It has today been announced that Microsoft Flight Simulator will be released on Steam, according to today’s post on Xbox News.

The Steam page lists the same release date of the 18th of August, with the descriptions and many of the same screenshots already seen previously.

“In addition to availability on Windows 10 and Xbox Game Pass for PC (Xbox Game Pass for PC is currently in Beta), Microsoft Flight Simulator will also be coming to Steam on August 18,” reads the news post. “We are thrilled to announce that Steam pre-orders for the Standard, Deluxe, and Premium Deluxe editions of Microsoft Flight Simulator start today!”

As already announced yesterday, the simulator will have Track IR support out-of-the-box, but today sees the first such development regarding Virtual Reality. This is in addition to the remainder of patch notes that were also announced.

VR support will not be available right away and instead will coincide with the release of the HP Reverb G2, a new headset created in collaboration with Microsoft and Valve.

There is no precise date when VR support will be added, but it has been slated to be available this autumn.

The post continues: “In addition to Track IR and VR, we also continue to work with partners like Honeycomb Aeronautical, Logitech G, Thrustmaster, Virtual Fly and many other manufacturers to further improve your Microsoft Flight Simulator experience. We are excited to support Honeycomb’s upcoming Bravo Throttle Quadrant and Thrustmaster’s new TCA Sidestick and Quadrant Airbus edition peripherals. We are also committed to supporting existing peripherals and home cockpits via an updated SimConnect.

“Xbox Game Studios and Asobo Studio are committed to the community, and the ongoing support of Microsoft Flight Simulator with experience enhancing features like those we’ve announced today. But we have even more planned post-launch! In the future, we will update our development roadmap with continued simulator updates such as themed DLC bundles, free world updates and more. We will be sharing more news in the coming months.”

As for free world updates, the simulator will receive updates to the world that will evolve over time. “Thanks to our partnership with Bing, players will enjoy new, even better terrain, and an ever evolving, machine learning-fueled simulator that grows over time.”

In closing, Xbox said: “We have so much ahead for Microsoft Flight Simulator, but even on day one simmers will get highly detailed aircraft, a new checklist system, live air traffic, dynamic weather, new aerodynamic modeling, as well as all the many other features we shared in our launch date announcement, all within a beautifully crafted and rendered world. Whether you are new to flight simulation or an aviation pro, the sky is calling in Microsoft Flight Simulator.”

The Steam page is available to view here.