In a developer livestream hosted on Twitch on Wednesday, Jorg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator has revealed that UK based developer iniBuilds will be developing an Airbus A320neo for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 to be included with the release of Sim Update 14. 

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According to Neumann, the aircraft will be “completely new” and is “going to sit side-by-side, next to the Asobo A320neo that shipped with launch.” He also elaborated on quality goals, saying, “Quality goal is similar or better than the A310 that you already have and love.” Along with that, he explained why iniBuilds and Asobo wanted to create this aircraft from the ground up: “The reason why we did that is because it’s going to be more complex, and we didn’t want to break all the activities that we’re doing with the A320 already, that would have been a ton of work.” Neumann also confirmed that it will be released along with Sim Update 14, expected to come in late Q4 of 2023, around the holiday season.

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This news comes into a market with many different offerings within the Airbus A320 family of aircraft for MSFS. Developers such as Fenix, LatinVFR, FlyByWire, and Aerosoft all either have A320 family products already on the market, or in development as is the case with FlyByWire and Aerosoft. What this news means for these projects is unknown. 

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As of the time of writing, iniBuilds, who have previously worked in collaboration with Microsoft and Asobo in bundling their Airbus A310 with the simulator, have not publicly announced what kind of feature set their A320neo would have, let alone its existence. 

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As further news comes in about this exciting new development for Microsoft Flight Simulator, Threshold will keep you updated, so stay tuned!