One of the most surprising announcements in gaming this year was the news in June that the Pelican, the iconic personnel carrier from the Halo series, would be added to the Microsoft Flight Simulator. The reason for the surprise is the name – it’s an emulator, and Pelican doesn’t really exist.
In an extensive chat with the boss of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jörg Neumann, iGamesNews decided six months later to check how the fanbase had received the unprecedented move of adding the Dropship 77 Troop Carrier aka D77-TC, aka “Pelican”. The answer is perhaps equally surprising – it’s not only well-received, it’s so popular that the Flight Sim team will be offering similar content in the future.
Halo tie-in is certainly not the first crossover for this new version of Flight Simulator – the huge Game Pass success first included an add-on pack to celebrate Top Gun Maverick’s theatrical release. In many ways, this story begins with Top Gun.
“Top Gun makes me feel very safe because our team is very diverse between core sim players and gamers…but core sim players love it,” Neumann said. “Nobody said, ‘Top Gun, are you serious?’ Everyone said, oh, that’s great.”
Part of the reason, says Neumann, is the perfect fit of the puzzle pieces between the Top Gun and Flight Simulator brands. Notably, the “fighter pilot” on the flight sim team joined the Navy because he watched Top Gun. Shared DNA means a lot. For Halo, the equation is far less simple.
“Top Gun wasn’t even a consideration. The Pelicans were risky in a way,” Neumann admitted.
So, a few months on, how is Flight Sim doing as it celebrates its high-profile 40th anniversary? “It’s very positive,” Neumann said.
“The Halo guys loved it. So the Halo audience, look — they ate it up. The flying blaze wasn’t as annoying as I thought it would be,” Neumann said with a laugh. “Mainly because we don’t drop planes by halves.
“Actually, well, we asked the Halo team – ‘how does this thing work?’ and they were like… ‘well just come up with something – like the aviation thing’. So we invented a Heaps of stuff – but they all make sense. So we actually had hardcore boilers everywhere run it and say – well, here’s the avionics package, here’s the radar, here’s how this thing works – and they all liked it It. So it’s a really believable aircraft now.”
It’s a big departure from Top Gun’s content, as the movie used real aircraft, and the military-dominated aerospace company Lockheed Martin sent staff, including simulation fans, to help the developers. With Halo, the flight simulator team has relative freedom to decide how this unique and iconic ship flies in a realistic way – this is where the magic happens, making it a worthwhile game for just wanting to zip up. Additions by fans of Pelicans all over the world, and sim fanatics who are excited to learn a new aircraft – even if it’s not real.
As Neumann explained, Pelican’s success has also inspired some decisions about future content and tweaks for Microsoft Flight Simulator.
“I think the only time I was a little bit nervous was around the launch, when all of New York — literally, if you’re in a sim, look up New York, and there’s thousands of pelicans — and Simmers’ reaction It’s like…’um…a bit much,'” Neumann laughs.
“So they weren’t mad, but like, I think we tested their resolve a little bit and they were on the edge.
“That’s when I said, you know, honestly, there needs to be some kind of mode that he can click on. If you want to have a real, realistic mode of only the planes flying today, you need to be able to click on it, and then some other stuff shouldn’t Allowed. It’s not a private lobby, right? But it’s a shared world with logic. And then, if you want to allow everything, allow everything.”
A system like this is a big plan for the future of Flight Simulator, and thanks to the groundbreaking success of this Game Pass-supported reboot, it could stretch many years into the future. Another part of that roadmap, Neumann confirmed, is more content for Top Gun and Halo updates.
“Yes; there’s going to be more of that,” Neumann made clear — though it will always form part of a larger package. Updates featuring real aircraft are always a top priority, with the development team constantly digitally scanning and evaluating aircraft for future use. At the same time, however, after the success of Top Gun, Hollywood came knocking.
“I mean, the thing that probably hasn’t been talked about that much is the relationship with Paramount — which is fantastic,” Neumann reveals, referring to the studio behind the Top Gun franchise.
“So Paramount let us work with Lockheed, and we partnered with Lockheed. We got in touch with the Lockheed guys immediately, because they were actually brewing, so they actually cared about aviation. Pie The guys at Ramon have been traveling the world saying this is the most aggressive game integration they’ve ever done — and they’re saying the same in Hollywood.
“That’s when I got a call from Hollywood. It was like, ‘Hey Georg! We have this thing! I think, it’s on the edge of what you call aviation…I don’t know…maybe?”
so. Not all content will be successful. But in this 40th anniversary event, flight simulators are presented through multiple lenses—as simulators, as learning tools, as digital explorations, and as an overall celebration of the joy of flying. That last one, and the cultural importance of flying, is actually inextricably linked to the way flying is represented in other forms of media, including fictional airplanes.
“I think we have at least a good reputation because it’s the same level of care, right?” Neumann said, referring to how even a fictional or movie sidekick gets the same attention to microscopic detail as a simulated real vehicle , in order to achieve the standard suitable for training. “We didn’t do it halfway, we didn’t do it halfway.”
So… Avengers Quinjet, anyone?
