Microsoft Flight Simulator recently received an update that makes the storage space taken by the game significantly smaller, bringing it down from its original 170GB.

The large size of Microsoft Flight Simulator's download was previously justified by its massive world, with satellite data used to re-create every airport on Earth for the game. It seems, however, that those who buy the game digitally will not have to sit through as much time downloading the game, at least all at once.

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In addition to the 1.16.2.0 update for Microsoft Flight Simulator decreasing the file size by more than half, down to 83GB, bandwidth taken by the game's transferring of real-time weather data has also been decreased, meaning even less data transfer will be necessary to play the game. This reduction contrasts Call of Duty's massive updates that make the game more difficult to fit on the limited storage in modern consoles. The development team made various other changes to increase the realism of the simulation, including specific changes to several aircraft such as the Beechcraft King Air 350i to make them more accurately depict their real-life counterparts. The weather display was also changed to display precipitation specifically instead of cloud coverage, so pilots can better tell which clouds are dangerous and which can be safely approached.

The size reduction will assist lower-end Internet users who have a bandwidth cap to stay under, while also acting as a good sign for the upcoming console release of the game. The Xbox Series S, for example, only ships with 364GB of useable storage so any freed space is an important factor for console owners.

Microsoft Flight Simulator's bold step parallels Digital Extremes' recent updates that reduced Warframe's file size by a significant amount, and will hopefully set a standard for games to contrast the constantly increasing file sizes of other companies. Size-reduction updates are slowly being rolled out in a select few major releases, and as more are announced it is possible that other companies will follow suit and implement better optimization to reduce their games' hard drive and bandwidth impact.

Effectively, for the hardcore flight simulator player, the size reduction update means nothing. To new players, however, it will provide a much more manageable path of entry and make the game more accessible to those who live under Internet service provider data caps. Even pilots who have nothing significant to gain from the decreased sizes will enjoy the quality of life changes implemented in this update.

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Source: FlightSimulator