If you were buying MSFS today, where would you buy from?

[Waterman981]

So my freebie Game Pass for PC is about to expire and it's time to answer the question... MS Store or Steam? It does seem like the MS Store version is MUCH more locked down, but at the same time it doesn't seem like you need to get to those files with how the community folder works. If you were buying now, how would you do it? And is it the same way you already purchased it?

[ROBERT DUNN 2]

I bought from Microsoft store and I've had no download nor file access problems. However, because of that file access procedural difficulty, I voted Steam. If money is an issue, the $60 US version seems like the better deal to me. I had anticipated delays in Steam's MSFS update availability but that seems not to be any factor. Validate installation feature on Steam may prove valuable as opposed to a total reinstall from Microsoft Store when trying to fix some hypothetical elusive problem. Of course there is still the percentage of purchase price retained by Microsoft to be considered but IMHO both Microsoft shareholders as well as Steam have plenty of capital.

[ak416]

Bought it on Steam, very happy with Steam. I've been pretty vocal about why I dislike the Microsoft store so I won't bore you with that again. While the community folder alleviates a lot of the issues with not being able to access the install folder, I don't like being told "no" when I try to look at files on my own drive.

ROBERT DUNN 2 Validating your install on Steam only validates the files downloaded from their servers, so just the launcher. It also deletes your installation folder.