Shame that VR has not been baked in on release - adding on VR can be a bit hit and miss. With all the effort they have gone with the high fidelity graphics I feel reasonably confident they will add VR in at some point
While true in general, I think sims are generally on the hit side. They don't have an issue with adjusting fundamental game mechanics to suit the new paradigm as they inherently suit it from the start... See IL2, DCS, X-plane, Aerofly FS2, Project Cars, AC etc etc... all have perfectly good VR implementations added after the fact. Some have gone the full hog and added motion controller support, others haven't, but all are very usable and a lot of fun. Would it have been ideal to have included it from the very beginning? Yes, but I don't think it's going to lead to a poor VR implementation in this case...
You'd hope that there's some tenuous link with the Reverb G2 and fs2020. Even if Microsoft's involvement on the technical has been minimal, there's a huge opportunity to cross promote the device with the game given the fidelity of the display.
I really, really doubt it. From everything we know, including the interview I saw with the HP team behind it suggests that Microsoft's involvement is purely the fact they are using WMR. Given it's the first new WMR headset to be using 4 cameras and updated controllers there was no doubt plenty of collaboration to get that all up and running on the WMR platform, but I'd be fairly confident to bet that is where Microsoft's involvement ends. Valve helped design the lenses and lifted the audio solution straight from the index without modification, and helped with various other aspects of the design, the rest was HP.
Xbox game studios have shown time and time again that they just aren't interested in VR as a format currently. If it comes to MSFS2020 then it will almost certainly be the exception rather than the rule... the sim community in gaming is a bit unique in how much they spend on hardware, and their eagerness to use what would be very niche items in wider gaming (triple screens, expensive peripherals, haptics, motion, VR etc).
I wouldn't be surprised if this time next year your still asking where's the VR.
Quite possible, but they have gone on record as saying VR is a "high priority" for them now, so I think many in the community will hold their feet to the coals if that's the case.
This sim will certainly be demanding to run in VR, especially on something like a G2, but definitely doable with some sacrifices... of course the main thing this sim has going for it at the moment over the competition is the incredible visuals across such a broad area so dialling them back somewhat defeats the point. If they could have VR out by the end of the year when the new GPUs are out I would consider that a win, pretty sure the higher end GPUs from the next generation will be able to run it very nicely even at the G2's 90hz/2k per eye with decent settings.
I've massively enjoyed the alpha/open beta but I simply won't be bothering with actually buying it and investing serious time until it's in VR. Sitting just offshore from a tropical beach bobbing gently up and down in the A5 Icon just illicits a "wish this was in VR" from me!
And you are right, flight sims never worked for me in 2D but in VR these games are a lot different!!