Microsoft’s flight simulator 2024 launched on Tuesday on Windows PC and Xbox Series X, but it hasn’t been velvety sailing. In fact, it’s anything but: long loading times and missing content resulted in developer Asobo Games’ latest release receiving an overwhelmingly negative rating on Steam. Some players were stuck on loading screens for hours, according to reportsand when they board, they find that some of the planes are missing. Microsoft and Asobo addressed the problematic launch in a blog post and video message to gamers, claiming that their servers were completely overwhelmed by the number of players logging in simultaneously.
“We knew that emotions were high Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024but honestly, we completely underestimated the height and it really overwhelmed our infrastructure.” Microsoft’s flight simulator Chief Jorg Neumann said in the recording. Asobo CEO Sebastian Wloch added that the team tested its servers and simulated 200,000 people trying to play, but on launch day the systems were still “completely overwhelmed.” To alleviate the problems, Asobo attempted to restart its services and limit the number of people allowed to enter Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 at some point just to improve the process briefly before everything “collapses again”.
This all lines up with the issues people have reported in Steam reviews: long loading screens, huge queues, missing models both in the character creator and elsewhere, crashes, and missing textures. “I can only marvel at the depth of the simulation because now I have the impression that Boeing was actually involved in building the servers” – – one person joked, referring to Boeing’s recent problems with its planes.
Microsoft and Asobo are investigating the issues, which also include missing planes in the game. Wloch explained that while critical systems suit some people, some “optional” systems do not, like a few planes. “This is not normal. This is because the server is not responding and the cache is completely full,” he said.
Here is the full statement from Microsoft:
We’ve worked strenuous with our partners, including Asobo and others, to bring you an amazing simulation experience. The excitement for the sim game today was overwhelming, but we ran into an issue with one of our services handling novel in-game systems such as career mode and various missions. The server responsible for handling data requests became overloaded, causing delays and errors.
As a result, players experience long loading times and missing content such as planes. We’ve resolved these issues and are now onboarding players at a steady pace. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience. We will keep you updated on our social channels, forums and website. Thank you very much for all your opinions and support.
Microsoft and Asobo have not yet provided a timeline for the fix, but said they will keep gamers updated on social media, their website and forums.
