Welcome X-Planers! We’ve had a rather busy year, haven’t we? Everyone likes wrap-ups, right? (Until Spotify reveals all our deepest guilty-pleasure songs)
Well, as the season wraps up, let’s have a review of what we’ve done this year, and a little peek at what is ahead…
2025 in Review
12.1.3 – The ATC Update
Firstly, we kick-started the year with the release of the ATC Update! This update delivered a major overhaul of X-Plane’s built-in air traffic control — making the sim’s ATC far more realistic and flexible, including proper support for IFR and VFR procedures, including SIDs/STARs, plus the option to request alternate runways or divert mid-flight. You can also route ATC audio to a separate output device (for example, using speakers for aircraft sounds and a headset for ATC).
Weather-handling and cloud visuals also saw improvements: better METAR and wind data interpretation, smoother altitude/pressure transitions mid-flight, refined cloud rendering, and fixes to NEXRAD display issues. Whirlybird aficionados (we are looking at you HeliSimmer) were also treated to the release of a new custom airport (the Downtown Manhattan Heliport, KJRB), expanding helicopter and commuter routing possibilities.
12.1.4 – The Flight Lessons Update
Secondly, we have the Flight Lessons update… which as the title suggests, updated the default mission set featuring Austin Meyer! However, under the hood, we also took the time for smaller but important improvements (for aircraft, ATC, and scenery alike), smoothing out rough edges and improving overall user experience. We also updated Salzburg and Barra airports, offering more unique and challenging airports to the community!
12.2.0 – A Graphics Update
Third, our first major update of the year, 12.2.0, introduced new cloud rendering and visual graphical improvements to the sim. We loved the extremely positive reception to this update. We had been working on this for quite a while, and it represents an important step towards our plans for graphical overhauls for the simulator. We browse Discord and Reddit daily, and some of you are absolutely cooking with the screenshots!
12.2.1 – The Gateway Asset Update
Just after FSExpo, we released the gateway asset update. As part of our strategy for next-gen scenery, we decided to poll out desired assets by the community. The scenery team has taken the challenge to heart and released a first batch of new assets to the community (with much more on the way for future updates!)
12.3.0, 12.3.1 & 12.3.2 – The Weather Update
And for our final releases, we have The Weather Update, one of our largest milestones of the year. We’re a company with a love for detailed simulation, so the weather radar was a must-have for us! This thing actually scans the cloud returns in real time, giving pilots a full 3D-preview of the cloud structure (and good clues as to how dangerous in-cloud flying can be). Accompanying this are NEXRAD, WXR, and WX APIs, A330 Updates, and our best-looking enhanced airport to date… OMDB – Dubai International Airport.
All of these updates are a result of internal changes we’ve made to get your most desired content to you faster! We want to drive this simulator in a way that can be critically driven on your feedback, and can shorten the timelines between development and release!
Where are we flying to next…
Our next stop will be 12.4.0 – The C-Check Update. So named because a C-Check is a periodic inspection of an aircraft after a certain amount of time or cycles. That’s what we feel this update is all about, a more comprehensive check-over of the sim, our aircraft and avionics!
We think this will be an exciting update for users. Whilst we can’t disclose all the features just yet 😉, we can reveal that we will be taking another look at our A330. The A330 is unashamedly our baby, being one of our most complex aircraft to date… and a really important benchmark for developers on current X-Plane technology. So we knew we could add more to the A330 experience!
This will include a look at resolving the Autopilot stability during in-cloud turbulence, some more intricate system reviews and Hoppie integration for the first time ever in an X-Plane default aircraft! So VATSIM users will be able to fully enjoy ACARS in the A330.
Our default Garmin 430/530 will also receive some updated functionality, including WXR and TCAS overlays. In addition, users can expect to see a new enhanced airport, and some… interesting surprises.
The future
And of course, we have several long-term developments too! Whilst we’re not quite ready to talk about them in full detail just yet, we are making progress towards them. Most recently, with 12.3.2, which included in-app purchases for demo users looking to purchase X-Plane 12, and is the very first instance of the X-Plane Store. Whilst we still have a lot of work ahead, this is a significant milestone in our phased release plan, and we look forward to sharing more in the future! This update lays a large chunk of the foundation needed to make that happen!
And of course… we hear you on scenery! Next-gen scenery is our top priority, however, this is no walk in the park. With our current DSF scenery system being roughly around 20 years old, there is a significant amount of work needed for a more modern system. Every single update so far has had something either openly or quietly added in the background to get us closer towards this. Rest assured, we have plans for this…
Before we head off…
We want to say a massive thank you to the community. For all of your love and support over the year! All your suggestions and feedback (including the feature requests and the art-asset polls). The Gateway artists, the moderation team on our Discord and the unofficial Reddit, and our fantastic third-party developers… who have made some cracking addons this year! (And we know about some of their plans for next year… we can’t contain our excitement)
2025 has been a fantastic year for X-Plane. Let’s make 2026 even better! Happy festive season everyone! 🎄
