Gaming
Good luck finding a decent flight stick for Microsoft Flight Simulator
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Microsoft Flight Simulator has only been out for a week now and it seems since the game’s launch, people have been gobbling up flight sicks like crazy, causing a massive shortage to anyone looking to buy one.
A quick search on Amazon, for example, shows a bunch of Amazon’s best-selling PC flight sticks as unavailable, only available used, or scheduled to be back in stock sometime in the coming months. Sure, there are some available, but it’s all slim pickings.
Is Microsoft Flight Simulator really the cause of these shortages? Who knows, there’s really no way to tell. But as The Verge notes, people have been complaining about it on Twitter since the game’s release, so it wouldn’t be entirely out of the question if this was the case.
But it could be supply for these things were never really there in the first place. I came across a really helpful comment on N4G, a gaming community forum, that really put things into light:
I don’t think there’s a huge supply of these flight sticks out there in the first place. The demand for them normally isn’t high enough to justify companies manufacturing so many of them. So when demand increases due to a new, exciting game making use of them, supplies can start to dwindle fast. This seems a lot faster than usual so demand is highly likely higher than with most other releases.
Now, this doesn’t mean that all flight sticks on the internet are sold out or unavailable. They’re out there, you just have to look at the right places. Not to mention, you’ll probably have to pay a bit more than you normally would. For example, Amazon has this Guillemot T-Flight Stick X for $66, but on top of that, you’ll have to fork over $33 for shipping.
But again, you’ll have to do some digging to find more decent deals outside of the usual traditional ecommerce sites like Newegg. Best Buy and Amazon are basically sold out. Just remember to keep an eye out if the product is in stock. If not, you’ll probably have to wait a bit more until more of these sites replenish their stock.
In the meantime, don’t be afraid to wait it out and use a regular gamepad or keyboard to play the game. I mean, at the end of the day, you’ll still be able to play the game. A flight stick isn’t required.
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- After 13 years, Microsoft Flight Simulator is coming to PC and Xbox through Xbox Game Pass
Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.
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