Flight Simulator's 200-storey residential obelisk was caused by a typo

Microsoft Flight Simulator may be touted as a 1:1 recreation of our good green earth, but there are a few discrepancies that populate the game’s globe. Case in point: Melbourne, Australia features a massive 200-storey obelisk that juts far into the skies down-under. 

Posted on Twitter by Alexander Muscat, Melbourne’s 200-storey monument is apparently not a feature of Melbourne’s residential area. Who knew? Of course, the appearance of the imposing tower caused many burning questions in the hearts of Flight Simulator fans.

In Microsoft Flight Simulator a bizarrely eldritch, impossibly narrow skyscraper pierces the skies of Melbourne's North like a suburban Australian version of Half-Life 2's Citadel, and I am -all for it- pic.twitter.com/6AH4xgIAWg

— Alexander Muscat linktr.ee/alexandermuscat (@alexandermuscat) August 19, 2020

Following the Twitter thread, Twitter users went on a mission to discover the origins of Flight Simulator’s eldritch skyscraper. (Reported by Eurogamer.)

With Flight Sim’s map data heavily based on Bing Maps, the issues with this towering monstrosity was quickly pinned down. While the issue is tied down to Bing’s data, the thread goes just a little bit further into OpenStreetMap, a community-led mapping initiative that Bing Maps uses for some of its data.

Twitter user Deborah Pickett responded to the post with the revelatory information that the mapper the who marked the building had accidentally mapped the building as being 212 stories high.

https://twitter.com/futzle/status/1296291571491434496?s=20

Maybe, in the future, Melbourne’s gigantic tower will be taken down to size in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Hopefully, it’ll become a mark of death for all who dare to oppose it.