Remember last year when Microsoft Flight Simulator launched for PC when half of the simulation community upped and moved Kiribati in order to use the new simulator first? Whilst that brought its own hilarity, there’s going to be plenty of you who won’t want to adjust your Xbox settings in order to use the new sim. To address the obvious question of when will it be out in each region, Microsoft has made a short guide so you know when you can access it. As a reminder, if you really need it, the Xbox version of the simulator is due out tomorrow, Tuesday 27th June 2021.
Firstly, this timezone list is for those who are looking to unlock the digital version of the simulator. You may have already pre-ordered and download the sim or you could be accessing it through Game Pass. There’s nothing on this to say that if you pick up the disc version you will also need to wait.
For those in the US, You’ll be able to get flying from the morning. Those of you on the West Coast can access the sim from 8am, whilst the East Coast will be able to fly from 11am. Whilst mainland Europe isn’t listed, it is confirmed that those in London will be able to start the experience from 4pm, so we imagine European simmers will get access around a similar time. Sadly, our friends in Asia, Australia and New Zealand will have to wait for the longest, with the sim not being made accessible until the early hours of the 28th July. It looks like putting your console’s timezone to Kiribati may not work this time.
Here’s the full breakdown (all times local to that city/timezone):
- Seattle (PDT) – 08:00 (GMT -7)
- New York (EDT) – 11:00 (GMT -4)
- Sao Paulo (BRT) – 12:00 (GMT -3)
- London (BST) – 16:00 (GMT +1)
- Cape Town (SAST) – 17:00 (GMT +2)
- Moscow (MSK) – 18:00 (GMT +3)
- Singapore (SGT) – 11:00pm (GMT +8)
- Tokyo (JST) – 00:00 on July 28th (GMT +9)
- Sydney (AEST) – 01:00 on July 28th (GMT +10)
- Wellington (NZST) – 03:00 on July 28th (GMT +12)
We hope this helps and look forward to seeing many of you in the virtual skies on Xbox Series X|S tomorrow.
Alongside the Xbox release tomorrow, PC users will be waiting for Sim Update V to release. This new update will bring huge performance gains to the PC version, along with numerous other features. As for when that will release, we don’t know, but usually, it drops around 15:00z. We’ll let you know once we learn more.
In the meantime, read how the simulator will run at 4K and a minimum of 30FPS on Xbox Series X. Also, check out the initial Orbx product offering which has been optimised for Xbox consoles.
