So you are not much of a gamer but Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 really seems to tickle your gaming muscles? The problem is that you own a Mac, a platform that is not primarily built for gaming. But there might be other ways to play the game on Mac, right? Well, keep reading till the end to find out all about running Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on Mac.
Microsoft Flight Simulator comes from Microsoft, the same company that owns Windows, and there’s little incentive for them to release such a high-profile title on a competitor’s platform like Mac. It’s a bit of a business move, really—Microsoft wants to keep its best games exclusive to its own operating system. After all, why would they help out Apple by offering a game that could sway users toward macOS when they could keep that experience locked into Windows?
How to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 On Mac?
First and foremost, it’s simply impossible to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 natively on macOS, as the game was designed specifically for Windows. However, there are a few workarounds you can try to get the game running on your Mac. These solutions can let you experience the game, but they do come with limitations.
Xbox Cloud Gaming
Xbox Cloud Gaming is by far the most effective way to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on a Mac. Since the game is available through Xbox Game Pass, you can stream it directly to your Mac without needing to worry about installation or hardware limitations. All you need is a stable internet connection and a compatible controller and you will be able to enjoy the full experience of Flight Simulator on your Mac, with minimal fuss and no complex workarounds involved.
Virtual Machine
You can use UTM to virtualize Windows on your Mac and then play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, but it’s not the ideal solution. While UTM allows you to run a full Windows environment on your Mac, the performance is surely going to take a hit since virtualization can’t fully utilize your hardware the way a native setup can. This means you might experience lower frame rates, lag, and other performance issues.
Emulating
Emulating is also an option, but it comes with its own set of challenges. You’ll need to experiment with different emulators to see which one works best for your setup, and even then, the performance is likely to suffer. Emulation can be a hassle to set up, requiring tweaks and configurations that can get frustrating. Plus, just like with virtualization, the game’s demanding graphics and processing requirements can lead to a big hit on performance, making the experience far from ideal.
And those are all the available methods you can try to play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 on Mac. The one we recommend is, obviously, Xbox Cloud gaming that you get with an Xbox Game Pass subscription. That said, we hope your doubts on this matter are cleared now. For more such interesting gaming-related reads, make sure to visit DigiStatement first. Also, click here to find out how to fix the Shader Model Fatal Error in Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.