least the last 2 years, with the last good look we got at the plane being in the most recent developer livestream in March. For a full rundown of that, check out our accompanying article here.
The ATR is being developed by a team lead by Hans Hartmann and being published by Microsoft under the new moniker of ‘Expert Series’, which accompanies existing product lines including the Local Legends and Famous Flyers. The new Expert Series labelling would suggest that we can expect Asobo to deliver more high fidelity payware aircraft in the future.
This new ATR42/72-600 for MSFS is likely to face some additional scrutiny on launch following the news in January that Blackbird Simulations (formerly known as Milviz) were halting development on their own ATR for Microsoft Flight Simulator, citing Hartmann and Asobo’s collaboration on their own product as the primary reason for their decision. It is likely that with Asobo’s prime positioning in the addon market, Blackbird felt that whatever they made would not be able to compete and be the revenue generator that it needed to be for the company.
Jorg Neumann, Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, previously described Hartmann’s ATR as “expert level”, indicating that we can expect a high degree of system depth to come with the plane at launch. We are yet to see too many details, although on the last developer stream we got a good look at how the plane’s systems have been implemented as well as the cockpit and displays.
A price for the ATR 42/72-600 has yet to be announced. FSElite will keep you updated with all the details when we have them.
