Microsoft Flight Simulator’s September Developer Stream has mapped out a busy final stretch of 2026 for MSFS 2024, with World Update 23 leading a wave of updates that also includes Sim Update 7, the return of competitive air racing, more aircraft moving to native MSFS 2024 standards and the reveal of the next Expert Series release. The presentation also spent significant time on performance, career mode, rendering technology and several longer-running community requests.
The central announcement was World Update 23: Poland and the Baltics, a scenery expansion that finally gives one of the community’s most requested regions its turn in the spotlight. But the stream went far beyond scenery alone, outlining an autumn roadmap that now looks packed from late September through late November, with something new planned for almost every corner of the simulator.
World Update 23 turns to Poland and the Baltics
World Update 23 will cover Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, giving the region its most substantial first-party scenery pass yet. Updated photogrammetry is planned for Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Vilnius, Gdansk and Warsaw, while the wider package adds 12 Areas of Interest, five handcrafted airports and 77 Points of Interest across the four countries.
MSFS 2024 will also gain three Discovery Flights, five Precision Landings, a Rally Race Challenge and a Guided Tour built around the new scenery. Microsoft’s presentation graphic lists October 27 for the release, while the written Development Update describes the launch more broadly as taking place in October, so that date is best treated as the current target rather than an absolutely fixed deadline.
Sim Update 7 arrives before the scenery expansion
Before World Update 23 arrives, Sim Update 7 is targeted for October 13 across PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro. Microsoft’s current goals include career-mode fixes, broader performance and stability work, Marketplace improvements and the return of the National Championship Air Races, with several of those items already marked as on track in the latest development overview.
AMD FSR 4 frame generation remains in progress, with Microsoft and AMD still working through performance issues and no delivery estimate attached to it yet. The stream also touched on future rendering work: newer DLSS support remains under review, while PSSR 2 sits on the PlayStation backlog after the team previously found its own TAA implementation preferable to the first version of Sony’s upscaler.
Air racing returns with Roswell and a new STOL class
The National Championship Air Races will return as a free activity for MSFS 2024 users, this time centred on a newly recreated course in Roswell, New Mexico. A new STOL Drag class joins the lineup, while 44 aircraft are receiving updates for the refreshed activity and will need to account for factors such as wake turbulence, engine management and wear and tear.
Private multiplayer lobbies will be available, with scheduled races planned for 2027. Microsoft will also offer an optional $40 aircraft package featuring real-world NCAR paint schemes, while owners of the earlier Reno Air Races DLC for MSFS 2020 are set to receive the corresponding package without an additional purchase.
Five classics move to native MSFS 2024 standards
Aircraft & Avionics Update 6 is planned for September 29 and continues the push to convert older first-party aircraft to native MSFS 2024 standards. The official list includes the Dornier Do J “Wal”, Dornier Do X, Dornier Do 31, Junkers F13 and Junkers Ju 52, giving owners of several historic aircraft a more complete path into the newer simulator.
Microsoft also confirmed that additional Aircraft & Avionics Updates are planned for other Local Legends and Famous Flyers. No further aircraft were named during the written recap, but the roadmap makes clear that the conversion programme will continue beyond this September batch rather than ending with these five releases.
The Antonov AN-28 adds regional flavour to October
Launching alongside World Update 23 is the Antonov AN-28 from AT Simulations. Microsoft says the twin-turboprop will ship with more than 10 liveries, multiple cabin configurations and authentic systems, giving the scenery update a closely matched aircraft instead of an unrelated standalone release.
The AN-28’s utilitarian design should make it especially well suited to shorter regional sectors and smaller airfields, which helps it fit naturally into the Poland and Baltics theme. It is an aircraft choice that gives October a stronger identity, rather than leaving World Update 23 to carry the whole release window on scenery alone.
A new EFB ground-services app is coming with SU7
Working Title also previewed a new EFB ground-services app intended for Sim Update 7. Rather than forcing users back into the ATC interface for routine ground handling, the app brings the simulator’s built-in services into the tablet and is designed to work across aircraft rather than being tied to a single cockpit.
The demonstration covered steerable pushback, ground-service controls, chocks, quick pre-flight functions and dynamic door management. The door system can read the aircraft that is currently loaded and present its available doors and states through the EFB, which should make the workflow considerably cleaner for aircraft with very different configurations.
Praetor 600 takes the Expert Series deeper
The stream also delivered one of the most detailed looks yet at the Embraer Praetor 600, the third aircraft in Microsoft’s Expert Series. Built by Asobo and Working Title, it is scheduled for November 24 and combines Asobo’s 3D work with sound contributions from Boris Audio Works and Microsoft, including material recorded from a real aircraft.
Its avionics and systems scope is ambitious: an authentic HUD, on-screen charts, advanced flight planning, an advanced fly-by-wire system and more than 900 pages of electronic checklists are all planned. Working Title is also modelling circuit breakers and individual system components down to valves, pumps and actuators, while the EFB will expose dedicated systems pages for inspection and interaction.
Performance, career mode and long-term features remain in focus
A large part of the Developer Stream was devoted to community questions rather than new products. Asobo said performance work is continuing through a dedicated team, while SU7 introduces additional developer tooling intended to expose the execution cost of aircraft systems and make it easier to identify stutters. A separate set of deeper engine optimisations is also being tested for later builds rather than being rushed into the next update.
Career mode is receiving targeted work on dispatch and routing, fuel management and mission filtering, with the immediate priority placed on correcting existing problems before expanding the mode further. Microsoft also discussed shared cockpit, confirming that a PC prototype exists but describing a universal implementation as a longer-term project because advanced aircraft require their own replication logic.
Default ATC remains another area under active maintenance, although the stream stopped short of promising a complete rewrite. The current approach is focused on fixes and incremental improvements from Asobo and Working Title, while more ambitious concepts such as AI-driven ATC and external traffic injection remain outside the immediate first-party roadmap.
MSFS 2024’s autumn roadmap is now taking shape
Seen together, the announcements give MSFS 2024 a tightly packed autumn. Aircraft & Avionics Update 6 is first on September 29, followed by Sim Update 7 and the National Championship Air Races on October 13. World Update 23 and the Antonov AN-28 then move the focus to Poland and the Baltics later in October, before the Praetor 600 arrives on November 24.
That mix is important because it spreads attention across several parts of the platform at once: core simulator work, scenery, activities, legacy-aircraft conversions and a high-detail business jet. If the current schedule holds, the final months of 2026 should feel less like one single headline patch and more like a steady sequence of meaningful additions across the wider MSFS 2024 ecosystem.
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