Microsoft Flight Simulator lives again! Kind of

Even a painful free-to-play release can't keep Microsoft Flight Simulator down for good.

Microsoft Flight Simulator, once one of the most widely-recognised PC games thanks to your dad's insistence on it being the only non-essential software on his office terminal, is back. Unfortunately, it's not as back as fans might like.

According to CVG Microsoft has entered into an agreement with Train Simulator developer Dovetail Games, allowing the latter to leverage its tech for upcoming flight games.

This first of these Dovetail-developed and published titles is expected in 2015. The series won't bear the Microsoft Flight Simulator brand, but the company has also won the rights to publish Microsoft Flight Simulator X: Gold Edition via Steam later this year.

The Flight Simulator series went onto the backburner in mid-2012, when Microsoft cancelled further development on Flight. The first free-to-play series entry, Flight included one plane and one destination, with the expectation that masses of content would be available as DLC. Not that much of it eventuated, unfortunately, and the DLC's lack of features like cockpit view put fans off.

Flight is currently available as a free download but you can longer purchase DLC. Its serves will close for good in October.