iniBuilds Product Strategy & Plans for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

[mattY]

iniBuilds Product Strategy and Plans for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024

As the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is approaching we’re excited to share our new categorisation structure for the store and iniManager. You'll now be able to see that all of our product titles in MSFS 2024 will be split into three distinct editions: Compatible, Enhanced, and Premium. Here’s a breakdown of each:

COMPATIBLE Edition [FREE]
   - A straight port of the original product.
   - Outstanding bugs from MSFS 2020 have been fixed.
   - Uses all existing textures and models.
   - Full performance/function testing for MSFS 2024 to ensure everything works seamlessly.
 

ENHANCED Edition [Upgrade cost applies]
   - Fixes all outstanding bugs from MSFS 2020.
   - Models re-exported with new Level of Detail (LOD) system and materials.
   - Ground polygon textures upgraded to MSFS 2024 standards [Scenery].
   - Additional features, like passenger handling and more, added for a better user experience [Scenery].
 

PREMIUM Edition 
   - New product, complete rebuild or significant update depending on the product.
   - Full implementation of the new LOD models and textures system.
   - All the latest MSFS 2024 features added for a cutting-edge experience.
   - Includes brand-new or fully upgraded ground polygons [Scenery].
 

This structure ensures we offer something for every type of user, from those looking for a solid, reliable experience with our Compatible Edition, to those seeking the best in realism and features with our Premium Edition.

These changes will be reflected across all areas where you see our products - from the iniBuilds Store, the iniManager and Simmarket. We will aim to use these colour profiles to indicate & distinguish between each. We are yet to finalise the structure for the products on the Microsoft Marketplace, and the best way to present this for our customers who have purchased via that method. We will be circulating more information on this when we have access to marking our products accordingly in the Marketplace Content Portal, but we will try and align these as close to what is explained here as possible. 

On or a few days after release we expect the following products available on the iniBuilds Store (iniManager) & SimMarket: 

Scenery:

Premium
New International Airport - A brand new international hub that has been hand-crafted for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 from scratch! We attach a sneak peak below; try and guess which airport it might be! 
LOWI Innsbruck - Nestled amidst the stunning peaks of the Austrian Alps, our latest airport release for MSFS 2020, will be available for MSFS 2020 customers free of charge within MSFS 2024! 



Enhanced 
LEIB & KPSP - These two airports have been updated in line with our Enhanced edition which fixes all bugs from MSFS 2020, all models re-exported with new level of detail (LOD) system and materials, all the ground polygon textures upgraded to MSFS 2024 standards and some additional features, like passenger handling for an overall better user experience. 

If you are a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 customer you can purchase the Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Enhanced Edition of these airports for £4.99. If you want to purchase these two airports as a new customer in MSFS 2024, the price for each of these will be £15.99. 

Compatible 
EGHI, LPPD, EGGW, EGSS - These airports have been updated in line with our Compatible edition which is a straight port of the original product with outstanding bugs from MSFS 2020 have been fixed, uses all existing textures and models and Full performance/function testing for the MSFS 2024 simulator to ensure everything works seamlessly. 



If you are a Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 customer and own any of these airports you can download the MSFS 2024 Compatible edition for FREE. If you are a new customer for these airports upon purchase you will have access to both the MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 Compatible versions of the product. 

Over the next few months we will be updating our suite of products in line with our structure outlined today. Please note we aren't going to share which category they fall into and when they will release as some are large hubs; however rest assured any airport released this year will be a free update for MSFS 2020 customers in line with our commitment we shared earlier this year. 

Aircraft:
With aircraft, you can expect the iniBuilds T-33 Jet Trainer Premium to be updated free of charge for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 as this product released this year. 



For the iniBuilds A300-600R Airliner, two versions will be available; Compatible and Premium. The Compatible version will simply work in MSFS 2024, and will be available for customers who purchased the product in MSFS 2020.



We will also be releasing an iniBuilds A300-600R Airliner Premium version for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. This will have a host of new features targeted at new MSFS 2024 features such as exterior interactions, covers, navigation graphs for passenger seating positions, career mode capability for marketplace, a new flight model aimed at MSFS 2024, dirt, wear and tear, new effects and many more improvements and fixes. 

The MSFS 2024 Premium version will be £44.99 and if you are a MSFS 2020 customer, you can upgrade to this version for £9.99. 

To be clear this is NOT referencing the EPIC mod expansion that we have discussed in the past as a potential expansion. This is still under consideration internally and once we have more to update on this expansion it will be shared in a dedicated A300 update.

Disclaimers: 

• Please note that we will no longer be making significant updates to the MSFS 2020 versions of ANY of our existing library (scenery or aircraft) when Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 releases.
• Please also note we will not be updating all products in our library unless explicitly communicated, so please be aware of this if you still decide to purchase a MSFS 2020 product. The production cycle for both sims, whilst having some shared elements, does have differences and we are not able to commit to servicing both simulators at this time. 

Changes to Navigation

We've made some changes as to how you'll navigate scenery and aircraft options from iniBuilds. Now, when you select iniBuilds -> Scenery/Aircraft from the top navigation bar, you'll be brought to a landing page with the option to select from either MSFS 2024 products, or MSFS 2020 products. 

Landing Page - You'll be able to select which one you wish to browse, each will take you to dedicated pages showing products that you can use in the desired sim.

Home Store page visual example - Johannesburg O.R. Tambo (FAOR) showing that it is a 'Premium' Edition product and tagged in-line with the above guidelines.

Product page visual example - Three examples of product pages with their respective edition tags as per guidelines. 

iniManager Changes! - Coming soon

iniManager home page visual example - Examples of product display with their respective edition tags.

iniManager visual 'By iniBuilds' - The new 'By iniBuilds' page, which now allows you to search between MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024 products with ease via the filter tags below each title.

The iniManager has been updated to make navigation easier for you to find relevant products for each sim, with the sim names written just below the title, and if you're looking at iniBuilds products, the Premium, Enhanced and Compatible logos will be displayed in the bottom left of each product card.

Installation Changes
Within the iniManager, we've now given you the option to have both MSFS 2024 & MSFS 2020 installation directories enabled at the same time, you can set your MSFS 2024 Community sim path in the settings or at initial setup. For products with downloads for each sim, there will now be two download buttons on product pages, simply select which one you'd like to download and install, and the client will do the rest!

We hope that this outline of our plans helps to clarify what to expect from us and our store in the coming weeks and months as we welcome in the new simulator. We're aiming to have everything ready upon release to ensure a seamless process, so over the next few weeks you may seem some changes coming to the store, iniManager and elsewhere. Rest assured, any changes or important information will be communicated to you across our socials, forum, discord and newsletter.

What's next? 

Well, we are all counting down the days till MSFS 2024 releases, and of course we will be releasing our new international hub along with updates to airports and our aircraft! 🥳

We know a lot of you are keen for an update on the iniBuilds A350 Airliner. As we shared a couple of months ago on our Discord this project is being produced for Microsoft Flight Simulator for 2024 only at this time along with the remainder of our 'big' planes projects. 

The team is working incredibly hard to get this wonderful aircraft ready for you, and as we previously communicated this product is targeted to release before the end of 2024. However, this product is also setting a new standard for iniBuilds and the aircraft we make and we want to get it right, and if that means a delay of a month or two, then we want to be clear that is the route we will take. 

Nevertheless, its going to be a truly exciting remaining year and in December we will have a whole host of A350 dedicated content to showcase and preview. Following the release of the numerous airliners we created in MSFS 2024 [A330-200/-300/P2F, Beluga XL, A400m, A321LR, A320neo, A310] the majority of the team is now full speed on the A350! We wrap up this extensive post with a little thank you for getting this far, with a WIP teaser image of the EK359 ready for boarding at DXB! Please note its still WIP and does not represent the final product. 



Kind regards,
iniBuilds Team ❤️