Back in the summer, Dovetail Games revealed that an overhauled version of Microsoft Flight Simulator X would make its way to Steam near the end of the year. That window is rapidly closing, but the studio has now announced a release date that's going to just barely make it through: December 18.
The Steam edition of Flight Sim X will include more than 20 aircraft ranging from commercial jets to single-engine private planes, 24,000 airports, and over 80 missions including races, search and rescue, and test pilot scenarios. As promised, the multiplayer functionality has been updated—the original 2006 release relied on GameSpy—and it supports Windows 8.1.
Unfortunately, the terms of the licensing deal with Microsoft do not allow the studio to implement any graphical updates, so the Steam release will obviously look like a game that's rapidly approaching its tenth birthday. It will offer numerous bug fixes, however, as well as content from the "Deluxe edition" of the original game and the Acceleration Expansion Pack. Dovetail also said it will launch "a range of add-ons" for the Steam Edition in 2015.
