The launch of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 was eagerly awaited, but it encountered significant challenges right from the start. Jorg Neumann, the head of Microsoft Flight Simulator, along with Asobo Studio's CEO, Sebastian Wloch, have publicly addressed the issues in a video on YouTube, explaining the reasons behind the rocky start and outlining their plans to resolve them.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Head Acknowledged Day-One Launch Issues
Too Many Users Overwhelmed MSFS Servers
The excitement surrounding the launch of MSFS 2024 led to a surge in player numbers that overwhelmed the game's servers. In their Developer Launch Day Update video, Neumann and Wloch candidly discussed the server issues, bugs, and instability plaguing the game. Neumann admitted that while they anticipated high excitement for the game, the actual number of players exceeded their expectations, severely straining the infrastructure. "It really has overwhelmed our infrastructure," Neumann stated.
Wloch elaborated on the technical challenges, explaining that when players start the game, they request data from a server, which retrieves it from a database. Although the system was tested with 200,000 simulated users, the real-world demand was far greater, causing the database's cache to be overwhelmed.
MSFS Login Queue and Missing Planes
In an effort to mitigate the server issues, Wloch and his team restarted services and increased the login queue size and speed by five times. This initially helped, but the cache soon collapsed again. The resulting service saturation led to extended loading times, with the game often stalling at 97% and forcing players to restart.
The missing planes issue, reported by many players, was another symptom of the overwhelmed servers and cache overflow. Even players who managed to get past the login queue might find certain planes or content missing. "That’s totally not normal, and that’s due to the service and server not responding, and this cache being completely overflowed," Wloch explained.
MSFS 2024 Struggles with Mostly Negative Steam Feedback
The launch issues have resulted in a wave of negative feedback on Steam, with players expressing frustration over long login queues and missing content. Currently, the game is rated Mostly Negative on the platform.
Despite these challenges, the development team has been working tirelessly to address the issues. "We have solved the issues and are now bringing players in at a steady pace," the team stated on the game’s Steam page. They apologized for the inconvenience and thanked players for their patience and support, promising to keep everyone updated via social channels, forums, and their website.
