For all the advancements made in the modern gaming landscape, one problem that’s arguably become worse is the prevalence of bad launches.
True, such issues have always existed; this isn’t yet another piece hyping up the “good ol’ days of gaming” as if difficulties didn’t exist back then. Nevertheless, the litany of problematic launches today are partly caused by modern technology and by the insistence from executives to release unfit titles to meet deadlines and hit margins. New examples of such situations are consistently being generated, but the latest should’ve been one of the biggest launches this year—Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024.
Pre-flight preparation
I want to preface this discussion by highlighting some facts. I pre-ordered the Premium Deluxe edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 with my own money. A $120 purchase. The most expensive SKU of this sim at launch is the $200 Aviator’s Edition, whereas the cheapest is the Standard Edition at $70. Case-in-point, this is not a cheap product; Xbox Game Pass access aside.
On launch day, an untold number of early adopters like myself tried to access the product they dropped sizeable funds on at a time that the developers said it would be ready. Unlike more traditional modern titles, pre-loading of the game files was not made available for Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 as it is primarily a cloud-based application.
Its predecessor, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, also makes extensive use of cloud streaming, albeit with far more data being stored locally.
This has led to its install size gradually becoming more and more bloated over the years as users have downloaded additional content. Thus, Asobo found it wise to streamline the data distribution pipeline for its new sim to allow players to quickly load in and have content streamed to them as needed. This would reduce the sim’s footprint across the board.
On paper, such an infrastructure seems quite advantageous and is yet another ‘creature comfort’ offered by modern tech. But, alas, Murphy’s Law has a funny way of applying itself at inopportune times—which is exactly what happened on launch day.
Servers set ablaze
Several hours after launch and with thousands upon thousands of users still unable to properly load into the sim, Asobo released a brief video update to explain the fallout of the situation.
In short, despite expecting a huge volume of day-one traffic, the true number of requests completely overwhelmed the Azure servers that Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is powered by. Access to the sim was first granted at exactly 11 AM Eastern, but the server crisis wasn’t (somewhat) rectified until approximately 12 hours later.
In between that time, some users got to log on, myself included. Yet, some content like aircraft and missions were unavailable, and crashes and freezes were frequent.
As of the time of writing, things are far more nominal (though still not perfect.) I have yet to actually get a proper session in due to being rather tired when the most substantial issues were sorted out late into the night. Nevertheless, I do award Asobo some credit for its transparency about the problems and the relative “speed” of the fixes should also be noted. We know from its extensive work with MSFS 2020 that these issues will continue to be mitigated.
However, that doesn’t make such a situation okay.
Making a habit out of it
As mentioned earlier, Murphy’s Law of “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” is almost unavoidable. A level of patience and understanding from an audience is reasonable to ask for when things don’t go as planned. But, when it comes to modern game launches, such a situation like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 seems almost inescapable.
It’s become so commonplace that many gamers have adopted a “wait and see” attitude when it comes to new releases; opting to purchase a title several months or even a year later to give time for patches and updates, as well as content drops.
It would be hyperbolic to suggest that every single new release is marred with issues. But nowadays, especially in the case of titles that have a heavy reliance on online connectivity, more often than not the launch window is spent fixing issues rather than having users enjoy their time.
Just a few weeks ago, the industry got yet another such example with the release of Nacon’s Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown. It’s the first release in the series in well over a decade and promised to be a tentpole in the open-world racing genre, much like its predecessors. Yet, after spending several years in development, its launch has barely anything to show for it.
Release day had similar connection issues to that of MSFS 2024, and even after players were finally able to log on, what they were met with was that of a hollow experience.
Nacon may get a second chance to turn the game back around down the line, but as of right now, its playerbase has dried up extensively.
There are even more examples that can be considered, but I’ll forgo that for the sake of brevity.
Nevertheless, the fact that two high-profile releases ran into similar issues mere weeks behind one another shows just how repetitive such a situation has become.
Promising an ocean, delivering a pool
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, in particular, has been proposed as a technological showcase. From the extensive improvements made to its flight dynamics to the dramatic enhancement of its world detail, Asobo has sent it out to be a revolutionary new milestone in flight simulation history.
While it certainly has the makings of becoming such a project, as of right now, it’s not showing the full capability of doing so. That said, while the Internet “never forgets,” it paradoxically also happens to have a very short-term memory.
Once all of these early issues are fully rectified and a little bit of time passes, this will all become a blip in the sim’s legacy. Even so, the fact that this has happened at all doesn’t make it any less disheartening.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, while it also had its numerous issues, did at least have a somewhat smoother launch. I had the privilege of reviewing it and along with other critics and influencers, was granted access a few days before its public release. Its extremely high review scores prove just how big of an impression it made from the get-go. That said, it had some odd omissions and limitations early on.
Asobo then spent four years polishing and refining the sim through the release of numerous major updates. However, many of the earlier update rollouts proved problematic. The team learned how to optimize its development process and opted to test far more thoroughly to help minimize release issues.
The result has been a sim that has matured rather nicely. It now has an extensive array of complex add-ons, and has ushered in a whole new generation of young simmers in addition to giving veterans an application with fidelity they only dreamed of back in the day.
While it would be grossly unfair of me to suggest that all of the experience garnered from MSFS 2020 has been pitched into a fire, the lack of contingency plans for the launch of its even grander, more complex successor is confusing at best.
When MSFS 2020 initially launched, it was just to one platform: the Microsoft Store on PC. Despite the immense amount of hype, it was the latest entry to a series that had been dormant for 15 years. Thus, the initial wave of early players was far less than what pummeled the Azure servers yesterday.
Comparatively, MSFS 2024 has launched across three platforms: PC (Steam and Microsoft Store,) Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. That’s millions of extra devices with the combination of more fanfare due to the series’ newfound level of popularity.
Asobo admits that it underestimated the demand, but realistically, what else was expected? It proudly touted that MSFS 2020 has generated a playerbase of over 15 million virtual pilots. Realistically, not each and every one of them would immediately transition to the new sim, but the thought must’ve been at least a few million would be ready to jump in early on.
Alas, Asobo confirmed it only tested a load of 200,000 concurrent connections—that’s laughably modest, at best.
A staggered release across different time zones would’ve been a better course of action. Alternatively, (if not in addition,) customers who pre-ordered the more expensive SKUs like the Premium Deluxe and Aviator’s Editions could’ve gained early access.
Such a business model is (problematically) becoming more common. While it’s arguably predatory most of the time, for such a uniquely online-reliant title like this, it could’ve significantly helped with the onboarding process.
Regardless, we’re past the mile marker of “should’ve, would’ve, could’ve.” All that’s left now is to fix the sim and have it evaluated properly. That said, I do find its lack of launch day reviews and there not even being a launch trailer rather telling.
The sky is calling, but here’s hoping there aren’t more thunderstorms in the area.
More from Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024:
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 encounters severe launch issues | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 — Technical Alpha impressions | Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 PC system requirements
