With Sony having surprised precisely no-one by announcing that, once again, PlayStation won't be at this year's Gamescom, Microsoft has seized the opportunity to let everyone know that, by Jove, Xbox will be at this year's show.

Microsoft shared the news over on social media, inviting attendees to visit its "biggest booth yet" when Gamescom returns to Cologne, Germany, in August this year.

Microsoft will, of course, be the only major console maker to have at presence at Gamescom 2024; Nintendo confirmed it wouldn't be coming along back in April, saying there would be opportunities for players to try Switch games at other events throughout the year, and PlayStation confirmed a no-show earlier this week. Sony's absence hardly warrants a raised eyebrow, however, given it hasn't showed up since 2019.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 - the latest instalment in Microsoft's long-running aviation sim - launches for PC and Xbox Series X/S on 19th November, introducing aerial firefighting, cargo hauling, hot air balloon trips, and more.

Flight Simulator 2024 was announced last June, amid some controversy given developer Asobo had previously pledged to provide 10 years' worth of support for the 2020 iteration of the game. Since then, the studio has rather nebulously said it'll "continue to support" the current version after Flight Simulator 2024's release, but this year's outing is undoubtedly its focus.

And Flight Simulator 2024 launches with a frankly staggering list of activities, massively expanding the series' reach after a instalment predominatly focused on getting from A to B. There's aerial firefighting, search and rescue, helicopter cargo transport, air ambulances, crop dusting, mountain rescue, skydive aviation, aerial construction, cargo transport, air racing, glider piloting, scientific research, low altitude training, experimental trips, airship tours, hot air balloon trips, plus VIP charter and executive transport services. Oh and it somehow manages to be even more drop-dead gorgeous than its predecessor.

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I love me a Flight Simulator, but never more when there's some dramatic structure to my flight. That's why I've long been looking forward to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024. It takes the staggeringly detailed world and flight model of Asobo's Flight Sim revival, and adds a job system on top. And now it has a release date: November 19th.

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The UK government has responded to a petition asking for "government intervention" to force the industry to keep video games "in a reasonably working state when support ends", rather than allowing them to become unplayable such as when online servers are shut down. The petition was prompted by the closure in March of ten-year-old Ubisoft racing game The Crew.

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The Crew, Ubisoft's 2014 racing game, closed its doors on March 31st. After that date, launching the game took you to a splash screen and then presented an error message when trying to advance, because the servers are no longer offline.

Ubisoft have now taken the extra step of revoking The Crew licenses from purchasers and removing it from their library.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator's free Dune expansion is available now. It features the Royal Atreides Ornithopter from Denis Villeneuve's movies - with this entire DLC being a marketing tie-in with Dune: Part Two, which releases next month. It includes tutorials, time trials, and a "daring rescue mission".

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